By Russell Smith
with Craig Nansen
and J. Fred Schouten

Most districts have big technology wish lists. Schools everywhere want direct Internet access; networked computers in every classroom; and computerized attendance, grades, special education, discipline, and health records. And they want it all now.

As a matter of fact, now is an excellent time to update your technology-management programs. Computer prices are dropping, and the arrival of the year 2000 means many districts face costly upgrades of old programs that were written years ago to run on IBM mainframes. Those old school-management programs must either be rewritten within the next two years or scrapped in favor of new technology. That's why many districts are electing to retire the big irons in favor of more powerful and much less costly PCs.

If you go this route, you'll need a school-management software package that can be customized to suit the needs of your district. Two companies dominate the field: Chancery Software Ltd., which makes Mac School and Win School, and National Computer Systems (NCS), which produces NCS Schools Administrative Student Information-xp (SASIxp). These programs have separate modules, which can be purchased separately and phased in, for such functions as student records, scheduling, attendance, and grades.

These products are not cheap. Prices vary depending on such factors as the size of the district, the number of sites, and the modules chosen. Installing SASIxp at 19 sites in Minot, N.D., for instance, cost $80,000. Support costs in Minot run slightly over $10,000 per year.

More than a dozen smaller companies produce less expensive products with fewer capabilities. Administrators report being especially pleased with ADM-2000, produced by Ace Software in Grove City, Ohio, and EASY-97, a product of Eagle Software in Tustin, Calif. EASY-97 was developed by the same Jerry Lloyd who created the original SASI back in the early 1980s. He started Eagle Software after he fulfilled the terms of the five-year non-compete clause that was part of his 1990 sale of SASI to NCS.

If you're in a small (or maybe even medium-sized) district where staff members have to wear many hats, you might well prefer the comparative simplicity of programs such as ADM-2000 and EASY-97. But if you're in a medium-sized or large district with an ever-increasing number of administrative tasks, you'll surely appreciate what the high-end programs can do. Here's a look at the two big ones, based in part on school district experience using the programs:

Mac School and Win School. Chancery Software Ltd., 275-3001 Wayburne Drive, Burnaby, BC V5G 4W1, Canada. (800) 999-9931.

Chancery's Mac School has been the most popular program among Macintosh districts, with more than 9,000 schools and districts buying the product since 1985. Mac School's preview package comes with eight spiral-bound manuals (a total of 939 pages) and a CD of version 4.0. Win School also comes with an attractive boxed set of manuals (999 pages total).

The manuals are well-written and do an excellent job of describing the modules. One particularly nice feature is a full index in the System Users Guide that provides references to the guide and to other manuals as well.

Installation is straightforward, with 12 floppies for the current 3.3.2 version. A nice introductory demo on the CD gives an overview of the product, along with a multimedia testimonial from a satisfied school. The response time and quality of help on Chancery's web site and phone lines are both excellent.

Both Win School and Mac School have separate modules (available for network or single use) for attendance, custom reports, enrollment information, teacher and student information, grades, report cards, health records, and scheduling, as well as a data-scanning module. Schools can buy and use as many or as few modules as they desire. Many teachers also like the companion electronic grade book, eClass, with separate password protections for accessing, viewing, and editing.

Like all high-end administrative software, the Chancery system is complex and requires considerable training for administrators, counselors, attendance clerks, and teachers. When Mac School was installed at Peotone (Ill.) High School, for example, administrators found the learning curve was steep.

The school decided to implement the system in stages: In the first year, the student demographic information was entered, and the software was used to schedule students into classes. In the second year, teachers entered student grades into the database to generate report cards and transcripts, and the dean of students began using the discipline tracking feature. In the third year, using their desktop computers, teachers began to enter attendance every period. Next year, Peotone plans to begin using the software to track student health information, and the local junior high school will begin to implement the software.

Based on their experience, Peotone staff members recommend scheduling a full year of planning and training before adopting Mac School or Win School. That allows time to complete training, enter and check student demographic information, enter and check class descriptions and parameters, and build a master schedule so a new school year can begin smoothly. The veterans at Peotone also suggest a pilot run of the program during the second semester of the planning year, so the staff can get used to the new software and eliminate any data errors that show up.

