Tuesday, September 01, 2009

Parent Reporting Software

When on the NASD site this morning searching for enrollment figures, I saw a notice announcing that the Sapphire Parent Web Portal is no longer available and will be replaced by the PowerSchool Parent Web Portal.  More information to follow.

Since my children are in elementary, we didn’t have access to the system, so to those that did this may not be news, but I was surprised to see the plug pulled on the project.  Wondering what the cost in time and money is to date and will be with the transition to the new system.

Posted via email from Ross Nunamaker

5 comments:

NazoRanter said...

I found the system more than adequate for tracking grades, homework, tests, and more.

I really can't see the reason they pulled the plug and are now going to spend more effort and MONEY to launch a new utility. Factor in the cost of working the bugs out and let us not forget training the staff on how to use it, and we get yet another example of our district spending money they don't have.

In the long run, it could save us money, but in the short term, you don't spend what you don't have in hopes of saving in the future. This is how we got into this national financial crisis.

JImbob said...

I have used it for several years to keep an eye on my kids grades and homework. The system is only as good as the teachers using it. I OFTEN found that it was not up to date for certain teachers( more than I would have imagined) SOme teachers were very good, but last year especially it was somewhat useless to me, and my poor daughter even got privledges taken away because of it, only to prove later that it was wrong.

I would imagine it does not take much effort to launch a new site, other than some basic training, but it is probably self explanatory.

NazoRanter said...

Jimbob,

There is a lot more to a system like this other than "launching a new site" as you put it.

There is design, coding, testing, fixing, then re-testing. It is not as simple as flipping a switch and off we go, like buying a new pair of pants.

There will have to be training for the teachers to use it, and there will be bugs found down the road.

From a parent/student user perspective, yes, we just log in and figure things out.

But, and this is the big one, there is a lot of work that goes on in the back end to make that nifty looking portal available for us to see.

All of this costs money. And after building a new school, renovating the existing elementary and middle schools, the new weight room, the turf field, the new proposed field house and giving all the administrators a raise and after we gave the teachers a juicy new contract (and there are probably some I am missing), we the taxpayers do not need yet another expense that we will have to pay for through increased taxes.

Chris said...

K12 Systems has a great product with the Sapphire Portal. As the provider for their data center services, I can't speak highly enough of those guys - they're great to work with. I can't imagine why (other than perhaps cost) NASD parted ways with them.

I was quite surprised the other night when I learned that NASD is making a change. I hope whatever solution they choose is as good as/better than what they had.

I agree - there will certainly be a learning curve - both for the teachers and for us parents as end-users.

Jimbob - keep in mind that the data is only as good as the person who's entering it. You're exactly right - a lot of times it's not kept up to date as often as it should be, and I've lobbed many an email to the teaching staff calling them on it. Let them know they're being watched - they expect assignments turned in on time, I would expect they can be graded, with the grades posted in a reasonable amount of time.

blog2see said...

Let us not assume that the change will bring about more expense. That is the blanket statement that is always being used. Why would they bring on something at a higher cost with equal to or less efficiency than something that has been used for years? Lets give the district the benefit of the doubt on this one.