Mira Costa’s transition from GradebookWizard to Powerschool, although not yet completed, will be a more efficient system. It will control students’ grades, schedules, and teachers’ everyday necessities.
Beginning 18 months ago, technology experts and a committee of counselors, administrators, teachers, and office personnel started meeting and dedicated long hard hours to figure out the switch to Powerschool, which will cost $52,000 a year.
According to Powerschool, the program creates a collaborative environment for parents, teachers and students to all work together to help provide these learners for the future. The system supports over twelve million students in every state which proves that Powerschool is a great system to use in schools.
In the past Mira Costa has used GradebookWizard, In-Touch, Illuminate, and Eries, to do all of the jobs that Powerschool can do in one. As stated by Mira Costa Superintendent Michael Matthews, having more than one system to use every day did not often work well together. With only one system it will be easier for teachers to update grades and attendance.
Mira Costa Principal Ben Dale stated that the school was looking for a one-stop-shop for all of our student information system needs and Powerschool was the one that fit the criteria. The board approved the Powerschool contract on July 18th, 2012. Since then, Mira Costa has been on its way, learning the new and improved system will offer an easier way to go about day to day tasks and issues.
Although Powerschool will be a more productive system in the long-run, it is not easy to have a whole district transition into a new student information system. According to many teachers, with all the new changes coming at Mira Costa, including this system and the new buildings, it’ll be a challenge getting used to the new programs. Despite the difficulties, the school will soon be even better than it was before.
Even though Powerschool was not supposed to be used this early into the year, most teachers and counselors have had a good attitude towards learning all of the new techniques of using Powerschool. They find it important to become familiar with the system as soon as possible, so everything will transition smoothly.
As reported by Dale the curveball that was thrown at the school was that they thought they were going to have the old system through the first semester, but found out in August that the rollover was right before school started. However, Matthews claims that the summer was always the target for the rollover, and that the district provided teachers with opportunities to learn the attendance system. This lack of communication caused confusion amongst the staff members and has resulted in a lengthy roll over period at the start of this year leaving many students unsure of their current grades.
Compared to Hermosa Valley, Manhattan Beach Middle School, and other local schools, Mira Costa is late to switching over to Powerschool. According to former Hermosa Valley student Miranda Baldo, she used Powerschool throughout all of Middle School and she found it to be more useful than Gradebookwizard because it is one main site where she can check her attendance, grades, and teacher comments all in one.
Not only does Powerschool create a useful change now, it will continue to offer more advancements and positive effects in the future. Dr. Matthews is confident that within a few months, the school will have a Powerschool system that will be functioning extraordinarily well.
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