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North Carolina’s new student information system, PowerSchool, is up and running…more or less.

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CommenTerry

Last fall, the NC DPI began the transition from NC WISE to PowerSchool, a student information system that is part of NC DPI’s Home Base initiative.  Public school teachers and administrators are required to use PowerSchool to record student information, such as grades and attendance.  (See Facts and Stats for other types of student information collected.)

PowerSchool is one of the many products marketed and sold by Pearson Inc., a humungous, for-profit technology and publishing company. NC DPI awarded Pearson contracts for PowerSchool totaling over $14.5 million between December 2012 and June 2013 alone. 

Pearson acquired PowerSchool from Apple Inc. in 2006 and claims that it is the "most widely used web-based student information system, supporting 12 million students in all 50 states and over 65 countries." Despite such widespread use, Pearson and the NC DPI have had trouble ensuring that PowerSchool functions properly for teachers and administrators who simply want to perform basic record-keeping tasks.  One principal avoided the hassle altogether by using pen and paper, rather than PowerSchool, to register students at her school.

Problems with PowerSchool have had a ripple effect.  For example, the uncertain release of official student enrollment numbers stored in PowerSchool may delay the seeding process for the high school football playoffs in North Carolina.  In addition, PowerSchool malfunctions have complicated the college admissions process for many students.  According to an article published in the News & Observer, "Complaints include students not being able to log on and teachers not being able to upload recommendation letters. Some families’ credit cards have been charged more than once after they hit the ‘submit’ button several times in frustration."  Plenty of parents and college applicants have been concerned, understandably so, about the status of their applications and the accuracy of the information delivered to their college or university of choice.

Please do not misunderstand me.  Minor glitches are to be expected in the initial months of implementing a computer system of this size and scope.  But I find it curious that PowerSchool, purportedly an established and widely used program, cannot perform basic data collection and reporting functions for North Carolina teachers and administrators.  Moreover, was PowerSchool the only choice?  I was told that NC DPI officials chose not to conduct a competitive bidding process to find a student information system provider.  Perhaps there are better options out there.

Finally, if PowerSchool’s functionality does not improve, whom do we hold accountable?  Perhaps that is too much to ask.  If there was one thing I learned by watching the Congressional hearings on the disastrous Obamacare website, it was that nobody wants to accept responsibility for their mistakes and failures.  And when you work in (or with) big government, apparently you don’t have to.

Facts and Stats

We do not have a list of data points that detail the information to be collected and included in PowerSchool, but some of the system’s support documents give us a few clues.  In addition to documenting demographic and student performance data, the following are also included:

  1. Extracurricular activities
  2. Student awards, including scholarships and scholarship amounts
  3. Vaccinations, including the names of vaccines and dates administered
  4. Medication information, which includes medication name, reason, dosage, measurement, RX number, frequency, and instructions
  5. Student vehicle information, including make, model, year, color, and license plate number
  6. Disciplinary incidents

Education Acronym of the Week

SIS — Student Information System

Quote of the Week

"The old student information system was not up-to-date or sensitive to contemporary needs of teachers, parents and students. We do not need to waste resources in patching a system that would no longer meet our needs.  As with any new system, we expect there will be learning curves, but the Home Base system will be very positive for parents and others."

— NC Superintendent of Public Instruction June Atkinson, August 20, 2013 press release

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