Student Information Systems
Georgia District Opts for New SIS
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.
About the Author
Michael Hart is a Los Angeles-based freelance writer and the former executive editor of THE Journal.