Smart Software Implementation in Schools
By Eileen Demers

Similar to other faculty positions in a parochial environment, technology directors wear multiple hats - Lincoln-style stovepipe hats, baseball caps, sombreros, you name it. On any given day, their duties might include running the school Web site, repairing computers, installing software, maintaining and supervising the computer lab, ordering new products, training teachers and more.

In addition, as more and more parents and students expect schools to provide immediate and constant access to student progress information, school leaders are turning to their technology directors for guidance.

For private or parochial schools, many find that implementing a large-scale grading and electronic communication system is not a viable option, considering that both upfront and maintenance costs can be above and beyond their annual budget for technology purchases.

St. Vincent de Paul, a K-7 (soon to be K-8) Catholic school in Rogers, Arkansas, found a feasible, alternative solution. By working together with an electronic Web-based gradebook publisher, they developed a truly forward-thinking model that fits their particular needs and capabilities.

In these times of shrinking budgets and resources, many schools may find themselves struggling to meet the needs of all stakeholders in their school community, while coming to terms with the realities of the costs involved with implementing a project of this kind.

Hardware purchases, costs associated with set-up, maintenance, and management of the system along with finding staff members with the technical expertise to deal with network administration and security issues can be a tall order to fill.

A new option, pioneered by the St. Vincent de Paul team, finds the school partnering with their software vendor to host the system offsite-with the vendor. The software company hosts the gradebook software on-site at their headquarters, allowing the school to utilize the Web-based system without having to purchase or maintain servers, or hire and train technology staff. This model leaves the network administration and security issues, backup procedures, etc. to the vendor, allowing the St. Vincent de Paul staff to focus on their students' educational experience.

Cathy Walker, technology director at St. Vincent de Paul, maintains more than 100 computers, runs the computer lab for 350 students each week, and administers the network, among other things.

She explained, "By collaborating with the company to implement a hosted model, I was able to toss out one of my many hats."

Fine-Tuned Implementation
After choosing the model and gradebook software that best suits your school's needs, it is important to consider the importance of proper implementation. Most important, the company you choose to work with should be forward-thinking and flexible.

"Well-built software is significant, but the people who support the software - especially with a hosted model - are crucial to the success of the technology," Walker said. "Working with some companies to implement and maintain a program can be difficult sometimes. Fortunately, we collaborate with a publisher that is dedicated to the same things we are. Together, we work for what's best for our students, their families, and teachers."

As assessment is unique to each individual school, the company you partner with should be able to customize the software to your school's requirements, whether they are internal standards or those set by authoritative organizations. Successful projects find school leaders, in conjunction with the IT staff, involved with the process of designing their gradebook-making sure that formatting, storage and reporting are all appropriate for their faculty, staff, students and parents.

In addition to choosing a company that will work with you to provide staff with the resources they need, you should consider what steps will need to be carried out in order to make your teachers feel comfortable with the new technology.

Transitioning teachers from using traditional "pen and paper" methods to a Web-based grading program can be challenging, but there are several things you can do to ensure a successful school-wide implementation.

1. Start Small
After school leaders have almost finalized the initial product customizations, form a small committee of three or four teachers that are enthusiastic about technology. Train the committee members on how to use the software. Use this opportunity to get detailed feedback about the design and format of the program to help in customizing the product.

2. Teacher Trainers
Once the committee members feel comfortable with the product, discuss and determine the best way to train other teachers, whether it is through small group sessions or one-on-one meetings.

3. Time Is Key
After all teachers have been properly trained, give them ample time to practice using the program before grades are available to parents and students to view (recommended time period is no less than one grading period). Once your staff feels comfortable with the program, then allow parents and students to view from home.

"Giving our teachers time to really work in the program gave them the chance to learn how to weight individual grades," Walker said. "More important, it gave them the chance to make mistakes and learn how to fix them easily and quickly. We also chose not to incorporate standards-based grading until the second year. We wanted to make sure everyone was comfortable with technology before adding complexities."

Ultimately, keeping an eye on proper implementation, which means giving your school leaders and educators time to customize and apply the practices they learn first-hand, is crucial to the success of the program.

Communication All Around
St. Vincent de Paul is located in a growing metropolitan area, with an ever-increasing student body that is used to utilizing technology on a daily basis. And parents are relying on technology to learn as well - to learn about their kids.

Providing parents with access to a secure, Web-based grading program gives them the opportunity to monitor their child's progress through assignment, attendance and discipline records. Parents should be able to clearly see how each grade is weighted, whether the grade is for a summative or formative assessment, and how the grade relates to attendance.

"The gradebook significantly increased communication among everyone - parents, students and teachers," Walker said. "It gave parents a chance to see grades and discipline notations in real time. It reminded students and parents when a paper was overdue. It gave teachers a chance to see what other teachers were documenting."