Now that they feel more comfortable with the system, Peotone's administrators and staff especially like the software's scheduling program, which allows for both tabular and visual organization of information. Other favorite features: "Smart Items" that allow student reports to be personalized with names and gender-specific pronouns, and built-in attendance and discipline reports that allow better communication with parents.

SASIxp. National Computer Systems Inc. (NCS), 827 W. Grove Ave., Mesa, AZ 82510-4931. (800) 736-4357.

NCS says 25 percent of schools nationwide use its software, which is especially popular among California and West Coast school districts. SASIxp comes with eight spiral-bound manuals (2,999 pages total) that are attractive and well-written. Installation is a no-brainer, and it's made even easier by the outstanding help available by phone and e-mail.

Phone help used to be immediate, but NCS has grown so fast that it seems to be having trouble keeping up with queries. Staff members usually get back to you the same day, but that's not as convenient as talking to someone when you are in the midst of the problem.

Schools say SASIxp still scores high for its ease of use, accessibility by classroom computers, immediate reports, and ability to manipulate exported data using database and word processing software.

Minot Public Schools especially likes several other features: SASIxp's new Scheduler will make it possible to schedule 2,000 students in less than three minutes (and that includes the time it takes to create the master schedule); CLASSxp shows pictures of students in class seating charts, allowing teachers to simply click on a picture to mark a student absent or tardy; and teachers can enter nine-week grades for their students from their classroom or the teacher workroom. This last feature eliminates the need for scan sheets, but it also introduces possible security problems if students are left unattended in the classroom.

Implementing SASIxp was a three-year project in Minot. One middle school and one elementary school piloted the system the first year, and the district felt it could still back out if the software did not meet expectations. All went well, though, so the district brought on two more middle schools, 12 elementary schools, and an alternative high school the next year. Now the staff is entering data for the district's two high schools, with the idea of being ready to schedule students in the spring.

The district has found it works best to begin the conversion process during a school year. As each school comes onto the system, it continues to run schedules, report cards, and attendance on the old mainframe while student and course information is entered into the SASIxp system for the next school year. The school is "unplugged" from the mainframe during the summer, and everything is run on SASIxp the following year.

No matter what program you choose, extensive comprehensive training for (at least) the district software administrator is an absolute must. Chancery offers one week of training several times a year at its Vancouver, B.C., headquarters. NCS offers two one-week training sessions (a week of classes, followed by another week a month later) at its Mesa, Ariz., offices. Both companies also offer on-site training programs at schools and districts.

Russell Smith is an educational technology consultant at Region 14 Education Service Center in Abilene, Texas. Craig Nansen is the technology coordinator at the Minot (N.D.) Public Schools, and J. Fred Schouten is director of curriculum and technology at Peotone Community Unit School District in Peotone, Ill.

CHOOSING A MANAGEMENT PROGRAM

By Lisa A. Vecchioli

Choosing administrative software for your school or district isn't a one-man (or, for that matter, a one-woman) job. Administrators, teachers, counselors, librarians, and computer experts need to work together to determine the school's needs and find the best match with a reputable software product.

A selection committee should include, or seek the advice of, those who will have the most daily contact with the system -- the secretaries, clerks, teachers, counselors, and business officials who keep the schools running. Once the committee has been established, it should examine which administrative functions need to be computerized, how much money can be spent, and how much staff training will be provided.

Committee members should attend software demonstrations, test equipment, and ask lots of questions. In addition, they should be given administrative leave to observe how software packages function at other schools. No matter how detailed a sales representative's demonstration is, it will not be as revealing as witnessing how the system functions in a school setting. Talking with people who work with the system will also help committee members understand staff training and data entry requirements.

At some point, committee members should sit down and develop criteria for evaluating software systems. Here are some things to consider:

* Overall, how does the system look? Does it address the major functions you want, such as student records, scheduling, attendance, and grading? Are these functions integrated in the system? Does the system have security features that would prevent unauthorized personnel from accessing or updating information? How long has the company been in business?

