Total Cost of Software Ownership (including reoccurring and ongoing costs)
Currently the Dallas Independent School District uses Pearson’s Chancery integrated Student Information System. License Fees, maintenance, support, customization, conversion, training, documentation, database application, and database maintenance has a projected cost of 13,000,000 over five years. However, fees for implementation services, training, and documentation are only for the first three years. There are other costs associated with implementing the new Student Information System (SMS). Peripheral products and services that are required to run and support the SIS will cost $17,000,000. Per the Board of Trustees, detailed Information Sheet the approved total cost of the SMS is $30,000,000 over five years.
The one cost that I do not see addressed is the need for increased bandwidth. Chancery appears to run smoothly but the increased use of the network has slowed down internet access speed drastically.
Software Features Set
All data from a student record is available from a single location. Users can search for a student based on a variety of elements. Discipline issues can also be tracked using incident-based student behavior tracking. Chancery can track current and future scheduling. Student immunization records can be compared with district immunization policies. Chancery allows the district to easily track the use, performance of programs, and number of participates for programs such as free lunch and sports. Schools can easily see with the click of a button if a student is not eligible for a program and why they are not eligible. Attendance tracking and alerts is an important feature for schools trying to meet Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP). Another great feature is the ability to add custom pages, which is covered in the five year projected cost.
While most student data is tracked, using Chancery, our district has not figured out how to add data such as consent for a child to be photographed. Currently teachers, through Grade speed, enter grades. Chancery is integrated with grade speed, but the delay can be from 24 to 48 hours.
Texas-specific Functionality
Chancery has fully integrated PEIMS (Public Education Information Management System) reporting capability that meets the reporting requirements for the Texas Education Agency. Pearson states that their “enhanced state reporting module provides faster report response times, an improved user interface and greater overall performance capabilities.”
Ease of Use and Reporting
Reports can not be customized for each school. For example, we needed a list of eighth grade girls’ names and addresses. Our data clerk could only provide a list of all students’ names and addresses. The ability to query the database for only required data would be an added benefit.
Chancery is rather easy to use, because of the tabs and the left side menu navigation. Reports can be sent to the state with the push of a button.
Customer Support and Experience of the Support Staff
Pearson offers flexible self paced online courses and online chat. Throughout the US Pearson offers, workshops and special training events to ensure users are successful. Even though Pearson offers online training, the district purchased on-site training to ensure the launch of chancery was successful.
Thorough User Training in the Software System
Pearson did the initial training of Chancery. After technical staff was able to run Chancery Administrators were trained. District trainers perform campus level training for Chancery. All users were provided mandatory basic training. Additional training is provided on a voluntary basis. Even with the training provided there is a lot that users learn about the system just by using the system on a daily basis. For example, teachers were only taught how to log in to record attendance. Teachers learned of other features such as the ability to access student schedules and parent contact info just by exploring the system.
References
Dallas ISD, (2008). Approval To Purchase. Retrieved from http://sire.dallasisd.org/sirepub/cache/2/njnsd145f1fmgbf3tpgbkwyi/4085301312010100827586.PDF
Pearson, (2010). Chancery sms. Retrieved from http://www.pearsonschoolsystems.com/products/sms/features/