Rose Tree Media School District, Pa. - SunGard K-12

K-12 Administrative Software Solutions
Rose Tree Media School District Supports Student
Growth with PLUS 360®
Every fall, students in Rose Tree Media (RTM) School District arrive to begin another school year. Along with his or her brand new backpack, each student brings different skills, different aptitudes, and different interests. But, according to RTM Superintendent James M. Wigo Sr., the goal for each is the same: growth. SCHOOL DISTRICT PROFILE
• L
ocated 15 miles west of Philadelphia,
Pa., Rose Tree Media School District has a
mission of supporting all students to reach
their “intellectual, emotional, social, and
physical potential.”
• T
he award-winning school district—which
serves 3,800 students at one high school,
one middle school, and four elementary
schools—has a long-standing tradition of
educational excellence. MONEY ® magazine
has listed the district as one of the top
public school systems in affordable housing
markets. Penncrest High School has been
celebrated by Philadelphia and Newsweek
magazines. Glenwood, Indian Lane, and
Rose Tree elementary schools have been
recognized as National Blue Ribbon Schools
by the U.S. Department of Education.
Challenge
With the goal of having all students achieve
at the highest levels, Rose Tree Media School
District seeks to create and support a culture
in which data is used to identify and promptly
address issues that would be detrimental to the
achievement of that goal.
SOLUTION
Leverage the powerful integration of SunGard
K-12 Education’s PLUS 360 suite to support the
individual needs of students and operational
excellence of the school district.
“Every year, our goal is a
year’s growth, at the very
least, for every one of our
students,” explains Wigo.
“So when we’re working
with a child who is already
proficient, we pay the same
amount of attention to that
student as we do to the
student who is having a hard time reaching the bar.”
“The SunGard K-12
Education products are
a powerfully interactive
system that keeps track of
everything—our finances,
students, and personnel—all
in a one-stop shop.”
MACK JOHNSON
Management Systems Administrator,
Rose Tree Media School District
Wigo says data is key to
the district’s success. “Our
proficient numbers are
wonderful. In some cases, we
have 90 to 95 percent of our students in a particular grade level proficient in
math and reading,” he says. “The challenge comes in dealing with the highest
and the lowest quartile. What do we do with those students who are struggling
to the point of being below basic? And, what do we do with those students in
the middle of the advanced quartile who are not growing? Data is really the
only tool we have to help make those decisions and drive instruction.”
In considering software that would support student achievement and
operational excellence, the school district saw the value of a complete,
integrated solution for its administrative software needs. The district selected
SunGard K-12 Education’s PLUS 360 suite.
A single integrated software solution for the management of student
information, assessment and curriculum, special education, and financial and
human resources, PLUS 360 provides district staff anytime, anywhere access to
important district information. The solutions can be deployed to work together
to help meet educational goals and requirements or implemented as standalone systems.
For Mack Johnson, the district’s management systems administrator, RTM
has benefited from choosing a single vendor solution. “The SunGard K-12
K-12 Administrative Software Solutions
Education products are a powerfully
interactive system that keeps track of
everything—our finances, students, and
personnel—all in a one-stop shop,” says
Johnson. “The software keeps everyone
more informed and gives us the tools to
make better decisions.”
Integrated Data Guides Strategic
and Tactical Initiatives
According to Wigo, RTM has high
aspirations and works diligently to support
each student to achieve at the highest
level.
“All school districts have the goal of
supporting student achievement,” he says.
“The struggle is how do you record, track,
and retrieve data on a regular basis so that
you can immediately address issues that
would be contrary to that goal. Without
qualification, the SunGard K-12 Education
products serve an unbelievably important
purpose by helping us accomplish those tasks.”
