School administrators are being called upon to make decisions based on real-time data, demonstrate accountability based on data, and manage complex operations. Today this is done with a variety of manual and software applications, through a variety of systems, often on unstable networks.
But Robert Iskander has a different vision for schools: a single, web-based platform that integrates all electronic learning and business data, applications and content, and that can personalize that information for parents, teachers, and administrators. Iskander likens this to a "power plant" sitting in a "centralized, secure, scalable infrastructure. Nothing will have to sit at the school," he explained. Rather, school systems could access this "vertically integrated platform" managed by a commercial vendor and owned by the state, county, or district.
Decisions Based on Data
"If we're going to 'leave no child behind,'" said Iskander, "the question is what data do we know about every one of those children? We really don't know that much. Every year the student goes through the system, a lot of data is generated, but where is that data sitting? It sits in the Student Information System at the school or at the district office. It sits in paper format in teachers' drawers. We don't have the tools to capture all the data to accurately track the performance of every learner."
Iskander is worried that attendance and assessment data are often manually collected and managed in schools and consequently not available in a timely manner. "That means that the leadership of the school system has no data-driven decision support tools. They react at the end of the year to the results as opposed to having a directive plan at the beginning of the year and continuously, in real time, gauging and monitoring the complicated educational enterprise to improve its performance," he said.
And year-end school accountability reporting is completed in what Iskander called "a very expensive annual 'batch' process." As there is no infrastructure to support ongoing accountability reporting, it may be too late to catch students who are slipping. "We really need real time accountability reporting, not a batch process, for leaders to make better decisions. We need to reform the system giving administrators the tools to help them support student performance," Iskander said. He pointed out the effectiveness of a Palm-based attendance system in which "by the end of class, the principal knows who's absent in the whole school."
Integrating All Information Systems
Educational administration is "a very complicated enterprise with a complicated set of services," noted Iskander. Districts may have a myriad of different software applications covering human resources, transportation systems, cafeteria systems, library automation, attendance tracking, and student information systems to curricular content to infrastructure services such as e-mail, calendar, and office productivity. All this data is sitting in what Iskander called "fragmented silos inside the K-12 enterprise."
To effectively integrate all these information systems and services will require new standards, new models, and consolidation, he predicted. One emerging standard that will allow operations to talk to each other is the School Interoperability Framework. Open e-integration platforms are also needed to connect different applications, Iskander said. And as vendors consolidate due to the economy, "they have to figure out how to integrate their technology." New models are also needed for data collection, such as hand-held computers for ongoing student assessment and attendance tracking.
Iskander proposed that state Departments of Education must become involved in the architectural design of these integrated information systems. He pointed out that states control what the required reports look like and they own the curriculum standards. "If you own the input and output," he said, "you should be involved in the design of the black box, endorse it, and then let schools subscribe to it. The state Department of Education has to play the role of CIO (Chief Information Officer) for the schools and work with commercial companies like ourselves to help build it with the 'best of breed' set of tools out there."
VIP Tone is a partner of WestEd RTEC. Members of RTEC staff have presented at numerous VIP Tone eVisioneering seminars for education leaders across our four-state region.
