School CIO: Data Management


Data tracking and analysis supports Indiana district goals The website of Carmel Clay Schools in Carmel, Indiana, has an entire page devoted to the 2008-2009 accomplishments of the students in its 15 schools.
Texas district locks up student data With more than 66,000 students in 98 campuses, El Paso Independent School District (EPISD) is the seventh largest district in Texas and the 57th largest district in the United States. So it isn't hard to imagine the amount of stored student data the district must protect every minute of every day, in accordance with the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA).
International schools embracing educational software Although schools in Taipei, Australia, Jordan and Singapore may not share many similarities, they do share at least two: the desire to promote the best learning strategies for their students, and the belief in 21^st century technology as the means to do so.
Data management system saves time for teachers, staff With 37 schools distributed over 88 square miles outside of Houston, Klein Independent School District (ISD), faced challenges with the increasing time required to compile and report data from its many applications. Klein staff spent hours, days, or even weeks
Which Comes First - the Interactive Technology or the Technology Backbone? Most school districts today understand the importance of providing interactive, engaging learning environments for their students. But in their drive to improve students' classroom experience, districts frequently prioritize the adoption of new technology platforms without first ensuring that they have the right IT infrastructure in place.
Educational data system boosts CA district performance The U.S. Department of Education recently released a report, “Use of Education Data at the Local Level: From Accountability to Instructional Improvement," detailing the value that educational data systems can bring to school districts, by providing teachers with timely, relevant information about student performance. Despite this finding, the report notes that only a small minority of districts and schools have made data use a regular part of teachers’ practice.
Cinncinati schools gain bandwidth, save money with WAN management system At CPS, preserving access to education-related content and applications has always been a priority. But, notes Network Administrator Paul Wright, “Our bandwidth resources were being absorbed by file-sharing requests.”
Progress reports for kids, schools benefit Colorado districts The Colorado Department of Education (CDE) and Center for Assessment believe that having a better understanding of student performance and achievement over time is invaluable in providing the best educational environment for their students. So, after a decade of work
Rhode Island District saves money, time and space with zero-client software “In K-12, IT staffing can be a huge issue for us because each tech is responsible for supporting around 650 PCs. This isn’t a formula for success,” said Mark Lamson, director of technology for the Westerly Public School District. Electrical distribution and space are also issues, Lamson added.
Employment software levels playing field for small districts While many large school districts use sophisticated software systems to automate human resources management, smaller districts have had to make do with cumbersome paper-based systems or spreadsheets.
Computer system overhaul yields $60,000 savings in one month Based in Indianapolis, Ind., the GEO Foundation has worked statewide to improve public education since 1998. The foundation helped foster support for Indiana's current charter school law and now sponsors three charter schools in Indiana and Colorado, with a total of more than 1,300 students.
Washington school district standardizes high quality curriculum Bellevue School District (BSD) of Bellevue, Washington has an ambitious statement of purpose clearly displayed on its Internet homepage: Our mission is to provide every student with a top of the line college preparatory education so that they can enter and succeed in the college or university of their choice.
Wireless overhaul yields improved reliability, simplicity Maintaining adequate wireless coverage was a continual battle. Placed on a shelf, a table, or the floor in a classroom, access points were easily moved, unplugged, or even stolen. Without central management, there was no way to know a problem existed until a user complained.
Web-based assessment tools help schools without burdening network Web-based student-assessment tools are growing in popularity, and this popularity shows no signs of abating. They save time, enable schools to customize remedial or enrichment tools for specific skills, and automate state and national reporting.
Western NY adds digital file-sharing for 41 districts Western New York Regional Information Center (WNYRIC) provides provides information and technology services to five regionally based Boards of Cooperative Educational Services (BOCES) and their component school districts, comprising a quarter of a million students.
CA district focuses efforts on kids at risk to drop out More than 1 million students drop out of U.S. schools every year. In many districts across the country, educators are grappling with this sober statistic and seeking ways to keep kids in school.
