

How LearnBoost listened to teachers, built new Web-based gradebook - waderoush
http://www.xconomy.com/san-francisco/2010/07/28/learnboost-bets-on-better-tools-for-teachers/

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maukdaddy
I could go on for hours on this topic, but here are a few points off the top
of my head (I work in Infosec for one of the largest districts in the
country):

\- Security. FERPA, student information, disclosure laws, etc. If you want
districts to use this service, then you are going to have to get VERY serious
about security and document it well. A lot of contracts will want
indemnification for data breaches, some huge insurance amount, etc.

\- Interoperability. For anything more than a single school you better
integrate with Active Directory, Novell, or at least offer some type of LDAP
integration with an authentication store. The web-based, we store your login
credentials model, doesn't scale well for multiple schools.

\- Interoperability v2. Student Information Systems (SI) are FAR more complex
than just the gradebook software. Usually the gradebook software must
integrate with scheduling software, reporting software, some type of long-term
storage/report card/transcript software, special ed software,
analytics/reporting software, horrible 1980s state reporting software, etc. At
the very least you're going to need a way to send/receive data back and forth.
Securely.

\- Parents. Online access to Little Johnny's grades, assignments, etc is a
must these days. Helicopter parents want to know every damn assignment little
Johnny had today, what grades he got, why in the hell he didn't get 100% like
he should have. That data better be available via web site, email, and text
messages. Oh and how do you tie a student to a particular parent? What about
divorces? The complexity around this is huge.

\- School districts. You might find it difficult to get single schools to use
their own gradebook software (charter/private schools are easier). A lot of
districts mandate that schools use one, centralized gradebook system for
obvious reasons (see Interoperability). If you don't have every enterprisey
feature the district demands, you won't get the business. Gaining traction in
larger school districts is tough. The bureaucracy is every bit as crushing as
the Federal government.

With all of that being said, this is a market that is RIPE for exploitation.
SI systems SUCK, usability is atrocious, and the vendors bend school districts
over to shake $$$ out. A lot of the current systems are inefficient as well
(think 30+ web servers just for the front end).

One area you might want to market heavily - the cost savings from outsourcing
the technology. Districts spend a fortune running their own servers,
datacenters, tech staff, etc. for SI systems. As budgets get worse, showing a
cost savings by outsourcing will look more attractive. But you're going to be
fighting a VERY ingrained resistance to giving up control of data to a 3rd
party.

* Views expressed are my own and not representative of my employer, and other such caveats _

~~~
dhimes
You are exactly correct on this. Gradebook software that doesn't have parent
access (and cover the associated problems and security issues) and
interoperability with other SIS is a solution without a problem. Or perhaps
better: a problem with many solutions, including Google spreadsheets.

~~~
ktsmith
The parental access is a really small piece depending on where you are. The
larger the district the more important it is from what I've seen. The district
my wife teaches in just moved over to Infinite Campus and it has very little
to do with the parental access features and everything to do with the data
retention and security issues, federal accountability, and all the tracking
features. It's horrible software but it checks all of the boxes on the bean
counters and mid level managers check lists at the district and state offices.

In addition to adding the new software it's been mandated that every teacher
use it and all other grade book software has been banned. Even if what
learnboost is producing is the most amazing thing in the world these teachers
can't use it. The existing system is such a pain in the ass there is also the
added issue of no teacher wanting to do double data entry.

Any company that wants to break the stranglehold these companies have in the
space is going to have to come in with a complete solution at a lower cost.
Most of the software will also be required to run within the existing
infrastructure or be dropped in, so forget about running on one of the various
cloud infrastructures.

~~~
dhimes
Interesting.

 _and all the tracking features_

What do they track? The kids' progress through the grades?

~~~
ktsmith
Well, tracking the kids through the grades is already done via cumulative
files. Those contain grades, scores on standardized tests, records of
disciplinary action, records of social services issues and that type of thing.
All of that is being digitized now. In addition to all of that things like
attendance are tracked with finer granularity as it's directly related to
school funding. Then there's things like what period of time was the student
on the free and reduced lunch program. How many meals did they receive during
that time. That all gets tracked, again, for federal funding purposes. I'd
have to pull out the Infinite Campus manual to get the details on some of the
other things that are tracked, but I was quite surprised at all of it when I
first saw it. Unfortunately in addition to their primary role as education,
teachers are being asked to do more and more paper pushing and handling other
duties pushed on them by politicians.

Some of the data they keep track of is useful. For example, it's very
difficult to get kids into the special ed program these days. You have to put
kids through various phases of testing, and each phase requires a different
amount of time between them or different benchmarks for evaluation. Some of
these systems can keep track of that so as a child moves through the grades
each teacher can pick up where the last left off. Sometimes it can take a
couple of years for a child to start receiving special education services
which is unfortunate because at that point they are even further behind where
they should be. This is the direct result of parents not wanting their kids
singled out or alienated by being labeled special education. So in that case
the tracking is probably a good thing since there are definitive records of
what steps have been completed.

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kgrin
Curious whether these guys will have Blackboard waving its (many bogus)
patents at them...

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ktsmith
I didn't think blackboard had any patents pertaining to grade books but in
their collaboration and online lesson pieces. Even so, most of them wouldn't
likely hold up in court now due to Bilski.

