by Jonah Besenty | staff writer
The course card will once again be completed by students on paper this year. The district has come to this decision after the online version proved itself to be flawed.
“So our districts computer program that we were using to build schedules was a district created program called the ‘interactive graduation plan’ or IGP, and it was created by district employees and maintained by district employees, but it had some flaws in it because it was just made for small scale, and we have since as a district piloted and looked at other companies that do this on a much larger scale, and our district had a group of employees, assistant principals, counselors, sit down and really look in depth at the different programs. To see if there was one that would fit our needs, and it was determined that Skyward would be the new program our district would purchase,” counselor Julie Metcalfe said.
SkywardsIs being used by larger companies, corporations and businesses.
“So, it’s just gonna kind of help take our current technology to the next level. It’s gonna also incorporate books for the teachers that’s gonna allow them to be able to access their grade book from any smart device, even their phones, iPads, they can import grades at home, they can walk around the classroom with this and input grades while they’re walking around the room, and it’s just gonna be a lot more user-friendly for us to print reports here on campus. So it’s a way of taking our current technology to the next level, and making sure we are on the cutting edge of all that we can do to make sure our students get everything that they need,” Metcalfe said.
This will help make it easier for students and teachers to complete certain tasks like grading right after students turn in their work.
“So the change is supposed to take place over the summer, and that’s when the transition is actually going to take place. We have been given limited access to kind of play around and learn different features that the program has so that we can get used to it, but the actual change will take part in the summer,” Metcalf said.
The change that incorporates the new Skyward technology will take place this summer. Students who have used an IGP in the past might have to redo their course selection on paper.
“This is the reason why have switched why we have switched back to paper choice cards this year because we were worried that in the process of the transition we might lose any data that students inputed in that IGP. So by doing it on paper this year, we are hoping that will just provide consistent input of the classes that everybody wants to make sure that we don’t lose any important data in the process. So we’re going old school just this year hopefully, and then we’ll look at the new program skyward offers, and hopefully be able to return next year to more technologically friendly way to request classes,” Metcalf said
