Heath Morrison made "an impassioned plea to our community for patience" at this week's school board meeting.
Why? School starts in less than two weeks. And all the data, from student schedules to bus routes to employee information, will be controlled by the new PowerSchool system being adopted statewide.
Anyone who's been part of a system transition knows how crazy that can be. Now imagine the conversion of all school data for the state of North Carolina in less than a year, with the operation of all public schools at stake.
"There are going to be hiccups, bumps and unexpected issues that arise," Morrison said Tuesday.
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| Truesdale |
Why is North Carolina doing this? Pearson School Systems, a private educational information company, bought the old NCWISE data system in 2010 and phased it out. State officials said a two-year transition to the new Pearson product would have cost more, so they opted for the quick switch.
Families who have used Parent Assistant to track their kids' grades and attendance online will convert to PowerSchool's Parent Portal. CMS will open a new PowerSchool parent hotline on Monday: 980-343-9420.
As always, I'm eager to know what those of you on the front lines are experiencing. I'm still trying to figure out the terminology. Best I can tell, PowerSchool is part of a new state system called Home Base, which combines the data system with school improvement programs. Read the CMS presentation to the school board here and the state's explanation of Home Base here.
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52 comments:
Parent Assist was absolutely useless.
They have nowhere to go but up...
So did CMS ever get the $1 million additional funds they claimed needed to implement the program?
The CMS Chief Information Office already has 94 employees costing over $5.6 million dollars or does that $5.6 million include the additional $1 million in funding and personnel?
Get ready for higher cell phone fees....
Cell Phone Fee Hike Would Finance Obama Internet Access Plan For Schools
Wednesday, 14 Aug 2013 12:32 PM
The White House wants to raise cell phone user fees to pay for an ambitious plan to expand high-speed Internet access to schools so students and teachers can use digital notebooks and other high-tech devices.
The so-called ConnectEd program has been described by White House senior advisors as potentially one of the largest achievements of President Barack Obama's second term, reports The Washington Post.
But the program could cost billions of dollars and Republicans have promised to oppose any plan that raises consumer costs.
According to the Post, ConnectEd would have a price tag estimated at $4 billion to $6 billion, which would work to about a $12 spread out over three years for every cell phone user.
ConnectEd would provide high-speed broadband and wireless access to 99 percent of the nation's schools by 2018.
Since Executive Order Obama is graciously going to rob American consumers yet again and give the funds to schools for technology, why don't we wait on these funds instead of getting screwed twice?
Wiley,
How much did W rob for NCLB which still continues today?
9:09, apparently you missed the liberal medias talking points on NCLB. It was an unfunded mandate. GWB and Teddy Kennedy requested no additional money for it. It is as Wiley has posted already.
In NC, it simply pulled in the NC ABC testing program that had just been implemented. It already included the subgroup repoprting. Though it did add the remediation requirements if improvement goals were not met which included requiring the school system to offer free after school tutoring (which CMS had to go out and recruit students to come to, none wanted to do it).
The Obama administration most certainly did not gut NCLB. Race to the Top and the NCLB waivers require more testing and greater "accountability" than NCLB did. I see that as a negative, rather than a positive, because out-of-control high-stakes testing has eroded rather than improved the quality of education in the country. But the idea that "liberals don't want accountability" is silly.
Listen folks lets have a Pep Rally at the arena and call it a day. Hooray , Hooray for Heath.
Do you believe everything you read, Wiley? That's an opinion, not a fact. The Obama administration let states out of the unreasonable mandate that if every single student at every single school did not "pass" standardized tests in reading and math, the states would have to institute drastic (and ineffective) transformations at every school. Students vary, and even the highest-performing schools rarely had every single student "pass." It was a dumb thing to put in the law in the first place.
In exchange, however, they required that states agree to evaluate teachers based in part on test scores, which is one reason NC testing has been expanding, compounding the problems of high-stakes testing in our state.
I did not find Parent Assist useless at all. I used it often to stay up with my kid's progress. Of course, if you had a teacher who didn't put grades in as she was supposed to do, it was useless - but it told you something about the teacher.
