Student Information Systems

California District Adopts New SIS To Deliver More Information to Stakeholders

• By Michael Hart
• 05/18/16

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.