Click image below for details Phase I
Click image below for details Phase II March - August  
 
 
Project Charter  

 

  
 		  

The Implementation of PowerSchool at Hartford Public Schools


 

Pearson Education representatives will begin providing professional services to Hartford Public Schools (HPS) to deploy the PowerSchool student information system.  The overall goal of the project is to transition 56 schools and the district office from SASI to PowerSchool.  HPS has purchased the necessary software licensing, hardware, and services from Pearson so the project will commence in September 2009. 

Professionals from Pearson and HPS have been designated to form a dedicated project team that will focus on achieving the objectives and deliverables defined in this charter.

 

Main Objectives:

The main goals of the project are the following:

Ø      Configure the server hardware necessary to deploy PowerSchool

Ø      Convert student data for one academic year from SASI to PowerSchool

Ø      Enable the district to schedule students in PowerSchool for the 2010-11 term

Ø      Configure PowerSchool to meet state & district reporting requirements

Ø      Enable the district to use PowerSchool as the primary student system prior to the commencement of school in August 2010

Ø      Configure PowerSchool so that it can produce reports and query results that are routinely used by SASI users at the sites and the district office

Ø      Provide training to school personnel and district support representatives in a timely fashion

Ø      Interface PowerSchool with other applications that are currently interfaced to SASI

Ø      Enable teachers to use PowerTeacher for attendance and grade book purposes        

Timeframe:

The project will commence on September 17, 2009 and will conclude in September 2010.  Milestone dates for deliverables will be designated in the project plan. 

 

Business Case:

            In May 2008 Pearson Education announced that enhancements to the SASI student information system and its associated state reporting capabilities would cease by August 2010.  Following this announcement Hartford Public Schools created and posted an RFP so that vendors could submit proposals for a replacement student information system.  An internal committee was formed to review the proposals and observe product demos with vendors.  Following the research of various student admin systems available on the market HPS made the decision to implement Pearson’s student information system known as PowerSchool.  This system is a web-based student information system that will allow administrators, teachers, parents, and students to access student/school related information securely via the internet   

 

Deliverables:

 

Hardware

  1. HPS will determine a server deployment location that meets the bandwidth and security requirements presented in the Pearson hardware proposal.
  2. A network professional from Pearson will be assigned to configure the recommended server hardware.  A separate Scope of Work document has been provided by Pearson detailing the configuration of the servers.   
  3. Following the configuration of the hardware Pearson will load the latest version of PowerSchool for use in a live environment.  In addition Pearson will load PowerSchool on an additional server for internal testing & training purposes.

 

PowerSchool Setup

  1. Pearson will oversee and assist with the configuration of PowerSchool based on responses to questions posed in Forms A & B.  “Form A” consists of questions related to “district specific” criteria and “Form B” poses questions relevant to the setup of schools.  Setup information accessible in SASI will be used for setup criteria as well.
  2. Users will be assigned to specific groups in PowerSchool and security permissions will be assigned to each of the groups.
  3. Converted data will be imported into PowerSchool and validated.
  4. Additional fields will be created in PowerSchool if they were used in SASI but do not exist in PowerSchool.
  5. The address validation feature of PowerSchool will be configured since this feature has been used in SASI.
  6. All features of PowerSchool pertaining to scheduling, grading, attendance, enrollment, and teacher grade books will be configured for use by HPS personnel.
  7. Additional html files created for SASI customers will be deployed so that custom fields for Parent Information, Immunizations, and Emergency Contacts are accessible.

 

Data Conversion

  1. Pearson will provide two main iterations of data conversion services for each school.  Data will be converted from SASI to PowerSchool for one academic term.
  2. An initial test conversion will be performed at a designated time in the project and a final production conversion will be performed following the conclusion of 2009-10 school term. 

 

  1. The data converted will include the following data elements:

• Student Demographics & Enrollment History

• Parent & Emergency Contacts

• Teachers, Courses, & Sections (master schedule)

• Student Schedules

• Historical Grades (transcript data)

• Rooms (if applicable)

• Staff (if found in the Staff atom)

• Discipline records (if applicable)

• Conference atom entries (if applicable)

• Health atom entries & Immunizations (if applicable)

• Test Scores in the College Entrance Atom (SAT and ACT)

• User code fields necessary for state reporting

  1. Data conversion will not include the following:

• Archive schools (unless needed for state reporting)

• Teacher Grade books (not possible)

• Previous year data (excluding transcript data for high school students)

• Custom or user defined data fields not necessary for state reporting

• Previous year attendance

  1. After the conversion of data the Pearson Project Manager will illustrate the steps necessary to clean up and import data into PowerSchool.  The district will be responsible for determining the accuracy of the data.
  2. Pearson will work with HPS to define state test definitions in PowerSchool if defined in SASI and then import the scores.
  3. Pearson will work with HPS to export and import data from user defined fields in the Student atom if not required for state reporting.  

 

Training / Consulting

  1. Pearson will provide on-site PowerSchool training based on the services outlined in the sales agreement.  This includes for Certification Level I & II training for six HPS representatives. 
  2. Pearson will provide training and consulting services to school schedulers so that they can schedule students in PowerSchool prior to the commencement of the 2010-11 school term
  3. Pearson will train a core group of teachers designated by HPS on the use of PowerTeacher so that they can cross train other teachers in the district. 
  4. Pearson will introduce the project team to the PowerSource website so that PowerSchool documentation, training opportunities, and updates are accessible by central HPS staff.

 

PowerSchool Customizations

  1. Pearson will provide training and recommendations pertaining to the customization of PowerSchool.  Unless requested, all customizations will be performed HPS staff.  Pearson’s Customization Team can provide customization services at applicable rates based on the scope of the customization required.  All customizations must be maintained and supported by HPS staff.   
  2. Pearson will work with HPS to interface PowerSchool to other applications that are currently interfaced with SASI.  The interfaces may involve routine exporting and importing of information between applications.  The applications and departments that need to share data with PowerSchool are: Millenium, Clarity, Special Ed, PhoneMaster, Connect Ed, Hartford Connects, School Choice, Food Services, BMI, HIPSTA, HPS Attendance/Enrollment website, and Pathways Performance.