Walker elaborated that one of the most unexpected and exciting outcomes of their implementation was the interest and enthusiasm of their students. School leaders, teachers, and parents have found that allowing students to monitor their grades on an ongoing basis gives them life experience. They take on the role of tracking grades themselves, which develops and fine tunes self-discipline skills and encourages their sense of responsibility. Students are taking it upon themselves to speak with their parents and their teachers about their grades.

"We've really seen growing collaboration between students and teachers. The gradebook eliminates any potential for surprises at the end of the semester," she said. "Miscommunications or mistakes can easily be cleared up throughout the grading period."

In addition, teachers can use the grading software as a communication tool between each other. With grades accessible to all staff, teachers can easily see a snapshot of each student and see how he or she is doing across the board, including discipline notations. In this way, they know if the student is struggling in other classes, or particularly with their subject or teaching style.

Overall, an electronic gradebook and home-to-school communication solution saves teachers and school leaders valuable time, which ultimately increases time spent with students, parents and the faith community.

Eileen Demers is the director of marketing and advertising for Excelsior Software, the pioneer of the electronic gradebook concept and developer of the Pinnacle line of products.

Product Roundup  

SchoolDude's ITAMDirect
Streamline all aspects of IT asset administration from monitoring and reporting to planning and life cycle costing with ITAMDirect from SchoolDude. The Web-native system gathers and reports information about computer assets on your network, including hardware, installed software and software utilization, providing an accurate database. Assets are monitored at the component level, and alerts are automatically generated for missing assets. ITAMDirect also tracks software licenses and usage for optimum license management and compliance.
www.schooldude.com

Rediker Software's Administrator's Plus
Rediker Software's Administrator's Plus is a powerful, yet easy-to-use, student information system that quickly and easily manages your school's record-keeping. Since every school is unique, Administrator's Plus' integrated modular design allows educators to build a system that best suits their school's needs. Their School Office Suite, a collection of software programs that are seamlessly integrated with Administrator's Plus, manage records in every department in the school. Suite programs include a teacher grade book, school Web center and programs for the cafeteria, library, admissions, development, health and business offices.
www.rediker.com

FastDirect
Now all of your school management software, plus all of your teacher tools, are available online. Access and work on them anywhere you have an Internet connection. Parent access to information is natural and easy. School data bases/directories, grade books/report cards, tuition management, lunch program management, attendance, Internet bulletin boards/calendars, secure messaging, health records, and much more are included in a service hosted on the Internet. The service also includes complete setup (even of grade books and report cards), training, and unlimited technical support for all users. The Web-based software is tailored for Christian schools and is priced on a per-student basis.
www.fastdir.com

Pinnacle Plus from Excelsior Software
The next version of the Pinnacle Plus system from Excelsior will be released this summer. Incorporating innovative technologies, such as those used to create Google Maps, the new solution will be entirely Web-based. This transfer from server-based to online allows teachers and administrators scalability and mobility. In addition, hosting the software online gives districts a lower-cost alternative, as less maintenance is required for numerous servers and hardware. Its state-of-the-art technology offers an intuitive user interface, therefore, minimal training and operates on a centralized model.
www.excelsiorsoftware.com

EasyLobby
EasyLobby's SVM 9.0 Visitor Management software suite provides comprehensive, easy-to-use visitor registration, monitoring, reporting and photo badge printing, as well as Web-based pre-registration and centralized administration. EasyLobby SVM is also tightly integrated with the First Advantage Safe Schools Project, an optional service for automatically screening visitors against nationwide sex offender and criminal databases. E asyLobby makes your visitors, students and employees feel safer, and it enhances the professional image you present to anyone who visits your school.
www.easylobby.com

eTritionWare
The future of child nutrition accountability solutions has arrived with the introduction of eTritionWare , a company dedicated to providing the latest technology and first-class technical support. The eTrition software suite seeks to provide valuable solutions for child nutrition professionals, as well as to serve the needs of information technology departments and school administrators. Typical cafeteria computers will not require any software installation; meal service can occur on any device with a browser, which allows users to access the system from any Internet-enabled computer.
www.etritionware.com

FacilityTree Software Service
FacilityTree is a comprehensive facility management solution that can be utilized on an application by application basis. Select and pay only for the application(s) you need. Typical packages use OnDemand Work Order, Preventive Maintenance, Asset Management. The applications share the same database, providing easy integration for a more powerful system. This structure makes FacilityTree scalable to meet your needs. System is completely Web-based with no IT requirements except an Internet connection and Web browser, while providing access from anywhere on the Internet.
www.FacilityTree.com