So far, the new new master schedule builder software called eSIS has not made a very good first impression. We're still hearing horror stories of this thing reducing teachers and counselors to tears in our First Day of School posting. The administration seems to be in denial of the problem, having posted a statement at the main website stating that the system had some glitches but all students now have schedules.
We know that the problems with the system run much deeper than that. Apparently, the system is not allowing teachers to input proper attendance numbers, which effects class sizes, the need for more classes, ordering books and supplies and a whole host of related issues.
Teachers and staff, please feel free to post your experiences with the system last week–anonymously, from your personal computer, on your free time. The administration needs to hear the details only you can provide but have no place for you to provide it where you can feel safe from repercussions.
We will compile your comments and send on to the administration and the board. Be nice! Be constructive!
214 comments:
«Oldest ‹Older 201 – 214 of 214I don't understand why they didn't just let us use the original system in the beginning. Does anyone remember how we were using the new system at the beginning of the year then we changed to the one we have been using? The whole thing is a mess. It makes being a new teacher very difficult. If they thought they had new teacher retention problems they will definitely have one now with the eSIS problems on top of the budget issues and Lewis getting paid. This is not a good situation for the children involved to say the least.
Not to mention my network has been down for a week now. I have a wireless connection in a trailer that I have to constantly plug and unplug just to get a signal.
ABSOLUTELY RIDICULOUS!!!!!!
Right before this posting period we now have a brand new more complicated (and in my experience, slower) version of Esis that the county has switched to mid-semester. Did the county just think it needed to torture its teachers just a little more? As if we haven't suffered enough.
Ms. Tyson and Mr. Hunter messed up. They're now trying to clean up. That's what MIS does - put it out there and then if someone complains, address the problem. Works every time.
There is a new version of Esis. I had an Elluminate session on it, where I was talked at and did not get a handout for me to look back at and use, so that I can use Elluminate without any issues. Why is it so difficult for the board to give us handouts or powerpoint slides that we could print out, so that we can use these programs properly? I am not afraid of computers in any way shape, or form, but I do not have any more time to was on Esis and it's many issues. Enough is enough.
I won't even go into the way the Elluminate sessions are not good examples of best practices of teaching, as that is another issue.
From the Feb 8 Board Minutes -
SchoolNet Presentation
Ms. Ramona Tyson, Deputy Chief Superintendent, Business Operations and Finance, presented brief update on the status of the rollout of SchoolNet. She noted that SchoolNet is a web-based portal which allows access to student information\records to administrators, principals, assistant principals, counselors, teachers and parents. She noted that the instructional data management system upgraded from 9.0 to 10.5 on January 28, 2010, which provides new features and functionality to meet the data driven educational needs. Ms. Tyson footnoted that this upgrade was at no additional cost to the District. She also noted that training on the new modules would begin February 2010, and the target audience is principals, assistant principals, counselors, coaches and instructional\administrative central office staff. Ms. Tyson provided members of the Board with a handout, which will be a part of the official meeting file.
Mr. Cunningham asked if the Board will grant accessed to various modules. Ms. Tyson answered yes. Ms. Copelin-Wood asked if the Board will be asked to provide feedback to determine the type and level of access that Board Members would need. Ms. Tyson again responded yes.
Anon 4:31
This link http://www.dekalb.k12.ga.us/~it/esista/index_taforms.html has written directions for ESIS Forms.
Isn't Ramona Tyson now our interim superintendent? Oh boy....
I thought this new version of Esis was going to be so much better (this is what teachers were told) and I have been trying to log into it to post my grades tonight and cannot get it to pop up. I have had it with the inefficiencies of DeKalb. Maybe the central office people and others making the decisions to buy this worthless program have lots of time on their hands, but I do not. Glad to be leaving this mess and I can't wait until May 24!!!!! This is ridiculous.
It seems, from the first 200 or so comments, that the eSIS implementation was a disaster, but the thread had tapered off in recent months. Now that the end of the school year is near, I'm interested to know how things have worked out.
I also have a few thoughts. I'll break them out over the next three posts.
On the cost:
The price of $4.1 million has been thrown around here, and I want to understand what the district is getting for their money. If this comment has the correct figures, then we're really talking about a 5 year license agreement for about $813 thousand per year. A stomach-turning amount, but perhaps lacking the shock value of $4.1 million.
Nevertheless, with over 100,000 students, the school district is the 27th largest in the country (source). You'd think that the size alone would give them considerable bargaining power. Even for a top-tier enterprise-class student information system, I wouldn't pay more than $2-$3 per student per year.
