Posts Tagged ‘performanceplus’

The Power of User Groups – Revisited

Posted: October 2, 2012, 8:11 am

By Dr. Ramiro Zuniga

Last year, I wrote about the benefits of actively participating in a user group.  I also spoke about some of attitudes criticizing such organizations.  In my opinion, those that criticize user groups do so out of ignorance.  These individuals don’t understand the benefits of user groups because they don’t get involved.  As for me, know that I still think quite favorably of user groups.  I have, for years, encouraged my colleagues to seek a higher level of involvement.

There is no doubt in my mind that if you take the time to participate in such an organization, you can make a big difference in how a software product is designed and functions for your school district.  Keep in mind that affecting the design of a software product in your favor can make life easier for your colleagues back home.  Perhaps you can affect the design of the software to where it is more intuitive and thus easier for district personnel to use.  Perhaps you can affect the design of the software to where screens are easier to use.  You might even reduce the number of steps of certain tasks within the software.  Really, the possibilities are endless.

One of the greater benefits in becoming actively involved in a user group, is interacting with your software vendor’s staff.  Interacting with these individuals will provide you with insight on their frame of reference.

Know too, that user groups can take the form of state, regional, and national groups.  Although some would hesitate to get involved with a national organization over an organization within their respective state, doing so could provide added benefits.  Individuals from other states can provide vastly different perspectives that could facilitate your generating new ideas that you may not have conceived of otherwise.  Often, individuals from other states can share information on initiatives occurring in their states.

It is important to know that each level will not necessarily compete against each other.  Each is an added opportunity for impacting the design of a software product.  Although states do have specific data and software requirements that need to be met, I would suggest that school districts share many more similarities that can easily be defined nationally.

I have listed key points and strategies on becoming an active user group member:

  • Understand and commit to the purpose of the group
  • Speak up, share your viewpoint
  • You have to know what you want your software to do.  You don’t have to be a computer programmer
  • Introducing yourself to other users will allow you to build a network of professional colleagues that you can tap into for ideas or support
  • Volunteer for an Officer or Board position within the user group.  Although this does require a significant commitment, it also provides you with tremendous professional and personal growth
  • Collective requests from a user group generally carry more weight than that of a single individual with software vendors
  • Being actively involved will keep you informed of upcoming product enhancements

As I mentioned last year, the reason for becoming actively involved is so obvious.  I will reiterate the same question that I always ask when discussing the benefit of user groups.   “How can you criticize the design of your software when you don’t get involved in the design?”

Once again, I encourage each of you, each of your staff and colleagues to become active members of user groups.  After all, you and your district will reap the benefits.

 

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Posted in data, edtech, K-12, Leadership, Ramiro Zuniga

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Finding the Right K-12 Software Solution

Posted: May 10, 2012, 11:52 am

By Dr. Ramiro Zuniga

Selecting a software solution can be a daunting task and, if not done correctly, can end disastrously.  Several things should be considered when considering undertaking such a task.

The most important thing to understand is why a replacement system is being considered.  Is the cost of the current system too high?  Are users frustrated with the how cumbersome the current system is to use?  Does the current system fall short in delivering what is desired?

As part of the process, a team should be created that consists of a cross section of the actual users that will end up using the software selected.  In no instance should the selection of a software system ever be carried out by one individual.  A core group of about five individuals that have a high stake in the final selection should also be created.  These individuals will typically ensure that the process of selecting a software solution does not go wayward or stall.  These are also the individuals that will communicate with the vendors as process proceeds or questions arise.

An option to consider when evaluating different software systems is to hire a consultant.  A consultant can use his technical expertise to not only to interpret specifics but also to simply and prioritize concerns.

It is imperative that your users get a “hands on” opportunity during your evaluation process.  This will give your users the ability to test drive the proposed software solution.  During this activity, users can ask questions and determine whether the software is visually appealing.

Steps should be taken to ensure a comprehensive understanding of the total cost of ownership.  Initial purchase costs alone do not paint to the whole picture.  Costs should be analyzed over a five year period, minimally.

Although costs are important, costs should never be the driving force behind a software selection.  Of primary importance is the software performance.  The software selection should be based on whether the software meets the needs of your users.

