For immediate release
Aug. 25, 2016
NC Public Schools Begin Fourth Year of PowerSchool
Parents of school-age children in North Carolina have been
adding a new word to their vocabulary: PowerSchool.
Until three years ago, most parents lacked easy access to
real-time information about their children’s grades in school and attendance.
Now, with a new school year getting underway Monday for most schools,
technology leaders with the NC Department of Public Instruction expect more
parents will be logging in to the online PowerSchool application as a key
source to help keep abreast of their children’s education. On typical school
days last year, an average of 307,000 parents logged into the parent portal and
another 200,000 logged into the mobile application.
PowerSchool, the state’s student information system, is at
the heart of Home Base, a suite of digital classroom tools and instructional
resources launched in 2013 to serve not only teachers and administrators, but
also students and parents. Under the previous student information system, only
20 of North Carolina’s 115 public school districts provided parents with an
online “portal” to view the latest information about grades and attendance for
their children. Now, all districts are using the PowerSchool parent portal with
at least some of their students.
It’s catching on. In a single week this spring, more than
450,000 parents and students accessed the secure parent and student portals in
PowerSchool, giving districts yet another approach to help strengthen parent
engagement, a critical factor for student achievement.
“By using PowerSchool’s parent portal, we can connect
parents to key data about their students’ schoolwork. This frees parents and
teachers to spend their conference time discussing strategies to help students
improve,” said State Superintendent June Atkinson.
From the start, Home Base was envisioned as a way to harness
digital technology to improve teaching and learning for all teachers and
students in North Carolina. The Department of Public Instruction contracted
with PowerSchool, then owned by Pearson Education, to develop the nation’s
first statewide and integrated classroom and reporting application – serving
the state’s more than 1.4 million students and nearly 100,000 educators.
North Carolina’s Home Base approach is seen by other
education agencies as a model design that effectively knits together a robust
student information system, through PowerSchool, with an instructional
improvement system and an assessment and reporting platform to streamline
processes and school – all of which are aimed at simplifying reporting and
strengthening teaching and learning. North Carolina’s model is now central to
the vision of PowerSchool Group, LLC, which acquired the application from
Pearson Education.
PowerSchool also provides a single comprehensive data source
for numerous software systems that previously were needed to manage student
information – from initial enrollment through high school graduation. By
coordinating reporting for migrant students, English learners, school
nutrition, exceptional children, and homeless students, PowerSchool now
provides a “one stop shop” for data related to all students. NCDPI has realized
cost savings as a result by reducing the maintenance and support of otherwise
redundant systems.
In addition to giving parents access to their students’
information, the PowerSchool component of Home Base allows for easier data
sharing, especially for federally required reporting and student transfers from
one district to another.
Many of the early challenges in launching Home Base and
PowerSchool have been overcome. Teachers and other district personnel say they
are seeing real benefits. In fact, state surveys show that 97 percent of
teachers believe a centralized system is important for student success and
support. NCDPI leaders have begun work to consider how Home Base can be
improved and enhanced in a “Home Base 2.0” initiative.
For more information about Home Base or its student
information system, PowerSchool, please contact the NCDPI Communication
division at 919.807.3450. Parents wanting access to the PowerSchool parent
portal should contact their local school district.
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