The purpose of this post is to bring you all up to speed on the process to study a new student information system.   As many of you know, the technology plan that was created last year called for us to evaluate our student information system, PowerSchool.  This process is on a compressed timeline because if the feedback gathered in this process indicates we should change systems, we need to have several months available to structure a successful transition.   Given that Grant Wood only supports PowerSchool and Infinite Campus, these will be our two choices of product.

Timeline:

• In late August, Noreen and I have crafted learner-centered criteria for a successful student information system. These outcomes are shared below.
• I am currently assembling a small, but representative team – I’m calling it a steering committee — to review and revise these outcomes. This team will also serve to analyze feedback around these outcomes from larger groups of stakeholders.  The output will be a recommendation to either stay with PowerSchool or to switch to Infinite Campus.  The full roster of the steering committee is at the bottom of this note.  This team will meet to kick off this work on 9/10.
• To gather feedback around the learning outcomes, we have several Infinite Campus product demonstrations scheduled for September 18^th and 19^th. A full schedule of these demonstrations, with targeted audience, is at the bottom of this note.  Feel free to attend as many of these sessions as you wish.
• Once the demonstrations are complete, the steering committee will analyze the feedback at two meetings—one on 10/4 and the other on 10/22. The goal is to have a recommendation to stay with PowerSchool or move to Campus by November 1^st.

SIS Steeling Committee (26)

Here is the preliminary roster of the steering committee – I’m still waiting to confirm all members.  So, the membership may shift a bit.  This is the group that will evaluate feedback and construct the recommendation to keep with PowerSchool or to shift to Infinite Campus.

Position	Name	building
Elementary Secretary	Tracy Buck	Erskine
Elementary Secretary	Pam Northway	Cleveland
Middle School Secretary	Julie Carney (counseling secretary)	Harding
High School Secretary	Dana Roehlk (Counseling Secretary)	Kennedy
Elementary Principal	Candi Lynch	Johnson
Middle School Principal	Gary Hatfield	Taft
Associate Principal Jefferson	Lorie Bateman	Jefferson
Associate Principal Kennedy	Robert Johnson	Kennedy
Associate Principal Washington	Valerie Nyberg	Washington
High School Counselor	Jason Edwards	Jefferson
Metro	Dan Walsh (Facilitator)	Metro
IDL	Carla Riley	ELSC
Curriculum Lead	Paul Hayes (Future Ready Learning)	ELSC
Elementary Teacher	Gretchen Lawler	Kenwood
Elementary Teacher	Amber Tatum	Nixon
Middle School Teacher	Michelle Wilson	McKinley
Middle School Teacher	Bree Oxley	RCCBA
High School Teacher	Matt Oliphant	Jefferson
High School Teacher	Ian Klemen	Washington
ELSC	Noreen Bush, Craig Barnum, Tracy Milota, Matt Kempf, Terry Smith, Patti Lucas, Steffany Wilkinson and Amy Marner

 

Learner-Centered Outcomes:

Here are the learner-centered outcomes that we will be using to frame our study and evaluation of both products.  I am working with Angela Billman to create statistically sound feedback instruments for each of these items.

• The student data system should enhance student agency and ownership of learning – enabling staff to establish high, standards-aligned expectations, and to capture timely body of evidence data to certify learning.
• The student data system should provide data representations of the whole child in order to create personalized learning environments.
• The student data system should support and enhance our current instructional design and assessment needs as well as be flexible enough to shift as our practices evolve.
• The student data system should provide an elegant and simple but feature-rich interface for teachers, administrators, parents/families, and students.
• The student data system should provide a seamless progression of data from registration and enrollment to report cards and transcripts.
• The student data system should provide a robust assessment data repository — for both teacher/district-created and implemented foils as well as standardized instruments.
• The student data system should be seamlessly interoperable with other district data systems and tools such as LMS, assessment tools, food service, transportation, HR, and payroll systems.
• The student data system should provide effective ongoing job-embedded professional learning to key stakeholders such as teachers, schedulers, secretaries, and administrators.

Demonstration Groups:  Meetings on 9/18 and 9/19

Below is the schedule for the Infinite Campus product demonstrations.  The people attending these sessions will provide structured feedback and data that the steering committee will use to craft a recommendation.  The “audience” column represents the job role targets for the demonstration.  The “Max #” column is the highest number of individuals that can attend the session.

Here is how the participation in each group was identified:

Secretaries: Each elementary principal secretary will be invited.  We will take up to two secretaries (as selected by the building principal) from each of our secondary schools.

Schedulers: I worked with Paul Hayes and high school associate principals to get the scheduling group assembled. Again, note that there will be many middle school counseling secretaries in that session, so you may or may not wish to send them to the secretaries demonstration session.

Teachers: We will invite all district teachers to the teacher demonstration, but we will be limited by space.  So, we’ll cap that number at 80.   The invitation email will go out on Thursday, 9/6.

Health: Stephanie Neff and Sandy Byard helped with the health personnel demo session on 9/19.  There may be health secretaries attending this session, too.

System Integrations: I have integration demonstrations covered with food service, transportation, and account personnel here at the ELSC.

Tuesday, September 18^th

Time	Audience	Max #	Content
9:00-11:30 AM	Secretaries — Invitation from Principal – see action step above.	40	Demographics/Registration Enrollment Attendance Behavior Management Basic Reporting
1:00 PM-3:00 PM	Schedulers — HS Associate Principals and MS counselors’ secretaries	40	Secondary Schedule Building both HS and MS
4:30 PM-6:30 PM	Teachers — initiation to all staff – capped attendance at 90.	80	Grade Book Attendance Reporting Communication

Wednesday, September 19^th

Time	Audience	Max #	Content
9:00 AM – 10:00 AM	Health Personnel—school nurses and health secretaries	40	Documenting Health Conditions Daily Health Office Visits Immunizations Reporting
10:30AM –11:30 AM	System Integrations — food service, transportation, and accounting.	20	Foodservice Integration Transportation Integration Fees/Accounting Integration

 

There is a lot of information to digest here and the process will move quickly.  Please drop me a note or give me a call if you have questions about the process.