Technology Proposal: Skyward SIS

Patrick Fernandez
New Jersey City University
EDTC 802: Principles of Educational Technology Leadership
Summer 2022

Background
 Passaic Public Schools (PPS) is a large urban public school district located in Northern

New Jersey. It faces many challenges associated with a growing student population, low test

scores, student behavior and low parental involvement. To best meet and overcome these

challenges a superior School Data Management System is needed. Educational Data

Management Systems come in the form of Student Informational Systems or SIS. The current

SIS in use only exacerbates existing challenges due to its ease of use being too complicated for

administrators and teachers, a lack of live support using the platform for users and a lack of

accessibility on web based systems for parents. A solution to existing challenges would be to

use the Skyward SIS in the PPS district.

Rationale

Using Data Management Systems effectively allows organizations to make proper data

driven leadership decisions. Advantages of using data driven leadership decisions include;

being very helpful in the process of making data-informed instructional decisions, developing

teachers’ skills, showing significant progress in their students’ standardized tests, and positive

impacts on student learning. (Marsh & Farrell, 2015) (Sun, Johnson & Przybylski, 2016).

Additionally data management systems provide a better framework for the enforcement of

privacy and security policies.

Product Overview

Skyward offers a better SIS experience for all stakeholders involved in the PPS District.

It offers a number of features that will contribute to better managing data for a large student

population, data analysis of academic performance, data analysis and tracking of behavioral

reports and increased communication and transparency with parents.

Skyward could be used on the web based SaaS service and mobile devices supporting

both iOS and Android platforms. A variety of services can be used by administrators, teachers,

students and parents.

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 Skyward could also be integrated with existing LMS’s and platforms used by the PPS

district. These supported integrated systems could include Google Classroom, Canvas,

Microsoft OneNote, SNAP and Eduphoria just to name a few.

Product Costs

Skyward does not publicly share all of it’s pricing information and a more accurate price

quote can be available upon request. However, skyward pricing is considered low cost and

comparable to other SIS systems. For the PPS district to use Skyward first it would need to

determine its subpricipution duration. More accurate pricing of the service could depend on

whether it would want a monthly or yearly subscription.

Upfront costs associated with Skyward are much more transparent and easily estimated.

One upfront cost would include customization and integration with our existing LMS and other

services.

For a Standard customization that would integrate with 3-5 systems:

Cost average about $10,000
For a fully customized system that integrates with more than 5 systems: Cost average about
$25,000

An additional upfront cost with Skyward would involve migrating existing data records

from our previous data systems. Pricing would vary on how many records we would like to

migrate. Considering PPS district is a large district here are typical estimated costs of large data

migration costs:

For 10,000 records: about $2,500

For 100,000 records: about $10,000
For 1,000,000+ records: about $25,000

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Desired Use & Application

Skyward SIS
Role: Provides services, training and support to all users

Services Offered: IT Services, SMOOTH Implementation, State Reporting, Professional

Development

PPS District
Role: Will use Skyward platforms alongside existing and integrated LMS’s or platforms.
District technology coordinators may assist in providing district training and implementation.

School Offices & Teachers Parents Students

Administrators

Role: Analyze Role: Increasing Role: Remaining Role: Remaining up

attendance trends Instruction time and informed on school to date on school and
and review school classroom and district news. district information.
wide academic management. Collaborating with Staying informed on
progress. Analyzing academic school and academic and
and behavioral trends community to behavioral progress.
Applicable Skyward to improve empower students. Extra curricular and
Service: academics. Creating career planning.
-Scheduling communication with Applicable Skyward
-Report Cards parents. Service: Applicable Skyward
-Transcripts -Family Access Service:
-Enrollment Applicable Skyward -Family Mobile App -Student Grades
-Registration Service: -Online Course -College & Career
-Fee Management -Attendance Request Readiness
-Report Writer -Behavior tracking -Behavior
-Gradebook Management
-Message Center -Food & Health
-Teacher Access Services
-Teacher Mobile App

The chart above outlines the desired use and application of the Skyward SIS. Once an

agreement has been reached between Skyward and the PPS district, Skyward can integrate

existing information, data and applicable services to their platform. Once Skyward is fully

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integrated with the district, priority one will be training our district employees. District technology

coordinators, administration and teachers will be required to attend training sessions provided

by Skyward to become familiar with the platform and its services. Once district technology

coordinators, administration and teachers have become familiar with its services, the PPS

district can offer additional training offered by the district to turn key information regarding the

Skyward SIS to additional support staff, parents and students.

All PPS district stakeholders can utilize Skyward; these users will include: Office and

Administration, Teachers, Parents and Students. Each of these stakeholders will use Skyward

but have their own roles and purposes for using the SIS. The Office and Administrations main

purpose for using Skyward and its services will be to manage enrollment, scheduling and

analyze attendance and academic information to align to state standards.

The teachers’ main purpose for using Skyward and its services will be to manage their

own classrooms through the reporting of attendance and academic or behavioral data; in

addition to maintaining communication with parents.

While the main purpose of parents, students and families being similar, will be to stay

informed on district or school information and to remain updated on student performance or

student services offered.

Desired Effects & Outcomes

The main purpose of utilizing the Skyward SIS and its services is to aid in meeting the

challenges of the PPS district. As a result, desired effects and outcomes will be aligned to meet

these challenges. Each stakeholder will play a unique role in meeting these challenges faced.

To aid in managing a rising student population Skyward will make keeping track of

students and their information, schedules, academic progress and school related services.

Administrators will be able to easily manage student information using the Skyward

services. Administrators will also be able to set schedules and enroll students in school related

programs and services in a more streamlined fashion. Teachers, parents and students will

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provide support in providing up to date information on each student and their families their use

of their teacher, family or student Skyward platforms.

To aid in increasing low student academic achievement administrators and teachers will

analyze academic performance recorded by integrated LMS platforms or recorded by teachers.

Analysis of student performance recorded on the Skyward SIS will allow teachers and

administrators to select with state standards to improve or revise in the curriculum or

instructional design. Academic and behavioral performance will also be able to be viewed and

accessed by students and families to provide transparency and guidance.

To aid in increasing parent involvement the Skyward platform allows for greater

transparency and collaboration through communication services offered by Skyward. The

communication features on Skyward should provide up to date district and school information to

parents instantly. The communication features should increase transparency between parents

and their schools. With these services parents can remain informed on any parent workshops

offered, student programs, important school announcements and academic report cards and

progress reports.

Lastly, any difficulty managing Skyward services for any users should be improved as

well. Skywards offers additional training and support through their support service. The support

service HQ offers software and IT support via scheduled or live customer service. The support

service should increase ease of use on the SIS for all users.

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 References
Marsh, J. A., & Farrell, C. C. (2015). How leaders can support teachers with data-driven
decision making: A framework for understanding capacity building. Educational
Management Administration & Leadership, 43(2), 269–289.
https://doi.org/10.1177/1741143214537229

Pizzo, M. (2021). 6 Benefits of using database management systems. The Pipeline

From: https://pipeline.zoominfo.com/operations/6-benefits-of-using-database-management-
systems-dbms

Sun,J. Johnson, B., & Przybylski, R. (2016). Leading with data: An increasingly important
feature of school leadership. International Studies in Educational Administration
(Commonwealth Council for Educational Administration & Management (CCEAM), 44(3),
93–128.