4 Reasons Why a Robust K-12 SIS is a Smart Long-Term Investment

Schools and district needs change when it comes to handling student data. From year to year, or even within a school year, educators have to adapt and adjust to new department of education reporting requirements, security risks, and student needs. That’s why a robust K-12 student information system (SIS) software is critical at the center of your data management and edtech ecosystem to adapt to new and emerging needs.

For example, according to the 2022 Education Focus Report, over 90% of district instructional leaders say using data helps instructional staff identify student needs and take appropriate action, but two out of three educators don’t have enough time to make data-driven instructional improvements. A flexible student information system should provide easy access to comprehensive student data and performance.

Investing in a top student information system is a prudent long-term investment. With flexible functionality, a modern school information management system can lay the foundation for a sustainable edtech system. A top SIS can offer future-ready features, adaptability to meet your needs, interoperability to connect with your other products, and security to protect you from cyberattacks.

Here are the top four best features to look for in a student information system. Benefits of a modern, robust SIS can give educators and administrators the ability to meet challenges, move learning forward, and drive student success.

The best student information systems build in the necessary flexibility so you can adapt to the needs of a changing K-12 environment, including the ability to support hybrid or remote operations and learning. With flexibility, you can adapt to meet challenges and tailor the system for your unique needs.

For NorthPointe Christian Schools, PowerSchool SIS offered a future-ready system with the flexibility to adjust to changing needs.

“Switching to PowerSchool SIS seemed like a smart way to go for our future, knowing we would have so many possibilities as we continued to grow. It just ended up being a really smart solution for us,” says Nicole Crawford, NorthPointe Christian Schools’ Technology Director.

Crawford adds that their prior SIS was a closed system that didn’t allow them to customize features or pages. “If we needed something done to the SIS, we would ask the company, and they would tell us, ‘No.’ Or, they might be able to do it, but they weren’t going to work too hard on it because it’s their system,” she says. But with PowerSchool SIS, Crawford can either create customizations herself, or “I’ve never had PowerSchool say, ‘No, we can’t do that.’ They can always figure out how they can do things for us.”

Not every SIS is compatible with your other digital tools like your learning management system (LMS) or online enrollment product, with some only providing surface-level integrations. An SIS that doesn’t integrate with your existing products or effectively communicate with other solutions can lead to costly administrative and classroom inefficiencies, inaccurate data, increased IT support needs, and more.

With an interoperable SIS, you can maximize your current investments in all your administrative and classroom software and reduce unnecessary spending on new products.

Virginia’s Manassas City Public Schools uses PowerSchool SIS, which connects with their learning management system, PowerSchool Schoology Learning, and their assessment solution, PowerSchool Performance Matters. Teachers can easily access useful SIS data like student demographics along with medical, parent, and discipline information) right within Schoology Learning. Using Performance Matters, they can view student performance data from local benchmarks, state assessments, third-party diagnostic assessments, attendance, behavior, and even Social and Emotional Learning (SEL) data—all in one place.

Sean Coffron, Instructional Technology Training Specialist at Manassas City Public Schools, says that an essential feature that will help the district into the future is that “PowerSchool SIS, Schoology, and Performance Matters are all working together to improve learning.”

As schools and districts continue to shift to digital, online products, cyberattacks continue to rise. From 2018 to 2022, 2 million students have been affected by ransomware attacks, and in 2022 alone, data was exfiltrated in at least 58 school incidents. Globally, 56% of K-12 schools experienced  a cyberattack.

To prepare for a more secure future, it’s essential to partner with an SIS vendor committed to protecting student, class, and school data. A responsible vendor will take all reasonable and appropriate measures to ensure data confidentiality, integrity, and availability.

Another factor in protecting sensitive school data is to choose an SIS vendor that offers secure, cloud-based hosting. A hosted instance from a quality provider helps reduce risk by providing fully redundant infrastructure services, multiple levels of data recovery, and cutting-edge security technologies.

Moving to cloud-based hosting of applications can reduce risk, increase data security, and decrease total cost of ownership. Cloud hosting can offer 24/7/365 monitoring and increased uptime and reliability of your applications.

When Los Angeles Unified School District suffered a cyberattack in 2022, some of their first steps in the aftermath was to migrate its major SIS and ERP systems to cloud hosting.

“These are big initiatives,” says Jack Kelanic, LAUSD’s Senior Administrator/IT Infrastructure. “But it’s important to get these Tier 1 applications that have to run every day into the cloud as quickly as we could to protect the crown jewels.”

“PowerSchool has made significant investment in our cloud and our application security,” adds Rich Gay, PowerSchool’s Chief Information Security Officer. “It’s extremely important that we protect your data and systems. We have a dedicated team of security professionals and we’ve invested in the cloud at significant scale.”

Most teachers and school leaders believe that child-child education is important in advancing student learning and development. In the 2022 Education Focus Report, 86% of classroom teachers and 93% of school leaders say whole-child education is either fundamental or helpful.

For educators to view the whole child and personalize learning based on the student’s unique needs, they need real-time data and insights in one convenient location to offer insight into trends in student learning and performance.

When Manassas City Public Schools was looking for a new SIS, the ability to manage and use data was critical.

“We were looking for a streamlined solution to managing student intervention data. By choosing PowerSchool SIS, it has provided a unique opportunity to create additional learning spaces that are informed by data and student empowering,” says Coffron. “PowerSchool SIS provided a unique opportunity to create additional learning spaces that are informed by data and student empowering.”

Coffron says that PowerSchool SIS is helping them meet long-term needs by “providing a source of multiple data points and streamlined curricular development.

More Factors in Choosing the Right SIS for Your Future

When considering a robust SIS for your future success, there are other factors beyond the four discussed in this blog. Additional factors to consider when choosing a long-term SIS investment include:

• Strong support and compliance teams to be there for you each step of the way
• A large, active user community for collaboration and customization-sharing
• Ease of use to get up and running quickly and effectively

Changing your student information system can seem daunting. But investing in a modern, reliable SIS that covers your top priorities is a smart way to build the foundation for a successful future. With a fully functional, flexible SIS at the center of your edtech ecosystem, you’re giving schools and districts a leg up in addressing today’s challenges and tomorrow’s opportunities.

For Coffron and Manassas City Public Schools, they’ve made their investment and look forward to a bright future. He says, “For us, PowerSchool is setting the stage for the next level of innovation, student support, and classroom achievement.”