What are the benefits/needs of the statewide PowerSchool expansion?
Having a single student information system for all schools has several technical and organizational advantages as the Department of Public Instruction (DPI), Career and Technical Education and other state agencies move toward a more robust system of data collection, reporting and analysis. The EduTech staff that works with schools on PowerSchool implementation, training and support will be critical in collecting, preparing and loading school-based data into the planned DPI and statewide data warehouses. To accomplish this goal PowerSchool licensing, hosting, implementation, training and helpdesk support for all public schools would be funded by the state general fund beginning in July 2009. The school districts currently using PowerSchool recognize several advantages by sharing a common administrative system. Their licensing costs are lower because statewide buying power was leveraged to negotiate the software contract. In addition, EduTech can provide support services for multiple dis