Data analysis essential for decision making The typical educational institution generates terabytes of learning management system (LMS) data on an annual basis. When combined with data extracted from other sources such as network or security devices, operating systems and complimentary application systems such as SIS, ERP
D3M software speeds information access in Indiana With “student achievement” headlining its 2009-10 Strategic Plan, the district stepped up the search for a data-driven decision making (D3M) product that would allow them to gain immediate access to multiple data points to demonstrate continuous improvement.
Strengthening the home-school connection in St. Louis Saint Louis Public Schools Executive Director of Communications Patrick Wallace believes it's essential to the home-school connection for teachers to be able to create and maintain interactive, up- to-date websites. Additionally, tools for creating websites should be easy for teachers with any level of computer sophistication to master.
Policy Brief Cites Effective Data Program A recent policy brief, published by the Alliance for Excellent Education, identifies “Using Data” from TERC as a professional development program that is helping schools use data to improve teaching and learning.
The Episcopal Academy in Philadelphia designs new print environment Sometimes, it’s just great to get a fresh start. At The Episcopal Academy in suburban Philadelphia, aging facilities were threatening to hold the schoolback. Buildings were in need of renovation. A hodgepodge of unreliable printers left students andteachers frustrated. In
San Antonio ISD creates new ILP Web-based program The San Antonio Independent School District has purchased Learning Plans on Demand™ for its secondary schools. The Web based program will be used to help teachers quickly create individual learning plans for students without complicated assessments.Betty Burks, deputy superintendent for
Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools Turns to E-rate Manager for Applicants for Assistance with E-rate Program In 2008, through the E rate program, Charlotte Mecklenburg Schools received more than $1 million in funding for vital telecommunications services such as phone and Internet connections. E rate Manager for Applicants, an online suite of tools developed by Funds
Wolf Creek in Alberta improves network security and integrity To improve network security and integrity for users on its wired and wireless network, Wolf Creek Public Schools in Alberta, Canada selected a combined integrated security solution from InfoExpress and Alcatel Lucent. The new security capabilities will protect the public
YES Prep Public Schools adopts faster PCs NCP engineering GmbH announced that its 64 bit Windows VPN client has helped the YES Prep Public Schools of Houston, TX to adopt faster PCs for its staff. The school system selected the NCP Secure Entry Client because it supported
Managing textbooks to increase accountability K 12 school districts nationwide are adopting Follett Software’s Destiny Textbook Manager to help increase accountability and control over annual investments in textbooks. Destiny Textbook Manager, a centralized, browser based system, is now in over 11,000 schools. Officials at Plainfield
Albemarle County Public Schools makes AYP Albemarle County Public Schools achieved Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) for 2008 09 under the federal No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB). Albemarle met all 29 benchmarks and indicators of student achievement included in NCLB. To help achieve these results, the
New York State's Alden Central School District goes wireless The more than 1,900 K 12 students and teachers who returned to New York State's Alden Central School District on September 1 gained ubiquitous high performance wireless Internet access for the first time using a district wide Meru Networks 802.11n
Monroe Township School District expands teacher training Monroe Township School District’s Challenge In addition to providing differentiated instruction to its 5,500 students,Monroe Township School District (MTSD), located in Middlesex County, NJ,also believes in delivering differentiated professional development to morethan 500 teachers. However, attending to the individual needs
Ohio elementary schools uses Pearson to identify student performance and needs Western and central Ohio elementary schools are using Pearson’s AIMSweb solution, an assessment and web based data management system, to identify student performance levels and address individualized learning needs. Many of Ohio’s principals, teachers, guidance counselors and other school staff
Philadelphia school makes cost-effective new print environment Eager to update its campus technology, the PreK 12 Episcopal Academy (Philadelphia, PA) worked with HP to plan a flexible, cost effective print environment as part of its new campus developments.For some time, the academy’s buildings were highly in need
