Warsaw Schools Considers Fix for PowerSchools
July 28, 2016 at 4:25 p.m.
By David [email protected]
In the first week he joined the school corporation, the system – PowerSchool – went down for two weeks.
“It’s absolutely critical that the system is up,” he said.
During the school board public work session Tuesday afternoon, Hagg presented a solution to the problems with PowerSchool.
For $23,200, Pearson Education can host PowerSchool for WCS for one year. Hagg had asked other school corporations how they were addressing the issue and he was told they were going to a hosting model.
“They host it and we access everything over the Internet,” Hagg told the board.
Pearson will host all of WCS’s data in a secure system. Hagg said they’re much more able to take care of any issues that may arise.
“I feel like this is the way to go. It’s made possible by deductions we’ve made in other areas,” he said.
Randy Polston, board member, clarified that the cost was $23,200 for one year. Hagg said it costs $3 a student, so since it’s based on the number of students, they don’t offer packages for two or three years.
Board member Dan Metzger asked how this might affect parents’ access, while Board Vice President Matt Dick asked if the hosting model would fix the frustrations with PowerSchool going down.
“There shouldn’t be any change with the way the product operates. It just changes where it lives,” Hagg responded.
Dick asked how soon it would change over. If the board approves the expenditure at its regular meeting Monday night, Hagg said he will try to pick a date that will be “least impactful.”
In another matter, Chief Academic Officer David Robertson gave a brief review of the IREAD-3 results for 2014.
The reading skills test is given to all third-graders in the spring. If students don’t pass it on the first try, they attend summer school for remediation and then retake the test. If they don’t pass the test the second time and don’t receive a “good cause” exemption, students continue to receive instruction in third-grade reading and are officially reported as a third-grader. They must fully participate in IREAD-3 and third grade ISTEP during the fourth grade.
A student can be given a good cause exemption if they had previously been retained two times prior to fourth grade; they have a disability and their Case Conference Committee determines promotion is appropriate; or they are a English language learner student whose Individual Learning Plan Committee determines promotion is appropriate.
After summer school, and including good cause exemptions, Robertson said only five students in the entire school district did not pass this year. He credited the summer school program for that.
At the individual elementary schools, including exemptions, Claypool, Harrison, Madison and Washington all had 100 percent of their third-graders pass IREAD-3. Eisenhower and Leesburg had 99 percent pass, while Lincoln had 98 percent pass.
Jefferson had 96 percent pass. Robertson said they’ve noticed a downward trend at Jefferson in the last three years. Robertson was the principal of the elementary until this summer when he became the CAO.
A team is working hard to embed IREAD skills in Jefferson’s reading block, Robertson said.
The team also is integrating reading comprehension checks weekly into its 90-minute reading block, creating a language arts success time rooted around IREAD skills, and use individual scores to divide students and work specifically on their needs.
The passing rate with exemptions at all WCS elementaries was 97 percent for 2014.
Robertson noted that 567 students took the IREAD-3 in 2013, while 516 students took it this year. Of those, 503 (89 percent) passed the first time in 2013, while 459 (also 89 percent) passed the first time this year.[[In-content Ad]]
In the first week he joined the school corporation, the system – PowerSchool – went down for two weeks.
“It’s absolutely critical that the system is up,” he said.
During the school board public work session Tuesday afternoon, Hagg presented a solution to the problems with PowerSchool.
For $23,200, Pearson Education can host PowerSchool for WCS for one year. Hagg had asked other school corporations how they were addressing the issue and he was told they were going to a hosting model.
“They host it and we access everything over the Internet,” Hagg told the board.
Pearson will host all of WCS’s data in a secure system. Hagg said they’re much more able to take care of any issues that may arise.
“I feel like this is the way to go. It’s made possible by deductions we’ve made in other areas,” he said.
Randy Polston, board member, clarified that the cost was $23,200 for one year. Hagg said it costs $3 a student, so since it’s based on the number of students, they don’t offer packages for two or three years.
Board member Dan Metzger asked how this might affect parents’ access, while Board Vice President Matt Dick asked if the hosting model would fix the frustrations with PowerSchool going down.
“There shouldn’t be any change with the way the product operates. It just changes where it lives,” Hagg responded.
Dick asked how soon it would change over. If the board approves the expenditure at its regular meeting Monday night, Hagg said he will try to pick a date that will be “least impactful.”
In another matter, Chief Academic Officer David Robertson gave a brief review of the IREAD-3 results for 2014.
The reading skills test is given to all third-graders in the spring. If students don’t pass it on the first try, they attend summer school for remediation and then retake the test. If they don’t pass the test the second time and don’t receive a “good cause” exemption, students continue to receive instruction in third-grade reading and are officially reported as a third-grader. They must fully participate in IREAD-3 and third grade ISTEP during the fourth grade.
A student can be given a good cause exemption if they had previously been retained two times prior to fourth grade; they have a disability and their Case Conference Committee determines promotion is appropriate; or they are a English language learner student whose Individual Learning Plan Committee determines promotion is appropriate.
After summer school, and including good cause exemptions, Robertson said only five students in the entire school district did not pass this year. He credited the summer school program for that.
At the individual elementary schools, including exemptions, Claypool, Harrison, Madison and Washington all had 100 percent of their third-graders pass IREAD-3. Eisenhower and Leesburg had 99 percent pass, while Lincoln had 98 percent pass.
Jefferson had 96 percent pass. Robertson said they’ve noticed a downward trend at Jefferson in the last three years. Robertson was the principal of the elementary until this summer when he became the CAO.
A team is working hard to embed IREAD skills in Jefferson’s reading block, Robertson said.
The team also is integrating reading comprehension checks weekly into its 90-minute reading block, creating a language arts success time rooted around IREAD skills, and use individual scores to divide students and work specifically on their needs.
The passing rate with exemptions at all WCS elementaries was 97 percent for 2014.
Robertson noted that 567 students took the IREAD-3 in 2013, while 516 students took it this year. Of those, 503 (89 percent) passed the first time in 2013, while 459 (also 89 percent) passed the first time this year.[[In-content Ad]]
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