Student Information Systems

Georgia District Opts for New SIS

• By Michael Hart
• 03/16/16

The Montgomery County School District in rural Georgia is replacing its legacy student information system (SIS) in an effort to improve efficiency and data accuracy, provide parents with greater access to information and integrate with other district information systems.

PowerSchool SIS, the district's new soluition, is a Web-based system designed for K-12 schools. It includes a range of district and school-level tools for administrators, a gradebook and other tools for teachers, and real-time access to grades, attendance and assignments for parents and students through a Web portal or mobile app.

Mary Caraway, the district's technology and data collections coordinator, said the district's older system simply lacked the flexibility and ability to modify features that the school system needs.

"Our old solution presented challenges that limited what we were able to do," Caraway said. "We had to create queries to do searches and couldn't customize reports."

She said she expects the PowerSchool SIS to more effectively power school operations and improve staff productivity. Caraway said the customized reporting options will give staff members the ability to do so in a way that will allow them to look at the district's metrics and compare them to state levels.

"Having a user-friendly student information system is vital to achieving success in and out of the classroom," Caraway said. "We're transitioning to improve the user experience for school administrators, teachers and families."

All of those stakeholders, she said, will have instant visibility to assignments, scores, grades and comments.

The Montgomery County School District in Mount Vernon, GA has three schools and 1,300 students.