paper based student enrollment - disgrace to education technology
DESCRIPTION
While most of the schools in US (and worldwide) are moving towards adopting the best of best in terms of technology, paper based enrollment is an insult to this educational revolution. Millions of hours are spent every year by parents in filling out these forms and school administrators in processing them. This talk will cover some very interesting facts and statistics on paper based enrollment and what schools are missing by not having an online enrollment system. This will also cover some magics online enrollment has done for school districts that have adopted it - in terms of efficient and deep analytics on their schoolsTRANSCRIPT
http://www.logn.co
Paper based enrollment - Disgrace to Education technology
Jinal Jhaveri – [email protected]
Humans and Computers
• History
• Most paper based systems have moved on or are dying:o Paper based tests – GRE / GMATo Paper based accountingo Paper based mailo Paper based billso Newspapers
Process for parents
• Fill out the same forms
• Stand in line
• Send out the forms <> make mistakes
• Lucky enough to not make a single mistake
• Pray
• Pray
• Pray
• Get a mail about whether your kid is in or not
• Get in
• Reminder to pay fees
• Forget
• Reminder to pay fees + fine
• Pay fees
• Repeat
Process for schools
• Send out forms
• Explain the same thing again and again to parents
• Handle errors in the forms
• Drive office managers crazy
• Pray
• Pray
• Pray that more parents sign up
• Run lottery / Match
• Mail out letters
• Accept payments in form of checks
• Send payment reminders
Issues
• Unhappy Parents
• Unhappy School Admins
• Unhappy Kids
• Unhappy Trees
• Skewed student-teacher ratios
• Have to wait till the end of admissions to figure out which schools are doing well and which are not – no community outreach
Today’s systems
• Parentso Online forms
Accessible anywhere (Web, Mobile, Tablet) Multiple languages Check for errors Show maps – easy to find nearby schools
• Schoolso Seats filled so faro Run lotteryo Follow up via emailo Detailed analytics and reporting
Advantages
• Cut down paper usage
• Less frustrated parents
• Efficient o School Adminso Principalo Office Manager
• Time & Cost savings
Questions ?
Appendix
GHA Enrollment System• Dozens of K-12 Schools in AZ (expanding to TX in 2014)
• Tens of thousands of applications submitted (most of which were in the first week)
• Multi-language support
• Deeper analytics for school operations and planning for growth.
• Lottery algorithm designed in compliance with state law
• Customizable and Extensible
• Core functionalityo Manual imports of existing applicationso Self-service online application submission, tracking, registrationo Admin portal for CMO and School level administratorso Integration with SchoolMaster SIS
• Project finished with extremely tight timeline – parent facing application system was built from inception to finished in ~3 months.
• Mobile compatible
• Cloud based solution. Scalable to 100s of schools
The Family Portal is the main interface for students and their guardians. Families can create just one application for each student in their household and submit it to multiple schools. Relevant actionable items appear as the status of each application changes.
Clean and easily customizable application forms that validate on submission make submitting an application clear for families and mitigate office overhead in avoidable corrections.
Selecting which schools to apply to is easy with a Google Maps integration that lets families see where schools are in relationship to home, and an intuitive drag-and-drop interface for school selection.
The administration portal was designed to make it easy for office managers to find the information they need. This is their homepage, giving them quick access to the tools used most frequently.
The Student Dashboard provides a high-level overview of all applicants in the system, including the status of the application, lottery and waitlist details, and links to vital actions such as emailing parents and editing an application or student record.
The Enrollment Tracker gives the lead office a way to gauge whether school’s are at or near capacity—a powerful tool for planning for future growth.
Appendix 2
Rocketship – ROLLS
• K-5 Schools in CA, MN (expanding to 20+ Schools by 2016)
• System live since 2010
• Multi-language support - English, Spanish, Vietnamese (more languages coming soon)
• Completely customizable lottery design to meet State and District specific lottery laws
• Core functionalityo Manual entry for existing applicationso Self-service online application submissiono Admin portal for National Office, CMO and School level administratorso Advanced application tracking functionality to support growth / planningo Integration with PowerSchool SIS
• Cloud based solution. Scalable to 100s of schools
A streamlined application interface breaks down the process into digestible steps and the form validates on submission so office managers have minimal cleanup afterwards.
The Design a Lottery tool is a powerful and simple way for school admins to create a lottery based on a specified criteria. Completely configurable and customizable by school, this allows the ROLLS system to serve Rocketship Schools in multiple states / legislations
Comprehensive breakdown of each student’s record provides school admins with one-stop solution for understanding and managing the state of a particular applicant within the system.
The application summary report provides school administrators with a way to gauge their enrollment numbers and progress to help plan for future growth.