Henrico adds fiber optic network Henrico County Public Schools (HCPS) in Virginia recently added a new data center onto its Richmond area fiber optic network with the help of Cavalier, a provider of telecommunications services throughout the eastern U.S. The new center enables a secure
Free virtualization assessment CDW Government, Inc. (CDW G), source of Information Technology (IT) solutions to governments and educators, has announced an assessment services offering that enables qualifying K 12 schools, higher education institutions and government agencies to consider the potential benefits of server
Moses Lake SD chooses Hitachi Software StarBoards Moses Lake School District (WA) has selected Hitachi Software StarBoards for all grade level and subject curricula. The district, with the help of Troxell Communications, allocated over 100 Hitachi FXDUO 77 StarBoards along with the Hitachi CP A100 3LCD ultra
PA first to integrate Keyboard Town PALS keyboarding program The Jeffrey Primary School (Glenshaw, PA) will be the first public school to integrate Keyboard Town PALS (KTP) into its curriculum. Keyboard Town PALS is a computer keyboard method that incorporates successful association and memory techniques, as well as story
Arts School finds safe browsing solution The Sallie B. Howard School for the Arts and Education (SBH), like many schools, is struggling to keep up with the times. To prepare students for life after school, the integration of technology is a must. However, relying on technology
IBM helps Alabama schools mine student data more efficiently IBM announced its partnership with Mobile County Public Schools (AL) to help teachers, administrators, principals and guidance counselors mine student data more efficiently. MCPSS is Alabama’s largest school district, with over 63,000 students in 95 schools. MCPSS previously struggled with
Alabama partners with STI for statewide enrollment and scheduling STI announced its partnership with the Alabama Department of Education to provide a Web based statewide enrollment and scheduling system for the state led online learning program. STI’s InformationLIVE will help Alabama manage scheduling and staffing for ACCESS (Alabama Connecting
Reading Assistant improves more than scores in MA The Parlin School in Everett, MA introduced Scientific Learning’s Reading Assistant program in December 2008, and has praised the program’s impact on the second graders who participated. Second grade teachers at the school explain that through the program’s three 20 minute
Data-driven teachers by Dr. Scott McLeod Data driven decision making (DDDM) is a system of teaching and management practices that gets better information about students into the hands of classroom teachers. The five major elements are • good baseline data • measurable instructional goals • frequent
More evidence online learning works A new study examined more than a thousand empirical studies of online learning from 1996 through July 2008. The resulting report, Evidence Based Practices in Online Learning A Meta Analysis and Review of Online Learning Studies (2009), found the following
Tuscaloosa City Schools go green Tuscaloosa City Schools (AL) recently overcame a major conflict—the district wanted to go green, but its goal of teachers and staff working together in groups usually required travel and use of building resources. With the help of Novell Teaming, the
Laredo Independent School District chooses Scientific Learning to improve reading Laredo Independent School District’s twenty elementary and four middle schools have incorporated Scientific Learning's Reading Assistant software into their resource classrooms, with the goal of improving students’ reading fluency, vocabulary and comprehension.Alma Rodriguez, Assistive Technology Coordinator, explains that since over
Alabama schools overcome data corruption issues Mobile County Public Schools (AL) recently turned to Information Transport Solutions to overcome data corruption issues and update the technology for its K 12 schools. System users were complaining about the slow performance of school based applications, and the IT
Virginia schools conduct student performance study In order to meet President Obama’s mandate for education reform, schools in Virginia are implementing learning programs that have shown to improve student performance. The school districts are now using Scott Foresman My Sidewalks, a research based reading solution for
Rochester district updates website with Schoolwires The Rochester City School District (NY) recently licensed the Centricity solution provided by Schoolwires. The district, which serves 32,000 students, will use the solution in pursuit of its goal of creating a user friendly, “interactive and engaging website” for community
Idaho virtual school selects Starfish student tracking system On June 1, Idaho Distance Learning Academy (IDLA) adopted Starfish Retention Solutions, Inc., a provider of student success systems, to help identify at risk students and connect them with support resources to assist them. IDLA is a state virtual school,