Too often, software selections are made as a result of political pressures.  Political pressures can be avoided by pre-defining and, more importantly, communicating, and adhering to objective criteria.

Software system implementations offer different options:

 

  • Hosted solutions call for the vendor to provide and manage all the needed resources, including hardware and software.

 

  • Onsite solutions call for all hardware and software to be installed and managed in your facilities.

 

  • Temporary Hosted solutions call for the vendor to temporarily host a software system until hardware arrives at your facilities.

 

  • Phased implementations allow for a quick implementation of the most important modules of a software system, and delaying the implementation of less significant modules.

 

  • Data conversions can vary greatly by vendor.  Some vendors will offer complete data conversion services.  Other vendors will offer partial data conversions.  Still other vendors do not provide data conversions at all.

 

  • Training options can range from traditional on-site training to web based training.  More recent trends include webinar training in which the trainer provides training via the internet and telephone conferencing system.  Training can also be offered exclusively via online courses.

 

Care must also be taken to ensure that the implementation is not too lengthy.  Long implementations can lead to a loss of momentum and interest.

Make it a point to conduct site visits and follow up on references.  Doing so will give you an opportunity to see the software in action and interact visit with actual users of the proposed software solution.

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Posted in data, edtech, K-12, Ramiro Zuniga

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CEI-PEA and PerformancePLUS: Helping over 20 public charter schools in New York City and Buffalo improve student performance

Posted: February 14, 2012, 9:29 am

 

The PICCS Model

You’ve seen the headlines, “Duncan Calls for Higher US Graduation Rate”, “US Education Secretary Calls for More Teacher-District Cooperation”. You may have seen the movie, “Waiting for Superman”. The bottom line is that the education system in the United States is in search of new ways to improve student achievement.

Depending on who you are, the opinions vary on when, how soon, or even if this goal can be achieved. But if you’re a teacher or administrator from one of 22 public charter schools in New York City and Buffalo, the question is not if but, “When?” and “How far can we go?”

Led by the Center for Educational Innovation – Public Education Association (CEI-PEA), the Partnership for Innovation in Compensation for Charter Schools (PICCS) program is a school improvement model utilizing performance-based compensation. Through this model, CEI-PEA delivers support, software, and services to charter schools based on three key components.

3 Components for Data-Based Decision Making

The PICCS school improvement model supports the effective use of data to drive decision-making and differentiate instruction through the development of data teams at each school and through the following processes:

1.Data Planning and Monitoring through the PICCS Data Warehouse – PICCS has developed a comprehensive data warehouse that allows each school to store student data, generate on-demand reports, create and update student/cohort/classroom/schoolwide achievement plans, and measure the impact of specific resources and professional development on the achievement of target outcomes.

2. Collaboration and Communication through the PICCS website and the myPICCS Portal – In order to facilitate communication and collaboration within and across the PICCS schools, the PICCS website and the myPICCS portal give educators access to highly secure web 2.0 tools such as web-based libraries, calendars, forums, wikis and blogs. The use of web groups within the portal allows educators to form teams around specific issues, subjects, interest areas, and practices.

3. Curriculum Mapping and Differentiated Instruction using PerformancePLUS – Through a partnership with SunGard K-12 Education, PICCS provides a comprehensive suite of web-based tools that allow teachers to build collegial relationships. Through these relationships, teachers make data-based decisions about grade-level, cross-grade level, disciplinary, and cross-disciplinary curricula and instructional practices.

PICCS began implementing the PerformancePLUS tools in the second half of 2008 and, with the support of Enhancing Education through Technology (EETT) grants, has expanded its use of these tools to include technology-supported development of Individual Learning Plans (ILPs) for students at each PICCS school.

How PerformancePLUS Helps PICCS Schools Build a Data-Informed Culture

The PICCS model employs the full suite of assessment and curriculum management tools included with PerformancePLUS including PerformanceTRACKER (for student performance tracking and analysis), AssessmentBUILDER (for building and scoring local benchmark assessments), and CurriculumCONNECTOR (for building, sharing, and analyzing a comprehensive standards-based curriculum).