Power School looks to be a more user-friendly program- but such a dramatic switch is going to be difficult for such a big system. It may have been "pennywise and pound-foolish" to go with the quick option. We shall see in about 2 weeks!!
This discussion has nothing to do with PowerSchool - why don't you find another blog.
Wiley and Pamela, 11:18 has a point. As you know, I generally don't delete comments unless they get way out of line or off topic. But the same old back-and-forth over Obama and NCLB may discourage people who actually want to talk about PowerSchool. Y'all should create a point/counterpoint blog :-)
I posed two questions to CMS yesterday and received these answers:
1) Will Power School be accessible to all grades, or just 3-12, like NCWISE?
NC Wise Parent portal was open to grades K-12 however since grades were recorded in K-2 report cards last year (before that, on paper) then the only information that would appear would be attendance, discipline, medical information (Allergies, Doctor names), emergency contacts, student demographics, and immunization status. With PowerSchool, a very similar situation will be created where K-2 students will record grades in a different application driven off the data warehouse.
A parent will see all features and capabilities with a 3rd grade student until graduation.
2) Have any teachers been trained on using Power School yet? When did they get trained? How long is the training session? If teachers haven't been trained yet, when is that training scheduled? Will all teachers be trained prior to the start of school on 8/26?
We have had over 7,000 staff members attend classroom PowerSchool training or complete online videos since March 15. Teachers will follow the train the trainer model and receive classroom instruction from August 19-23, 2013. Schedules needed to be complete and since teachers are 10 month employees, we chose to provide training just before opening of schools.
Classes are scheduled in 3 hour sessions with lead teachers from every school with the dates listed above. It is the responsibility of lead teachers to return and train school staff or use the recorded videos for support if needed.
8:46 Give the funds to schools for technology? That is not what is happening. CMS is now requiring parents to go out and buy their little darlings Iphones and Ipads to play with, I mean use, at school all day long. Parents should be very disturbed by this push on their elementary aged students.
I liked Parent assist, it worked for me.
Another comment, CMS is continually trying to new thing, the new fad du jour. If I was a teacher, I would be sick and tired of it. I know our elem school teachers are sick and tired of the yearly (unnecessary) changes to the literacy and math programs.
Parent Assist worked for me when teachers posted grades in a timely fashion. Some were much better at it than others. I expect this new system will work much the same way.
As Ann pointed out, this particular change has nothing to do with CMS. Pearson bought the old system, and clearly concluded they'd make more money by forcing states to buy a new system than they would by supporting the old one, regardless of any "inconvenience" to the customer. Gotta love that capitalist drive.
Powerschool is turning out to be the Cluster... Clint Eastwood was talking about in the movie heartbreak ridge.
Pearson - part of the corporatization of education... " reward the buddy"....
11:46 The program you speak of is BYOT, or Bring your own Technology to school. Another fad that will blow up in CMS' face, just wait.
Will CMS be PowerSchool ready? Will the teachers be ready is more the question at hand.
Based on the agenda i've seen, teachers will have one day of power school training. Some teachers were trained before the school year ended and chose to do so on their own time.
Can somebody just have a party at the cable box? They have WIFI at the box so better than the schools. Heath , throw a party and invite Petey do it.........
As a student I haven't experienced any significant problems with the parent assist system other than when occasionally it was slow or down for maintenance. Although I found it to be very basic, it met my needs.
Some of the educators on the Tech & Blended Learning task force I was on last year had used PowerSchool while working in past districts and they had some positive things to say about it. Like any new system, the transition period can be rough but I'm hoping in the long run it will be more user friendly. I would like to see a system that is more student driven, so hopefully this will be a step in that direction.
I think the district should also utilize the Powerschool app for smartphones if at all possible, to make this info more accessible for students and their parents.