Texas district takes new approach to testing The Richardson Independent School District (RISD) in Dallas, TX has used a new approach on testing for several years now with the program TI MathForward. It incorporates real time assessment using technology, and allows teachers to see who exactly understands
Florida rethinks RTI Florida educators have announced a statewide plan for “response to intervention” and will be targeting individual instruction for students with the help of Pearson, an education and technology company. Pearson has developed a comprehensive suite of K 12 math instruction
TN school finds new tool to better organize data Finding it difficult to evaluate school performance for the No Child Left Behind Act, the Hamilton County Department of Education (HCDE) turned to PASW Modeler data mining software from SPSS Inc. to find a better way to organize information and
Dublin City Schools starts employee safety program The Dublin City Schools (DCS) have decided to implement EmployeeSafe Suite from PublicSchoolWORKS (PSW) to help employees complete required safety training during times that were convenient for them, and in a manner that saves the schools time and resources.DCS introduced
Protecting your IT investment Winston Salem Forsyth is the fifth largest school system in North Carolina with about 51,000 combined students in its 40 elementary, 15 middle and 11 high schools. The Computrace® software will be used on over 25,000 computers.The Computrace solutions address
NComputing saves district a over half million in hardware Steve Young, Chief Technology Officer of the Judson school district in Texas, recently performed his own energy cost analysis a year after beginning a major computer upgrade and expansion program in his school district of 21,000 students outside of San
Texas SD installs new multimedia distribution centers The Franklin Independent School District (Franklin, TX) recently implemented a new control system solution for multimedia distribution centers, using the CampusSV system from SchoolView Technologies, LLC. (Plano, TX) in conjunction with other devices. The system interfaces nearly all audio and
New survey shows school IT breaches increasing CDW G announced the results of the 2009 School Safety Index. Based on a nationwide survey of over 400 K 12 district IT and security directors, the index measures 10 indicators and four contraindicators to set a national benchmark to
Houston district chooses Xiotech’s Emprise 7000 for data storage The Galena Park Independent School District in Houston recently selected Xiotech’s Emprise 7000 storage system for its data center and has had it in production since February. The district chose the Emprise 7000 system primarily for its self healing capabilities
Minnesota Online High School delivers virtual PCs The Minnesota Online High School (MNOHS) has selected SIMtone to deliver virtual PC environments to students and faculty of the as part of its Education Thunder Program. The program aims to provide access to full PCs in the cloud to
A Virtual Good Idea: Virtualization software allows districts to stretch dollars, conserve resources School districts across the country always have had to do more with less. Funding only goes so far, leaving administrators and IT staff to find innovative ways to save money while maintaining a high level of academic quality. Creating virtual
Making the Word Heard: Routine announcements, emergency messages easier with notification software Routine announcements, emergency messages easier with notification softwareTechnology has widened the options we have to communicate, but contacting people seems to be harder than ever. How many times have you left a voicemail on a home phone, sent an e
Bulletproof Remote Access Making school or district database and network resources available to IT employees, administrators, and teachers from remote locations can greatly improve productivity, but at what cost? Despite the vast improvements in
Administrators Accessing the Effectiveness of Technology As districts continue to invest in new more advanced technologies, school building administrators are being charged with the added responsibility of overseeing and managing their local technology program and few are prepared to do so.
Assessment Data at Your Fingertips by Matt Bolch The ever increasing standards of No Child Left Behind regulations and various state assessments have put more pressure on teachers and administrators to monitor the learning process. Fortunately, the advent of technology is allowing teachers to test more often to
Texas District Expands Relationship with Verizon Sherman (TX) Independent School District (ISD) has expanded its decade long relationship with Verizon Business.The technology provider currently is completing the installation of a new voice over Internet protocol (VoIP) platform and is deploying wireless local area networks (LANs) for
The Dark Side of Tech: How CIOs Tackle Security Breaches by Matt Bolch The proliferation of ed tech is certainly cause for celebration. But that celebration carries a dark side--the potential for fraud and abuse. Tech & Learning asked four technology directors about five security challenges that keep them up at night.