To manage its student information, RTM
relies on eSchoolPLUS™, a recognized
industry-leading software system that
helps educators coordinate day-today student administration, monitor
student performance, and facilitate
communications between district staff,
parents, and students. The district
manages its longitudinal assessment
data with PerformancePLUS™, which
allows teachers and administrators to
aggregate and disaggregate data and use
it to establish and monitor goals, modify
curriculum, and ultimately enhance the
teaching and learning environment. And,
RTM uses IEPPLUS™ to manage the special
education process.
For Patti Linden, RTM’s director of
technology, the seamless integration
between SunGard K-12’s suite of student
products is key to meeting student needs.
“eSchoolPLUS, IEPPLUS, and
PerformancePLUS have helped us rely
on that important data that we use to
track student progress. Without very
“eSchoolPLUS, IEPPLUS,
and PerformancePLUS
have helped us rely on
that important data that
we use to track student
progress. ... And, the
integration of all those
products helps us meet
student needs with more accuracy.”
PAT TI LINDEN
Director of Technology, Rose Tree Media School District
easy access to that data, it’s difficult to be
able to pinpoint student needs,” explains
Linden. “So, this one-stop shop for all our
student data has made that process very
simple. And, the integration of all those
products helps us meet student needs
with more accuracy.”
According to Linden, RTM principals
hold data conferences three times a year
to review individual student progress.
“Having the data all in one place in
PerformancePLUS really allows us to zone
in on those students who are at risk,” she
explains. “By looking at the data, we know
where the students started, we see how
much progress they’ve made, and we
know if they are on target to progress to
our expected level. For those at risk, we
then decide on individual remediation
during the data conference.”
Wigo says the SunGard K-12 student
products not only support these strategic
reviews, but also the everyday, on-thespot analysis that needs to occur for
success in the classroom. “Quite frankly,
everyone has their feet to the fire relative
to performance,” he says. “Every day,
our teachers and administrators need to
identify, react, and reassess. The software
allows us to do that in very rapid and very
accurate succession.”
For the individual student, this rapid
response can make all the difference.
“We don’t have the luxury of strategic
responses when we see evidence
of a child struggling,” says Wigo.
“Our response has to happen almost
immediately, and we get that kind of
immediate response from the software.”
According to Johnson, PerformancePLUS
puts this key data in their educators’
hands. “With PerformancePLUS, our
teachers can look back multiple years
to see a student’s growth,” he says. “No
longer is this longitudinal performance
data in a cumulative folder in the office.
It’s now at their fingertips. They can
bring it up—all the scores, exactly as they
happened. Real-time.”
Supporting Special Education
Compliance
For special education, RTM uses
IEPPLUS to efficiently manage the entire
process—from referral, evaluation, and IEP
development to maintaining historical
information and ensuring compliance with
IDEA regulations.
Linden says the software supports
a collaborative process for IEP
development. “Our IEP meetings now take
place in a conference room,” she explains.
“The IEP is projected onto a screen or a
white board, so that everyone can see
it and it can be edited on the spot while that IEP meeting is taking place.”
Thanks to IEPPLUS, Wigo says the IEP is
available much more quickly to all who
need it. “Our supervisors for special
education can view an IEP at the central
office that was developed four miles away
at an elementary school. No longer do
we have to wait for the printed version
to come over,” he explains. “After the
document is signed and stamped, every
teacher who has access to that student
can view the document at any time.”
The software also supports compliance
through automated notifications to alert
district staff of critical information or
actions needed. “Our special education
department is diligent about making sure
we stay on workflow and on a timeline.
It’s essential,” says Wigo. “IEPPLUS helps
us stay on top of the special education
process. And, the connection between
IEPPLUS and eSchoolPLUS is key because
clean data is really a huge part of reducing errors.”
Johnson appreciates the built-in features
that support compliance and reporting.
“We have turned on 50 or 60 of the error
checks in IEPPLUS to prevent teachers
from being able to print an IEP if the data
is not correct. These built-in features have
been tremendous in terms of keeping
us compliant,” he says, noting that he
appreciates the software’s regulatory
reporting support. “We are one of the best districts in Delaware County in terms
of our 12/1 count. We are always on time
and always have clean data, and I think it
has a lot to do with IEPPLUS.”