Ann, could you please report on the CMS rally next week? I know Heath's intentions are in the right place but I am baffled as to how this will boost morale. The way it looks to me, 2 1/2 hours that could be spent on making sure teachers are ready for the students, are used to chant rah rah rah. How does this help my child's teacher? I want her to be ready to deliver instruction that has been well prepared vs squeezing in lesson planning whenever. Typical CMS! Always time for meetings and other stuff but barely time to get ready for the year.
I went over to the Human Resource department at Spaugh Learning Center this week. The sign to turn in said Spaugh Lane "DEAD END".
There has never been truer words wrtten on a street sign!
@ Sarah Kerman- Thank you for one of the few rational comments posted.
"Like any new system, the transition period can be rough..."
Many of the frequent CMS naysayers in this forum constantly demand change; one comes along and they're still crying foul before it's even implemented.
MOrrison Rally
LaTarza sending invitations out? Just another slap happy session for the "BROAD" crowd. I mean the only ones that got raises (MARKET ADJUSTMENTS)
Its like Price is Right with door prizes and all. How much does this cost? Please CMS, my child needs fillings for his teeth not a DOOR PRIZE!
My plea for patience: I'll file something on the pep rally tomorrow, but it's too nice a day for me to stay in the office any longer!
With the issues CMS is facing I don't think it's a proper time for Heath to throw a party. As a tax paying citizen of the state of Meck I mean revalue USA its poor judgement. CMS has so many needs and issues to handle a party is the last thing on the menu. Exactly what is he celebrating ? It can't be the way he treats his staff. It can't be the lack of technology he has in his schools. It can't be that he is being replaced by the super from Iredell. I just can't figure out the major events celebration. Keith W. Hurley
Keith,
The party is the Queen of Hearts in the Three-Card Monte game.
When there needs to be deflection or misdirection, the Queen is changed to whatever it needs to be, in this case, a party.
According to CMS, the event is covered by donations by private companies such as Wells Fargo among others. The issue with me is that next week is going to be packed with everything BUT allotted time for getting my room ready, and making sure *I* have everything ready. When the kids arrive on the 26th, they will be streaming in regardless of how prepared I am. I just don't think this rally, while well-intentioned, is a good use of our time considering how pressed we are. I understand it is about getting us "pumped" for the new year and to "boost morale" but I don't think this is the way to do it. Making sure that administrators support us and treat us right will go a long way towards that.
I have been using Power Teacher for 6 weeks now, not that horrible of a program and seems to be more user friendly then NCWise. Training was simple and you just need to be open minded and think things through with common sense as with any other computer program. We had 1 week between school years and things were frustrating at first but be patient, things will get straightened out.
Ditto *8:30. I wish I could use the time to work in my room to prepare and plan for my students. :(
I agree, and I assume most of my colleagues do as well, that the time will be better spent preparing for our students. 3 hours will go a long way next week.
Join me in refusing to attend the "pep rally". While we legally cannot strike from our jobs, and would never think of leaving our students, we can show our unity on the issue of our bloated central office while teachers are left only scraps.
I say we use this time as a silent protest, and every teacher across the district, stay in your room during the time allotted for the "pep rally" and work our tails off to be prepared for the arrival of our students. Spread the word Monday morning!
The most immediate concern on the plate is for Seniors and their inability to get to their schedules and make changes as part of the early college application process. This system change has put them at a significant disadvantage over other areas of the country trying to obtain those precious acceptance letters.
I always despised pep rallies in school.
Especially since the school I attended was so crummy academically and no one seemed to care about that.
As long as the fooball team won a few games, all was well in school and everyone HAD to show "school spirit".
For the fooball team...
CMS is treating its teachers like simpletons with this pep rally idea.
I know that some recent HR puppets have touted "appreciation" as a substitute for money as a reward.
But it doesn't work when the people who have all the money (CMS admin) just "appreciate" those won don't.
It just makes the crowd despise the folks putting on the show.
Spread the wealth and you will see a happier crowd.