Business Intelligence Basics by Lane Mills Is your district's data analysis system producing actionable results? In part 2 of our series on data management, we take a look at how applying the practice of Business Intelligence to your accumulated data can help you drill down to the specifics that'll help meet your goals.
Getting Started with Data Warehousing by Lane Mills The first in a series on managing data efficiently in your district.
Redefining Data-Driven Decision Making by Keith Waters How schools can move beyond D3M to embrace a culture of education performance management.
A CIO Story by Amy Poftak Boston Public Schools' Kim Rice is changing the role of technology in her community, one customer at a time.
Data Warehouse to Go by Elena Malykhina Business intelligence vendors create scaled-down applications for smartphones
How to Shop for a SAN by Dave Raffo Storage negotiating tips from an education IT director who knows.
8 Tips for Going Paperless by Sheila Riley Tech directors reveal their strategies for taming the paper monster.
Dancing the Data Two-Step by Dave Stodder As IT leaders step up to data management challenges, they must also step back and let users determine how data-driven insight fits their world.
The Coming Database Revolution by Josh Greenbaum You may not want to rip and replace, but consider the possibilities for new deployments.
Case Study: Using Data Mining to Analyze Student Behavior by Rick Whiting A Louisiana district scours a year's worth of discipline reports for patterns.
Data Protection: Who's Got Your Back? by Joseph F. Kovar Three words can sum up the storyline in storage nowadays: protection, protection, and protection.
What's Your Achilles Heel? by School CIO readers School CIO readers share their biggest challenges.
Are You Being Servered? by Don MacVittie Just because you can't pay big bucks for servers doesn't mean you have to limp along with a substandard infrastructure.
Dealing With The Metadata Mess by Howard Baldwin Will we ever be able to consolidate all the places where metadata exists in the enterprise?
Virtualization Delivers Cost-Saving Lesson by Sharon Gaudin How one school turned to virtual software as an alternative to a costly data center buildout.
Getting Staff to Use Online Data Systems by Sheila Riley 10 tips for encouraging educators to embrace "accountability" technologies.
Surviving an ERP Implementation: Notes from the Field by Philip J. Brody, Ph. D. One CTO's account of the rollercoaster that is enterprise resource planning.
Smart Backup Storage Tips by Humayun Beg Electronic vaulting promises an end to shipping backup tapes, The Advisory Council says.
How to Buy a Student Information System by Richard Hoffman Lessons learned from Prince George's County Public Schools.
IT Inside the Country's Largest School System by Christopher Heun An exclusive interview with New York City Department of Education CIO Irwin Kroot.
The NCLB Effect by Richard Hoffman Examining the impact of No Child Left Behind on school technology programs and the people who run them.
Data Privacy Trouble Spots by Eric Svetcov Concerned about FERPA and HIPAA? Start by closing the gap on some commonly overlooked vulnerabilities.
Data: Maximize Your Mining, Part Two by Todd McIntire Individualized analysis and a "can do" culture are key to schools committed to sustained student achievement.
DATA: Maximize Your Mining, Part One by Todd McIntire Over the last decade, schools and districts have become increasingly sophisticated in their collection, storage, and analysis of data. And with the rise of NCLB, the focus of data analysis has been largely trained on ways to help schools achieve Adequate Yearly Progress. The more important and greater challenge,
How to Perform a Data Makeover by Richard Hoffman If the data you're storing isn't the right data, or is inconsistent, erroneous, or incomplete, the best analytic tools in the world won't help you make sense of it. We give you four steps to help you "keep it clean."
Data Glossary Don't know your data mart from your dashboard? We explain the essentials.
Student Information Systems Demystified by Todd McIntire Student information systems, one of the first applications of computer technology in education, are undergoing a significant transition yet again. The first major shift in SIS technologies occurred about 15 years ago when they evolved from mainframe programs to client-server solutions. Now, vendors across the board
T&L Announces the 2009 Awards of Excellence Winners Tech & Learning magazine named 65 education technology products as winners in its prestigious 27-year-old recognition program.