Student Information Systems

Duncanville ISD Deploys New SIS

• By Leila Meyer
• 04/14/16

Duncanville Independent School District in Texas has implemented a new student information system (SIS) that is fully integrated with its business management suite.

The district had been using another student information system for 15 years, but product issues, lack of support and frequent software updates were creating problems for district operations. The district's legacy SIS also charged separate fees for features such as mobile app access or administrative applications for staff members. "Over time, as with many products, we had to make internal adaptations to issues within the software," said Kyle Berger, CTO of Duncanville ISD, in a prepared statement. "As we started to look to the future in regards to more robust offerings and interoperability, we began to see issues emerge."

A committee of more than 60 staff members and parents evaluated options for a replacement SIS before the district selected the Student Management Suite from Skyward, a provider of K-12 school administrative software.

The district had previously implemented Skyward's School Business Suite in January 2015. Staff at Duncanville ISD were happy with the project management, communication and training they received from the company with that deployment. During the SIS evaluation process, district administrators said they were impressed that Skyward's core package contained all of the features they wanted in a single package, rather than separate fees for add-on features, and that Skyward's SIS could integrate fully with the School Business Suite.

The district completed its implementation of Skyward Student Management Suite in January 2016. The suite includes a wide variety of tools for office and administration, classroom management, family engagement and student services, including resource tracking, scheduling, report cards, curriculum management, enrollment and fee management, lesson planning, attendance and behavior tracking, messaging, response to intervention and a variety of other tools.