When I first came to CMS, we would have a district wide return to school assembly. It helped all of us realize we were an important part of this district and provided a connecting thread among us. Of course that was before the days of Peter Gorman whose conquer and divide strategies turned CMS into a dog eat dog environment. If you want to continue to wallow in your misery and wear your low morale as a badge of courage, then do not attend the rally (it is voluntary). If you want to start healing your pain as well as the pain of others, then let us come together for the greater good of all. It won't hurt to feel good for a couple of hours. Thank you Dr. Morrison for trying! It has been a long time since someone cared enough!
To Ms. Mast -
Most teachers will be trained next week on the first level of use: setting up grade book, attendance, entering assignments, printing rosters, etc. Over the course of the first quarter of school, there will be sessions to add to the knowledge base about the program. Some of us have already been trained and will be the ones training the other teachers. So far, the program is intuitive and if teachers are willing to spend a few minutes here or there it's pretty easy to figure out, unlike NCWise. We also expect that PowerSchool will accurately reflect the students average, unlike NCWise. Teachers can input comments about a student's performance on an assignment or test or if a student is absent, that can be clearly marked on an assignments and noted, unlike NCWise where there was just a blank or dash and parents couldn't see teacher comments like "absent, missed test". Just like anything new, it will take time to get all the kinks ironed out. I can't speak to the broader issues of PowerSchool and whether the servers are handling it well, etc. We'll see, that's above my "pay grade" so to speak. My job is to help my colleagues learn how to start using the program. However, from the teacher perspective, I do like this program much better than NCWise, even if there are some "kinks" to work out here at the start.
9:12, thanks so much for the information. As the weeks go by, I'd love to keep hearing how you're all doing.
I, as a parent, am excited to start using it, too.
8:59, when was that districtwide rally? CMS is saying this one is a first, but most of them are pretty new. I don't remember one since I started covering education in 2002.
The only rally we should be having is a STRIKE RALLY
The only people happy about this rally are the bloated members of the administrative staff that received market adjustment raises. The ones that provide little to no help to frontline teachers. I am reveiving the same pay for the last 5 years now with a crappy benefits package. Several of the first year teachers I came in with have left for private sector jobs. I would suspect the new and the old teachers are leaving in droves. God help you CMS!
Can anyone provide clarification about the rally being voluntary? The way my principal worded it, it seems like a requirement.
I can sure use the time for really important things like getting ready for the students whom I will be responsible for. I appreciate the intention but I this just shows that our priorities are really messed up.
The superintendent told me it's totally voluntary. But I'm guessing some principals will be eager to show their bosses that their teachers are voluntarily participating at high levels :-)
MORON
How will they check attendance?
Yeah, Voluntary just like the 60 other hours during the year of "voluntary" events that are REQIRED by the principal.
Morrison's Friday Focus said it was optional, but looks forward to celebrating teachers and recognizing community support of our schools. So...there ya' go. We have a bus to transport teachers who wish to attend from our school to TWCA. I am personally not going to attend, even though I am a huge Jeannette Walls fan (keynote speaker) because I have 190 students to prep for and other obligations that afternoon at my own school that would make travel to and from not particularly feasible to meet all of my obligations for the day. I think Dr. Morrison and staff are doing this in celebration of teachers after what has been a tough month for educators in our state (month used loosely as it is much, much, much longer really).
For those of us that have been around awhile - There was another pep rally in CMS. It was when John Murphy was the super. It was a waste of my precious time. Somebody sang "The Greatest Love of All". It was corny and we all left feeling that it was a poor pitiful way of showing support. Murphy was another one of our highly controversial leaders. He brought magnets to CMS and a lot of upheaval of rezoning.
It is my undersanding from a few teacher friends who left NC and teach in SC where they have been using Powerschool that it is INFINITELY easier than NC Wise. NC Wise was NOT user friendly and I cannot tell you how many times it kicked grades out. And it didn't average grades correctly. I would have to go back and "tweek" the grades to get it to give what the student actually earned.
PS I suspect I would like to have the time going to the rally to be put to use learning Powerschool instead.
Is there a way to attend and make CMS admin more aware of teacher frustration with admin having such a big piece of the pie?
Seems this type of protest would be more beneficial than walking to the curb or wearing red.
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