Challenges
- Dated LMS too difficult to use
- Time-consuming, manual process to download & upload data
- Tough to identify why students were struggling
Products & Solutions
Results
- Interoperable solutions that save teachers time
- Real-time data automatically flows across edtech system
- Visual data analysis leads to meaningful interventions
Worcester County Public Schools needed a modern LMS that was easier to use than their old system.
“It felt very first-generation and required an excessive number of clicks just to accomplish a simple task,” says Tom Hamill, the district’s Coordinator of Research and Student Information Systems.
With a clunky interface and tons of manual uploading, many teachers weren’t even using the LMS. As a high‑functioning district, Worcester is always looking to innovate. So, they implemented a unified edtech ecosystem their teachers could get behind—by adding PowerSchool Schoology Learning to their existing PowerSchool SIS and PowerSchool Performance Matters systems.
Student Data Flows across Integrated Systems
Hamill is responsible for maintaining Worcester’s student data in their LMS—and he used to stay late each evening to manually download and upload huge files of student data. Now that Schoology integrates with PowerSchool SIS and Performance Matters, Hamill can sit back and let the data flow on its own. “We greatly benefit from all of the integration being a nightly, automated process that does not require any additional action on our part,” notes Hamill. “It’s excellent for ensuring that teacher rosters are up to date and students can access the course materials.”
Plus, the integration is saving time for teachers. “Talking with teachers, the gradebook integration between Schoology and PowerSchool is greatly appreciated,” relays Hamill. Worcester’s unified system brings together best-in-class learning, assessment, gradebook, special programs, and professional learning all in one simple location. So teachers have the tools they need to help drive student achievement.
Real-Time Data Improves Personalized Learning
With all their student data in one interoperable edtech ecosystem, educators at Worcester now have unprecedented access to trends and insights to inform their learning decisions in real-time— and that’s spurred a cultural shift towards using data to guide instruction and personalize learning.
“When I think about data analysis in education, I think of it in terms of product and process,” explains Hamill. “A decade ago, I think we were solely focused on the product data: what percentage passed? How big is the gap? How’d our subgroups do? However, process data focuses less on ‘what’ and more on ‘why,’” he continues, “To that end, over the last five years or so, there has been increased emphasis on identifying leading indicators that help us predict which students will struggle. This has enabled us to provide targeted intervention well before these students sit for the exam. I think Performance Matters Analytics has been a large part of this.”
And since Schoology and PowerSchool have intuitive, easy-to-use interfaces, Worcester’s teachers are getting more comfortable with analyzing data. “They’ve been able to more accurately identify specific areas of weakness or strength in their students and take appropriate action,” says Hamill. Now, their teachers can use data to have more meaningful interventions with their students and better personalize learning.