It makes me think that either aal Solutions has no idea how to keep costs in check, or someone is being made fabulously wealthy. Good policy would be to share the costs of building and maintaining the system across all of their clients.
After the 5 years are up, does the district owe another $4.1 million for the next 5 years? As it is, I hope that they have a whole super team of full-time employees dedicated exclusively to this installation.
The same comment contains a reference to a summary of the included services by Tony Hunter:
"Services which are included in the price include project management, database configuration, student data conversion and migration, application installation, implementation, testing, training and product support. The vendor also provides customized reporting tailored to the needs of state and federal requirements, district administrators, principals and registers."
From this, can I safely assume that the initial hardware costs are not included in these figures? (I'll say nothing about the overhead cost that the district incurs trying to maintain a system with such a large hardware footprint.)
I'm glad that current budget crises and this proactive blog have put these kind of expenditures under a magnifying glass. I think administrators really messed this one up.
On other options:
One of the comments suggests that the district ought to create their own system or utilize one of the available free systems (e.g. OpenSIS)
There are obvious advantages to both. However, I would not be inclined to choose either. Free software makes you pay in other ways – lack of functionality or support, for example. Just trying to navigate the OpenSIS demo gave me a headache. I can't imagine it with hundreds of thousands of student records.
In-house solutions have the advantage of being customized to the district's needs, but the costs of development are shouldered entirely by the district. With licensed software, those costs can be shared with other districts. Also, districts that do in-house development tend to have extremely large IT staffs, and once they're in, they will find something to keep them there drawing their salary. The costs will be better hidden, but the district will ultimately pay more. And I'd mention again, as good as they are at their jobs, they are probably builders, not architects.
The best thing that the district could do is terminate the arrangement with aal Solutions as soon as possible and find a more reasonably priced, more responsible vendor (in the US maybe?) that can provide or build an extensible web-based solution that meets teachers' needs.
I wish that they would return to the IBM i platform with software written in a native language instead of Java. The platform is better for data maintenance (perfect for what the district needs), and much more stable (lower down time) than its competitors. Java is extremely resource intensive and is at least partly to blame for performance issues.
Of course, I know these are just dreams.
Teachers: you've been saddled with an extra burden. I wish you solace. Thanks for all you do.
On the functionality:
What is the district getting out of this software? Have student scores or the graduation/enrolling-in-higher-education rate improved? Is there better communication between teachers and parents and have parents become more involved in their students' eduction? Do administrators now have access to important data that helps them run the district efficiently? Are they using it?
I'll choose to be an optimist and assume that the answer to some of these is at least partially yes. Modern software can be a great tool if it's designed well and used correctly, and if that has happened, at least something positive has come from the eSIS implementation.
However, a question remains. Is it improving the teaching experience or making it easier to maintain student data?
From the rest of your comments, I would judge that it is not. I suspect that most teachers did not get into the profession for the love of working with an unwieldy attendance tracking system or grade book. I know a teacher (with admittedly large music classes) who tells me that she spends at least a couple of hours each week entering attendance. That's a lot of time that she'd rather be spending with students.
There are features in the system that she doesn't use, either because she doesn't know how or she doesn't even know what they are. She'd like to be able to figure them out on her own, but she doesn't even know where to look.
From what I've seen of the eSIS applications, the user interface is not intuitive, which is probably the reason that teachers are complaining about a lack of training. Extensive training on the system is another (probably undocumented) cost to the district that could have been averted if the system had a user-friendly design.
The problem is that most computer programmers are builders, not architects. Sure, they have the right tools to assemble the system... even some ability to mimic or build on what's been done before. But the vision for the final form and function of the applications and navigation? A deep understanding of the available hardware and software and how to use them efficiently? Not their strong suits.
The end result is that the district pays for the Guggenheim Museum and ends up with a sod hut.
FYI... what we had worked fine and better than eSIS ...(they have to come up with something to spend the money on or give it back to the taxpayers as well as get a smaller budget for next years).
USE it or LOSE it.
P.S.
$4.1m was the price of eSIS only. This price tag does not include the consulting $$$ per hour paid to eSIS (for making their programs work). That is, we're paying eSIS to wirte the programs that we were sold. The proof is that we've had a few different versions of the program to this date, Recall??? And still can't get it right...
Ms. Tyson, Mr. Hunter you sold us a bill of goods so to justify your existence.
Who are the winners? Ms. Tyson (salary $165,035.69) and Mr. Hunter (salary $114,627.65)who got promotions.
eSIS would benefit me if teachers could enter grades for the week ending and assignments for the upcoming week. That will give me an opportunity to effectively monitor my child's performance and take corrective action when necessary. As a parent, that's all I need from eSIS and teachers!
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