Statewide Student Management System SIS Updates September 19, 2014

1. Statewide Student Management System SIS Updates September 19, 2014

2. Deborah GilliamProduct Manager, SIS Debbie.Gilliam@tn.gov 615-253-1637 Office

3. 2014-15 Statewide Student Management System • 101 state hosted districts • Edupoint (26) • Follett (9) • Pearson (9) • Skyward (31) • STI (26)

4. Participating Addendum Reminders • You are not committed to the SSMS for life of contract • You are not committed to a vendor for life of contract • Change vendors – new PA required • Change from local/vendor hosted to DOE hosted – PA required • Document vendor selection process • Maintain documentation on file locally • Include rationale for selection (Ex: memo explaining rationale, minutes from Board meeting, etc.) • Required for audit purposes

5. Annual Cost Billing Process • Annual cost based on funded ADM counts (K-12 only) • District responsible for paying district share of annual costs • Vendors direct billing for district share of annual cost could begin on/after Aug 1 • Vendors required to provide DOE copy of district annual costs invoices for verification and audit purposes • Vendors billing DOE directly for state share of annual cost ($2.55/ADM) for SSMS districts

6. Outlook for 2015-16 • The new fiscal year budget cycle will dictate if or how many additional districts we can accommodate in 2015-16 • Current annual cost subsidy level is $2.55/ADM • Could potentially adjust the annual cost subsidy level (downward) to accommodate additional districts

7. SSMS General • Routine maintenance downtime windows as needed • Wednesday evenings (5PM – midnight) • Saturdays (6AM Sat – 6AM Sun) • Application releases/updates, etc. applied during these times (unless emergency) • Any other downtimes – will be notified • New SSMS Listservs established for general DOE communications to SSMS districts • Per vendor and combined

8. SSMS General • Extracts generated routinely by vendor • Automated process • 3 days/week • Data entered/changed by 5:00 PM

9. SSMS General • Extracts staggered during implementation • Group 1: district and school calendars (5 extracts) • Group 2: class schedule, student enrollment, staff current assignment (6 extracts) • Group 3: all remaining extracts – student, completion, grades, busing, etc. (17 extracts) • All new SIS vendors, except Follett, are now sending all required extracts • Follett all but 4 extracts in group 3 • SIS application releases, updates, patches, etc. - applied by vendor for all districts at same time

10. Resources, Support and Protocol • Data mapping document (maps state required data elements to data fields in SIS application) • Vendors responsible for application support • Support staff should have knowledge of TN requirements • EIS Help Desk – assists with data reporting errors • Issues with application/Azure environment access • All vendors have admin access to boxes in state hosted Azure environment • All vendors should be monitoring environment • DOE has monitoring tools in place and looking at additional monitoring tools/options (alerts) • Will be doing routine “cleansing” of Azure environment

11. Resources, Support and Protocol • Issues with your SIS should first be reported to your vendor • If vendor cannot resolve issue – vendor notifies DOE • Overall DOE Product Support will be restructured to provide a more integrated and streamlined process • One stop shop for all DOE outward facing applications • New ticketing system • More communications and details to come as the processes and procedures are ironed out

12. IMPORTANT DATES • November 1, 2014 - All historical data must be pulled for data conversion • Mid – Late November 2014 – cut-off for “live” access to Star_Student to complete state Report Card reporting process • November 30, 2014 – all district user access to Star_Student will be terminated • November 15, 2014 – deadline to submit Participating Addendums for 2015-16 implementation

13. Most Common SIS Vendor Implementation Issues • Missed deadlines during “go-live” implementation and EIS testing of extracts and reports • All five vendors required to test/validate generation of EIS extracts and reports • Poor/no QA during EIS testing • Poor validation on required data fields and state defined codes • Suggests issues with mapping data during conversion and properly mapping required data elements to correct fields in their application • State defined code tables should be locked down

14. Most Common SIS Vendor Implementation Issues • Insufficient/lack of prior planning/preparation to address TN specifics in application • Assumed their vendor hosted model fit the SSMS model (business as usual) • Insufficient resources to handle the TN implementation • Having the right people involved • Underestimated the amount of work, time and effort needed for the TN implementation • Same resources working on multiple components • TN specifics + EIS testing + training + application updates • TN application development + DLP/Ed-Fi development

15. Things To Do… • RUGs – continue involvement & consider restructure • Provide SIS vendors direct access to: • Course Master in EIS • Lists of valid state defined codes • Create enhanced enrollment process • Automated call to EIS for student state IDs • Implement Single Sign On

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