California District Adopts New SIS To Deliver More Information to Stakeholders
The Alden Central School
District in Folsom, CA, has switched to a new student
information system (SIS)
in an effort to provide more student information to
parents and staff than it does with its current system.
The district selected PowerSchool's SIS, a
web-based system designed for K-12 schools. It includes a range of
district and
school-level tools for administrators, a gradebook (PowerTeacher Pro) 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.
"We want
to foster a collaborative environment between teachers, parents and
students,'
said District Information Technology Director Frank Rizzo. "Parents can
download the mobile app to communicate with teachers and evaluate their
child's
academic progress. It encourages parents to be actively involved in
their child's
educational success."
With
PowerTeacher Pro, administrators, parents and students will be able to
see
assignments, scores, grades, comments and progress toward standards in
real
time. Families will be able to monitor students' proficiency on
standards and
even get alerts specific to their own children.
"Customization
was a key factor in our district's decision to switch," said Rizzo.
"PowerSchool
gives us the ability to add custom fields and screens so that our
solution is
functional for us. As a previous PowerSchool user, I know that it's not
a
matter of 'if' we can change something, but 'when.'"
PowerSchool also partners
with a number of education technology databases, allowing the Alden
district to
understand more about where its students stand in comparison to other
students
in the country.
About the Author
Michael Hart is a Los Angeles-based freelance writer and the former executive editor of THE Journal.