You Need More Than an SIS to Bring Operations into the Future

The Simple Case for an Interoperable K-12 Student Information Solution  

There’s no doubt your student information system is vital to successful K-12 school and district operations. However, to maximize the benefits of your SIS—and make your operations more efficient and productive—it needs to connect to other vital edtech products to create a fluid education ecosystem.  

Sound like an education paradise? Reaching this state of K-12 utopia takes an integrated approach, complete with a full set of interoperable, cloud-based, edtech products. These need to connect throughout all phases of your day-to-day operations, from summer enrollment and master schedules to daily attendance and grading—and deeper analysis of all that data together to see the whole child.  

When you combine your SIS with the right set of interoperable edtech products, you can create a seamless platform to support your operational priorities. Think of the possibilities your team can accomplish with integrated functionality and data within a set of secure, cloud-based products. You can deliver a higher return on investment on your critical edtech while supporting successful operations, educators, and students—both now and into the future. 

What Factors Have Led to the Need for a Focused Set of Cloud-Based Technology Products?

Interoperability, data security, and access to data insights are top priorities for K-12 tech directors. Most (89%) edtech leaders say that improved data interoperability would save their school or district money, and 96% say that improved data interoperability would help with challenges related to accessing digital content. Over half (56%) of district tech leaders reported budget increases in cybersecurity.  

And highlighting the need for secure, online systems is the fact that 11% of paper forms will go missing over a year and need to be recreated.  

What Comprises a Complete Student Information Solution? 

A student information solution anchors all your operations with the overall goal of creating better student outcomes. A complete solution includes all of the key edtech functionalities schools and districts need to manage student information, enrollment, data, and analytics—all online and connected securely via interoperability. This unique set gives you the benefits of: 

• Student information management with flexible, innovative, and easy-to-use technology ​to power your school or district operations​ 
• Cloud hosting, which reduces risks, enhances data security, and cuts costs by hosting your SIS in the cloud​ 
• Document distribution and storage with automation, flexibility, and enhanced security when distributing, storing, or collecting electronic signatures on digital documents​ 
• Year-round data collection to save time and money and get the accurate data and insights you need to meet your K-12 goals​ 
• Online enrollment, saving staff and parent time, which reduces hard costs and improves data accuracy with a configurable online solution for all your enrollment needs​ 
• Data analytics, which gives you anytime access to intuitive analytics for a complete picture of your schools, classrooms, and students 

The first complete cloud-hosted solution offering these abilities together is the PowerSchool Student Information Cloud. This solution allows you to truly move your student data and operations online through a tailored platform that brings all your critical data together at your fingertips.   

“PowerSchool continues to provide actionable insights that empower our educators to carry out their day-to-day responsibilities more effectively and is the reason we continue to choose their integrated suite of solutions,” says Denise Dejuliannie​, Technology Director​ at Eden Valley-Watkins ​Independent School District, MN​. “The tools within PowerSchool and the flexibility of what we can do with the portal itself is amazing,”  

Another district experiencing the benefits of PowerSchool’s integrated products is Illinois’ Wauconda Community Unit School District 118. “Using PowerSchool’s products has allowed our district to grow on a technological level and made the process seamless by providing integrated solutions. It has allowed me to find ways to reduce overall costs while providing better service,” says Scott Cittadino​, the district’s Assistant Superintendent ​of Technology Services ​.  

Why is Connected Technology Better Than Siloed Technology?

With a student information solution that features interoperable products, you can save time, reduce manual entry, and improve data security. Products connect securely and share data in a single, interoperable operations platform that’s easy to use for staff and families.     

Within an interoperable student information solution, your SIS isn’t just a system of record for student data anymore. It’s now at the center of your ecosystem, securely bringing together enrollment, data storage, online form building, data management, and analytics.   

Interoperability combines the power of a integrated set of K-12 edtech products to help educators work more efficiently and effectively with improved, streamlined workflows and data access. Interoperability also gives you the following: 

• Better data accuracy and access 
• A common user experience between products 
• Stronger data security with reduced vulnerabilities and logins 
• Overall simpler user management with single sign-on (SSO)  

Safer and More Accessible Data

Data isn’t very useful if it’s hard to access or has been compromised by cyber attackers. With an interoperable student information solution, you can gain peace of mind with more secure data through cloud hosting. Plus, all data remains on one platform. Data isn’t jumping from one system to another, and there’s no need to export data or distribute it in unsafe ways, including manual processes or open exchanges.  

User permissions can be adjusted for various roles to ensure you’re granting access to only those staff who need it. By limiting access to specific, known users, you can ensure accountability. 

A student information solution can offer single sign-on (SSO) technology. Instead of using different usernames and passwords for each program, SSO gives users access to all software with just one login. This goes a long way toward preventing passwords from getting into the wrong hands. 

Actionable Insights  

By exchanging siloed data for integrated data, a student information solution can give you real-time information and insights from all your essential products. That way, you’re more equipped to make better decisions because all your data flows through the same systems—from the classroom to the office and directly from families at home.  

Combining your SIS with a data analytics solution lets you easily track overall student, school, and district performance. You can simplify instructional, talent, and operational decisions at the classroom, school, and district levels. 

Why PowerSchool Student Information Cloud?

The PowerSchool Student Information Cloud promotes data-informed decision-making, ease of use, and accessibility. The set of products works together to support more efficient operations, more effective resource deployment, and more timely, responsive services. Student learning and well-being are accelerated through resilient systems that provide real-time insights into strengths and needs and simplify family involvement, matching intents of Title I, Title IV, and COVID-19 relief funds. ​ 

PowerSchool provides edtech’s complete cloud-hosted solution to meet all your operational needs in one place for student data submission, storage, sharing, and analysis. ​Products included in the Student Information Cloud include PowerSchool SIS with cloud-based hosting, Document Management, Ecollect Forms, Enrollment or Enrollment Express, and PowerSchool Student Analytics.  

With the Student Information Cloud, you can gain the modern convenience of flexibility to track the data you want, how you want it, with the ability to add unlimited tables, fields, and custom pages to your SIS without coding knowledge, vendor help, or additional cost.​ 

PowerSchool provides critical interoperability via a native, open API for customer use and over 75+ independent software partners offering seamless data exchange.​ 

As an added benefit, you can join the largest user base in the U.S., offering you community support through sharing free user-built customizations and by leading regional and national user group events.