Using PerformancePLUS to Create a Data-Informed Culture

Teachers and administrators are using PerformanceTRACKER to infuse decision-making with near real-time student data that is correlated to state standards. This information helps drive conversations that are based on facts instead of anecdotes.

In order to effectively track student performance, teachers are preparing local benchmark assessments using AssessmentBUILDER. With automatic scoring and uploading to PerformanceTRACKER, this software helps teachers spend less time grading assessments and more time focusing on specific student issues raised in the assessment.

After teachers and administrators get a full picture of student achievement, CurriculumCONNECTOR helps them find gaps in student learning and revise curriculum to meet the challenges posed. With this new digital curriculum, teachers and administrators now have a live resource that facilitates professional conversations around the written and taught curriculum.

Driving Collaboration Across Traditional Boundaries

Prior to joining the PICCS project, a striking similarity existed between these charter schools (predominantly free and reduced lunch schools) and many public schools across the nation – they weren’t sharing information or practices across school boundaries.

With implementation of the PICCS project, that is beginning to change. Within these charter schools there are no central offices and it presents a challenge for principals to collaborate with other schools. In response, the model encourages the development of teacher leaders and data coordinators (typically teachers in each school).

Cooperating with CEI-PEA, these teacher leaders meet on a monthly basis to train, share resources, and collaborate on what’s working and what is not in each of their schools.

The data culled from PerformanceTRACKER and CurriculumCONNECTOR often helps facilitate these meetings.

“The use of data becomes a very essential piece of the process,” said Frank San Felice, Director of the PICCS project.

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Posted in Case Studies, data, edtech, K-12

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Students Address the Common Core Standards

Posted: September 20, 2011, 9:04 am

By Dr. Bena Kallick

Finally the words that have been missing from state standards are addressed in the common core standards:

  • “Make sense of problems and persevere in solving them”
  • “…work independently”

Common Core Standards recognize the significance of students become more self-directed learners.  Instead of raising their hands, waiting for someone to rescue them from learning, they are emphasizing that students need to develop the dispositions or habits of mind that will motivate them to be more independent, self-directed learners.

Costa and Kallick (www.instituteforhabitsofmind.com) offer 16 habits such as persisting, communicating with clarity and precision and striving for accuracy.  Their research both from theory and practices across the world suggest that when students develop a disciplined attitude for learning, they not only tackle the tasks at hand with greater success, they also develop a lifelong set of skills that will help them become more successful in life.

The steps to building these habits start with awareness or self-discovery. Students need to know where their strengths are, where their challenges are, and where they have the greatest opportunities to improve in their learning habits.   Once they are aware, goal setting becomes important.  One example of goal setting is exemplified in the Individual Learning Plan (ILP) that is a part of PerformanceTRACKER (part of PerformancePLUS).  Students work with teachers to set and monitor goals based on addressing the common core standards.  Students can own their assessment data and make observations about their progress in order to demonstrate improvement.  They can talk with their parents about how they are doing, creating their own report card of progress. They can learn how to strengthen their habits of mind so that they are working both with their attitudes as well as their academic accomplishments.

Ultimately, the quality of the work will be in the hands of the workers.  When we include students in managing themselves, monitoring their progress, and modifying their behaviors based on reflection and evaluation, they are ready for learning at school and at work.

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Posted in Bena Kallick, K-12

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Derry Cooperative School District Improves Test Results with PerformancePLUS Learning Management

Posted: October 5, 2010, 3:34 pm

Throughout the year, members of the Derry Cooperative School District’s curriculum committee met, binders and paperwork in-hand, to work on the coursework teachers would use to instruct teachers throughout the district’s five elementary and two middle schools. But the hard-working group and its team of educators often were hampered by the manual system bereft of mapping, assessments and automated lesson plans.

“We had nothing electronic,” said Mary Ellen Hannon, Superintendent of Derry Cooperative. ”We had no ability to do anything electronically except take data from the state and put it into a spreadsheet. We had a curriculum issue and we had a data issue.”

Ultimately, the district selected PerformancePLUS and SunGard Public Sector’s family of learning management solutions specifically designed for K-12 educators.

“PerformancePLUS was the only product that had a consolidated approach,” said Hannon.

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Posted in Business Process Management, Case Studies, Collaboration & Information Sharing, K-12, WHNPS

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