* How easy is the system to use? Does it provide online help features and documentation? Does it have a graphic user interface that allows both mouse and keyboard entry? Does the system allow users to define new data fields? How many?

Does it have a report writer, with a suite of standard reports in addition to customized reports? How many standard reports does it have? Does the report writer allow users to print, save, and view reports on screen?

Does the system allow for a flexible query capability? For example, can it determine a correlation between discipline referrals and grade-point averages? Or can it check the schedule of all band members?

* How good is the technology? Can the system be networked and accessed by multiple users? Can it interface with the Internet? Does it perform real-time updating when information is entered from a workstation? Can users create, modify, and manage import/export files? How often are software enhancements and updates provided?

Is the system mature? That is, how long has the product been available to consumers? Does an advisory board of users provide regular feedback to the company regarding products and services?

* How good are the support services? Does the vendor provide toll-free technical support by both phone and e-mail? Can you reach a "live" person, as opposed to an answering service? Is remote access support available? That is, can the technical support staff access a customer's database by phone or Internet?

Is training that includes seminars and workshops available at the vendor's facility? What about on-site training? Will support staff visit a school or district for user-specific training? Are training workbooks and documentation provided? Does the vendor provide software updates with the annual support agreement?

* How well does the system handle your schools' specific needs? Administrative software generally consists of modules that can be purchased separately to address particular functions such as school records, scheduling, attendance, and grades. Because the school records module forms the core database in most software management packages, schools usually want to implement that module first.

School records: Can the system accommodate all of the information your school uses? Can you customize information fields, tables, reports, and queries? Does the system allow for simultaneous access to individual student, staff, school, and class records? Does it permit rapid data entry, especially for registration?

Does the system allow for alpha-numeric student I.D.? Does it allow you to enter information about an unlimited number of family members for each student? Does the system track student activities as well as health, discipline, test scores, and achievement information? Can you customize discipline infraction and response codes, notes on infractions, and discipline reports? Can the system easily produce mailing labels?

Scheduling: Does the system allow for various scheduling patterns? That is, does it allow you to distinguish between one-semester courses and full-year courses? Can the system support a variety of schedules, including the many forms of block scheduling, rotating schedules, modular schedules, and team-teaching schedules? Does it allow a variable number of instructional periods/days? Can it maintain the previous, current, and next year's timetables?

Does the system have master-schedule building capabilities? Can it schedule at least 50 periods per day, seven days per week? What is the maximum number of periods per day for scheduling? Does the system facilitate rapid manual or automated entry of course requests? Does it accommodate students' course preferences? Does it generate a matrix of potential schedule conflicts and reports on which students have these conflicts? Can the system schedule flexible lunch periods?

Attendance: Does the system allow flexible reporting on all the attendance data it maintains? Does it allow for keyboard entry or optical scanners? Can you customize attendance data for special groups? For example, if you tell the system that the football team is absent, will it automatically record each player's absence?

Does the system track and store absences and tardies for each student on a daily, period-by-period, and minute-by-minute basis? Does it track reasons for absences, tardies, and early dismissals? Can you customize reason-for-absence codes? Does the system automatically transfer information about absences, tardies, and dismissals to the report card system?

Grading: Does the system allow you to enter grades manually, by scanner, downloaded from other systems, and imported from grade books? Does it interface with electronic grade book programs? Does it allow for alphabetical, numeric, and user-defined grades? Can you define grading options, grade-point average (GPA) calculations, and multiple GPA calculations? Can you customize GPA calculations? Can the system produce report cards, progress reports, and transcripts?

* How willing is the vendor to accommodate your special needs? If the committee's favorite management system doesn't automate a particular process or collect the particular data your district needs, talk to the vendor. Sometimes schools have to compromise, but often vendors can accommodate a special need -- especially if they know a sale depends on it.

Lisa A. Vecchioli, a librarian at Gonzaga College High School in Washington, D.C., is the author of Evaluating and Implementing Integrated Student Records Management Software in K-12 Schools, published by the ERIC Clearinghouse on Assessment and Evaluation at the University of Maryland in College Park. For more information about the book, which includes fuller discussion of the guidelines in this article, call (800) GO4-ERIC.