Mine is a public high school with a desire to collect information about student assessment, attendance, and other educational records from their disparate sources together into one home base where the data can then be explored using tools like tableau.
We have limited knowledge of databases, SaaS services, and managed database product. What I think we need is a SaaS data hosting service with an aligned mission, and I'm not sure how best to evaluate the offerings or what the possible products might be.
I know that my ideal product is one which allows our teachers and office staff to send arbitrary types of data to the store using internal webforms and such so that they don't need to have a direct understanding of how to use, interact with, or manage the data itself.
You're totally right, and one of the limitations on the info I was able to include was that it's very difficult for me to know how to describe what we're trying to do, not having the expertise. We seem to be trying to find a SaaS solution that will allow us to store academic records, and is flexible enough to accommodate things like student work samples, assessment data, and other forms of information that we might not completely anticipate.
I know we can't build what we need from scratch, and I know that we need something more sophisticated than a NAS- we don't want to invest the capital and time to create an inhouse technology stack, we use google apps for our student and staff accounts and document hosting, and it seems like our data storage needs to be a similar kind of managed database product which allows our office staff to input new records through internal web forms and similar approachable tools.
I really appreciate this insight, I think that would really be the ideal solution. I have satisfied myself that it won't be possible- the software we're talking about is one slice of a highly sophisticated network of services operated by the DOE- the largest and most complex school district in the country (and I know of no larger similar educational organization in the world).
I came into this believing that the DOE would address these issues if it could, that the system was simply too complex for anyone to be able to update it effectively. I hope that's true. What is certainly true is that there is an impending crisis in the management of educational data and one way to reduce the impact to our community is to begin cultivating a data management strategy which reduces our dependency and increases the robustness of our digital approach.
Thanks for sharing this- as a school, we do already use canvas! One of the ways we're attacking our data problem is to make more effective use of canvas, but like all the other services we use, it's becoming clear that it is only part of the solution.
That said, it's my job to make sure we're not overlooking the ability to make our "problem" disappear by making better use of our resources; so I'll be agressively reevaluating the chain of decisions that brought us to this moment
I can't thank you enough for the depth and thoughtfulness of your response- you're 100% right about looking for a SaaS solution, about finding one that is aligned with our mission. I've been experimenting with Tableau for the last two days and it strikes the perfect balance of incredible power and usability.
From what I can tell, Socrata is focused on open data and sharing data with outside organizations. Their product is what we're looking for, their mission is spot on with ours, but our data has to remain secure and private. We need a socrata for internal use.
I've shared your thoughts with my administrators, thanks again
I wrote an update above with some more information on the types of data we need to accomodate, but feel free to reach out on the email listed in my profile, I'd love to make contact with you
You're right- it's a very complex process even trying to talk about bringing new systems into a public school. FERPA is not an inconsiderable force.
I've tried to give more concrete insight into what I'm trying to do, above; but I think part of the ambiguity is because it's very difficult for me to understand what we need so far. We need a technical solution to serve people who can't be expected to directly interact with it...
I think we all know that Education is one sector, not unlike legal services, that could stand for a big wake up call.
Lots of challenges to getting new or useful tech into schools, not least of all that everyone is too busy teaching to be able to pull new tools into their chain.
You're not wrong though: it would be grand to chip away at some of the entrenched, systemic inefficiencies.
bonobo3000-
I think you're right that, generally, the technical sophistication of this problem isn't super demanding. We're not storing millions of records, we're not (as far as I can tell) asking for anything "complicated". We probably don't have the technical sophistication to manage this ourselves, so we're probably looking at a hosting SaaS, as has been said in other places
Thank-you to everyone responding, especially those who are helping enormously by giving me real-talk; Here's some more information about my situtation:
The legacy system I referred to has limitations that make it very uncomfortable to contemplate continuing to use it as our sole data source. Some issues:
- The database is updated once a day; Any changes you add to it today won't show until tomorrow.
- Student absences (important so we can see cutting, lateness, etc) can be recorded once per day; students are either "at school" or not.
- There are numerous categories of data that we have that can't be tracked or stored, for expample, whether a student is involved in a sports team. We have a large body of instructional data about how students are doing in class, but we're struggling to bring it together to get a full picture because as far as our main system is concerned, students receive a grade at the end of their course for their transcript, and that's that.
I'm not going to ignore what I'm being told and I think that building a new solution is beyond our capacity; we have to keep our focus on teaching the kids as well as we can. But we have a very young staff and an administration committed to exploring our options. I've already been looking at Tableau and it's so powerful and approachable that we can definitely use it. The difficulty I now face is what tool can we use to complement and expand the system that's causing a lot of grief.
We need to be able to store types of information including absences, student biographical info, grades; we want to be able to store student ID pictures, lesson plans, notes from teachers. Points of contact with parents. What we think we know is that we need a SaaS solution, we have regulatory compliance issues (not to mention ethical requirements) around security and privacy of our data, which many of you noticed.
I'm reading every single comment and will respond by email and here where it makes sense. We know we need help even to understand our problem.
YC 2016 would be top of my priorities right now, but there are ethics rules preventing me from being a vendor to any NYC public school while I'm working at one. As much as it makes sense ethically, it really seems like that shouldn't be the department's focus when they have kids who can't read yet and they can't tell you which kids they are.