earching different database vendors and seeking the experience of other sch=
ools. In December & January I completed a survey of about 95 schools across=
the country and the databases they use and what they like and do not like.=
I can share those results with you.=20
Afterward I met with every single department that manages information in so=
me shape or form to find out about their current uses of managing informati=
on and what is missing from the systems we currently have.
I found that we use 20+ different systems to manage information. Which is n=
ot functional for anyone. Some of these systems "talk" to each other. Even =
within one system, different modules were not necessarily working well toge=
ther.
Using the information from these meetings I put together a preliminary func=
tional requirements document. And I had each group of people review to see =
if I missed anything.=20
Then we narrowed down all of the SIS vendors to four that would work for us=
based upon our scope and the feedback I got back from other schools. In th=
ose four we included Blackbaud and Seniors because we are invested in each =
of those already and we wanted to see what it would be like if we added the=
ir full packages.
We included PCR Educator and Veracross as our other two vendors because ove=
rall people were extremely happy with both of those vendors. PCR Educator c=
lients love their product and they have a lot of schools who gush over them=
. Veracross has only been doing school databases for 7 years (30+ for datab=
ases in their parent company breuer), but everyone I spoke with both from t=
heir list and the schools that referred me, only had amazing things to say.=
And the salesman we had through this process Ed Magin, was very thorough o=
n finding out about us as a school.=20
We had each of the vendors come out for a full day meeting (4 days worth of=
meetings) and present their products to the people who would be mainly inv=
olved in using and training for this product. This way as they saw the prod=
uct they could ask other questions and we came up with a handful of other i=
tems that we wanted and needed based upon the four vendors that came out. N=
o one vendor was going to be 100% effective, but we were able to ask for th=
ings based upon every presentation. I gave a copy of the functional require=
ments to each person who attended and then I had them assess whether or not=
an individual vendor met the expectations.=20
Afterward we narrowed down our choices to two vendors based upon feedback f=
rom each department. And I sent them an RFP (which I would be happy to shar=
e) and a more intense functional requirements document. The Functional Requ=
irements Document was based upon a few other schools and I added everything=
we had needed. I almost wish I had that before I met with each group so th=
at I could ask more pointed questions.
I gave them a month and half to respond. And then I met with a much smaller=
group (Division Heads, Head of School, Development Director, Admission Dir=
ector, Associate Head of School, Director of Finance & Operation, Informati=
on Technology Manager, Director of Library Services & Information Technolog=
ies) and we made a decision about how we would proceed.=20
The next 17 months we will be developing and implementing.=20
------------------------------------------------------
Ali Yares
Park School of Baltimore
Information Manager
410-339-7070, ext. 4671
ayares@parkschool.net
Blog: http://schoolsocialmedia.blogspot.com/
Park Online
Website: http://www.parkschool.net
Twitter: http://twitter.com/TheParkSchool
Facebook Page: http://www.facebook.com/parkschool
Facebook Alumni Page: http://www.facebook.com/parkschoolalumni
________________________________________
From: A forum for independent school educators [ISED-L@LISTSERV.SYR.EDU] On=
Behalf Of Terry Dash [Terry_Dash@pikeschool.org]
Sent: Tuesday, July 21, 2009 8:06 AM
To: ISED-L@LISTSERV.SYR.EDU
Subject: Re: Student Information System
Hi -
We have been very happy with Veracross, which we've used for the last
year. We find that it is comprehensive, flexible, well-designed, and
progressive (in the sense that the company continually incorporates
useful, new technologies and approaches). We use it for admissions,
registrar, scheduling, and grading; they made our teachers' grading work
so simple that our staff moved easily in a single year from our previous
FileMaker-based system (we printed and mailed grades to parents) to online
grading where parents login (a pretty big cultural and technical
transition for us).
I'd also like to encourage you to follow earlier advice (if you haven't
already) to create a list of your requirements based on interviews with
your stakeholders. We tried to make our requirements pretty specific
(e.g., teachers need to share their reports electronically with
supervising teachers before they're sent to parents; teachers prefer to
input grades/comments for all students in a class on a single screen; the
demo needs to be conducted from a Macintosh client to verify
compatibility; and so on). With our requirements in hand, we called about
a dozen vendors and interviewed them on the phone. Then we invited the 4
who seemed best to do demos for our division heads and teachers (any
teachers who wanted to attend) based on our requirements specifically (in
other words, we asked the vendors to put aside their "canned" demos and
focus on what we needed).
I'm happy to answer more questions anytime.
Terry
. . .
Terry Dash
Director of Technology
The Pike School (PreK - 9)
34 Sunset Rock Road
Andover, Massachusetts 01810
ph: 978-475-1197 x6623
fx: 978-475-3014
A forum for independent school educators <ISED-L@LISTSERV.SYR.EDU> writes:
>Hi,We are looking for a student information system to replace SASI. I
>would appreciate your recommendations. Thanks in advance!Mary Knopp,
>MLSLibrary Media SpecialistAcademy of Mount St. Ursula330 Bedford Park
>BoulevardBronx, NY 10458718-354-5353 x225
>
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