Powerful Software Creates
Confidence, Increases Efficiency
Today, Johnson says teachers and
administrators at RTM feel confident in
their data. “Having that integration is very
important because it makes our data very
stable,” he explains. “It’s good to have
that single point of entry. Changes to a
student’s record can be seen instantly
across all pieces of software by all teachers and staff members.”
With PLUS 360, district personnel have
launched initiatives to innovate their
operations. “For example, we no longer
print report cards at the secondary level.
Everything is done through Home Access
Center, the eSchoolPLUS parent portal,”
says Johnson. “After logging in, parents
can easily access their student’s test scores and grades.”
The district’s business and human resource
organizations also benefit from the PLUS
360 advantage with eFinancePLUS. “eFinancePLUS is just a good fit for us.
It does all the things we need it to do—
budgeting, personnel budgeting, assets,
fund accounting, purchasing, and human
resources,” says Johnson, noting that the
district relies on the automated workflows
and notifications to increase the efficiency
of its operations. “Approvers get emails
notifying them when something requires
their review—a leave request, timesheet,
requisition, etc. Thanks to eFinancePLUS,
we now have our turnaround time for
purchase orders down to almost 48 hours
because we do it all electronically.”
Johnson also has accolades for SunGard
K-12 regulatory teams, who aid the district
in staying on top of ever-changing state
reporting requirements. “SunGard K-12’s
flagship is its state teams. Every week,
there’s something new the state wants
from us. And, within a short time, SunGard
K-12’s teams make that happen. How?
Sometimes I don’t even know. And, I don’t even question,” says Johnson. “I’m
a big fan of SunGard K-12’s customer
support.”
Wigo echoes Johnson’s praise. “We
have confidence that SunGard K-12
Education will stay parallel with us in terms of recognizing what we need,” he
says. “We’re getting responses before we can really make a request. That’s really
at the vanguard of service. We’re very, very satisfied.”
eSchoolPLUS’ Teacher Access
Center was named a finalist for
Best Classroom Management
Solution in the 2014 SIIA
Education CODiE Awards.
*
*
PerformancePLUS is the winner
for Online School District
Management System for the 20th Annual Bessie Awards.
eSchoolPLUS™ student information
system is recognized as a Top 100
product for 2013 by the readers of
District Administration.
K-12 Administrative Software Solutions
eSchoolPLUSTM, PerformancePLUSTM, IEPPLUSTM, BusinessPLUSTM,
and eFinancePLUSTM comprise PLUS 360®—a single integrated suite
of software solutions for the management of student information,
assessment and curriculum, special education, and finance and
human resources—designed to work together or be implemented
as stand-alone systems to meet educational goals and support
student achievement anytime, anywhere.
eSchoolPLUS
BusinessPLUS and eFinancePLUS
A district-wide student information management
system for K-12 schools that offers all
educational stakeholders — administrators, staff,
teachers, parents, and board members — the
ability to easily manage or immediately access
summary and detailed student information when they need it.
Enterprise-wide financial, human resources,
and payroll management systems specifically
designed to meet the different needs of
individual school districts, offering all educational
stakeholders — administrators, staff, and board
members — the ability to easily manage critical
day-to-day financial and procurement tasks, as well as payroll and personnel functions.
IEPPLUS
P
erformancePLUS
A special education system that allows special
A district-wide system that helps educators track and analyze student performance against
state standards, map, and manage curriculum,
as well as build and administer local online
benchmark assessments.
education administrators and teachers to easily
develop IEPs, manage the referral/evaluation
process, track student records, maintain historical
information, comply with IDEA regulations, and meet constantly changing state and
federal regulations.
Student Information Management | Assessment and Curriculum Management
Finance and Human Resources Management | Special Education Management
© 2014 SunGard K-12 Education
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