Back-to-School Toolkit for K-12 Tech Leaders

For students, the right back-to-school supplies can help set them up for success. It’s the same for tech directors: getting back to school with the right edtech tools for your needs sets the stage for school, district, and student success. 

A powerful edtech toolkit is filled with interoperable software tools, giving you and your staff: 

• Smooth data transfer between products 
• Time and cost savings
• Improved efficiency and workflows
• Enhanced data accuracy and integrity 

Eighty percent (80%) of K-12 IT leaders are taking steps toward interoperability improvement, according to CoSN’s 2022 State of EdTech Leadership Survey.  

“As K-12 schools and districts continue to increase their reliance on software to support operations and instruction, the importance of edtech interoperability with connected products that share data, workflows, and a user experience is vital to long-term success,” says Marcy Daniel, PowerSchool Chief Product Officer.  

An integrated platform connects all aspects of your school and district operations. With an interoperable infrastructure as the foundation for your district, everyone can focus on your most important initiatives for student performance and success. 

Your Back-to-School Toolkit 

We’ve collected a back-to-school toolkit tailored to today’s K-12 tech leaders. The following resources highlight the benefits that an interoperable system can deliver. 

1. See the Impact of Too Many School Technology Tools   

As a tech leader, you want students and educators to have all the tools they need to succeed. But there’s a point when too many tools start hurting productivity rather than improving it. It can be difficult to pinpoint when tools become a hindrance rather than a helper. 

Over time, many schools have accumulated a small fortune’s worth of different tools and technology systems designed to help with their jobs. This infographic illustrates the time and expense that school districts waste when technology tools and systems are disparate, or even loosely coupled.

2. Cloud Hosting to Bolster Student Data Security

Cybersecurity threats and attacks against schools continue to grow, and the impacts are more significant due to shifts to online and hybrid teaching, learning, and operations. In this on-demand webinar, hear from L.A Unified School District (LAUSD) about how they handled a cyber attack in Sept. 2022, and how they’re refocusing efforts on a cloud-hosted strategy to improve their security moving forward.  

Cloud hosting can help protect data from both physical security failures and virtual cybersecurity attacks through 24/7/365 monitoring and up to 99% uptime and reliability.  

The district is in the process of implementing a multi-cloud strategy working with all three major cloud providers to establish different services and cloud platforms. The process has involved migrating its major student information system (SIS) and ERP systems to the cloud.  

“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.” 

3. The Power of a Data Analytics Solution to See the Whole Child 

Schools collect student data constantly—from student grades and assessment scores to attendance, behavior, demographics, and SEL information. But when that data is stuck in multiple software applications, it’s not helping give you insights to see the whole child.  

In this infographic, see how a data analytics solution can help you transform unconnected raw student data into powerful, cohesive insights. By channeling your disparate data from your student information system, learning management system, assessments, and SEL information into dashboards, you can see a more holistic view of the whole child, monitor progress within your entire edtech ecosystem, better predict student outcomes, and more.  

4. Benefits of an Online Enrollment Management System 

Student enrollment can be a time-consuming process. Especially the old-fashioned way with stacks of paperwork, families waiting in long registration lines, and registrars transcribing hand-written forms one at a time. 

In this eBook, we look at a better way: online student enrollment. Download the eBook to learn five keys to see cost savings and increased efficiency by switching to a modern, streamlined system. You’ll hear stories of how other schools and districts are benefitting from making the switch to an online system.

5. Bringing It All Together: One School System’s Success Story with Connected Edtech Ecosystem 

In this case study, learn how Epic Charter Schools is using a comprehensive, integrated system of edtech products to save staff time, see the whole child, and identify students in need.  

The school system of 40,000 Oklahoma students switched from a home-grown, proprietary student information system to PowerSchool SIS. They followed that change with a full set of PowerSchool products that includes PowerSchool Enrollment, PowerSchool Ecollect Forms, and PowerSchool Student Analytics—all part of the Student Information Cloud.  

“One of the unique aspects of the PowerSchool platform is that all of these products are under one umbrella,” says Bart Banfield, Epic Charter Schools’ Superintendent. “Our goal is to provide real-time intervention for students who need it. We’re already able to track historically a year’s worth of benchmarks and state testing and then compare everything. We can break it down by cohorts to see who’s at risk, ELL, homeless, or Title I students. We can filter, which is incredibly helpful for our leadership and administrative team that are trying to help students.”