Ann Arbor school board approves $294,000 in technology purchases like PowerSchool upgrade
The Ann Arbor school board recently approved about $294,000 in technology purchases and software upgrades.
Among the purchases were the Do the Math mathematics support program, an upgrade of the PowerSchool hardware and software and the purchase of technology to assist special education students.
The PowerSchool hardware and software upgrades will cost the district about $81,000. PowerSchool is a program that allows students and parents to monitor progress and performance in class by accessing grades from home.
Interim superintendent Robert Allen said there had been changes with the PowerSchool software since the company was sold and the hardware requirements are not compatible with the district’s equipment.
“It certainly has been a real benefit for the district up to this point,” Allen said.
John VanRiper, district director of information technology, wrote to the school board in a memo that the sale of PowerSchool from Apple Inc. to Pearson School Systems , and the subsequent change in operating systems, caused the district’s equipment to go from exceeding hardware requirements to a point where the main database server needs to be reset on a daily basis.
Board members spoke highly of the system and unanimously approved the upgrade.
Trustee Andy Thomas said he finds PowerSchool “tremendously valuable.” “It gives a lot of detail regarding what my student is doing in each of his classes and it’s nice to be able to surprise him by saying, ‘Why did you not turn in this homework assignment that was due three days ago?’” Thomas said. “He thinks I know more than I really do.”
The most expensive purchases were assistive technology purchases, which were funded through the American Reinvestment and Recovery Act.
The board approved the purchase of Kurzweil software and programs, which will provide access to the general education curriculum for special education students and will help in teaching reading and writing online. The Kurzweil software and programs will cost the district $54,678.
The district will also buy ten Tap-It learning stations, which provide students with physical needs, visual impairments, hearing impairments and developmental delays access to the general education curriculum.
School officials say the product will increase the engagement and interaction of students with teachers and other students. The purchase of 10 learning stations will cost the district $86,180.
The district will also purchase 12 SMART Boards for a total of $39,594, which is cheaper than the original plan to purchase Promethean Boards. SMART Boards are an interactive screen, which students and teachers can use to write on with "pens" like a digital whiteboard.
The school board also approved a $33,000 purchase of the Do the Math program, a researched-based program focusing on foundational number sense, computation and problem solving. There are 13 parts of the program and each includes a series of 30-minute lessons designed to help students who have fallen behind in class catch up.
Michele Madden, elementary curriculum coordinator, said the money for the purchase will come from the ARRA funding as well. She said the program would begin use in the summer school program this year.
“It’s a human-directed program and we feel it has the flexibility to meet the needs of children at all grade levels,” Madden said. “I look forward to using this program and we’ll use some of it in the summer school program to get started this year.”
Trustee Glenn Nelson said the program would help students work with the district’s math curriculum, which is aligned with the state’s math curriculum. He said it will help realize the district’s goal of having every student eligible to take Algebra I in eighth grade.
“This is an important part of beefing up the math options and curriculum, so this foundation becomes just as firmly in place for younger students as we have them on a very fast track now,” Nelson said.
Kyle Feldscher covers K-12 education for AnnArbor.com. He can be reached at kylefeldscher@annarbor.com or you can follow him on Twitter.
Comments
Dave
Sun, May 15, 2011 : 12:29 a.m.
Waste of money. I'm all for keeping the classrooms on the cutting edge of tech to give our students the best advantage they can get, but the systems proposed are *way* overpriced. 12 SMART Boards (large projector white-boards, essentially) at ~$3.3K each? I don't think the school board is seriously considering the value gained from these purchases... how are these ridiculously high-tech and expensive products going to make large improvement on learning and student growth? They need to reign in the idealistic expectations of classrooms looking like an episode in the CSI laboratory and apply it to more practical needs. Buy more books, put in proper desks/chairs, improve school maintenance, invest in after school programs... these would make a much larger impact on the student's learning experience at school.
alarictoo
Tue, May 17, 2011 : 5:12 p.m.
@Dave - Here is an interesting piece that was posted on the AAPSNews site yesterday. It shows the level of involvement and engagement seen in an elementary classroom where a whiteboard was used. <a href="http://news.a2schools.org/?p=5114" rel='nofollow'>http://news.a2schools.org/?p=5114</a> It is unfortunate that the lower cost option in the article is incompatible with already installed classroom technology. BTW, I am not trying to advocate this spending. I simply thought the correlation of the two articles would make it of interest.
cette
Sat, May 14, 2011 : 4:58 p.m.
The thing about using the latest and greatest gadgets is that they break down, become obsolete a few weeks after purchase, and it's about the same as using a dryboard and eraser...Not a great use of money. Powerschool is good, but it's the Microsoft trap, always needing the next upgrade, for just a little bit more money...
BhavanaJagat
Sat, May 14, 2011 : 4:28 p.m.
We need to understand the spending in the context of learning. Spending money to learn about grades and homework assignments is just unwise. We have no funds to maintain the position of Special Education Teachers, and if there is money, I would rather use it to fund the a teacher's position and not that of software and hardware. Students cannot acquire crtical thinking skills by using the software. They will practically stop thinking and use software to solve the simplest of all problems.
Rachel
Sat, May 14, 2011 : 3 p.m.
Powerschool can be used very effectively, but it can also be abused by helicopter parents. I hope these programs do there job; I would hate to see that money go of waste when AAPS already has to fire 70 full time teachers, and eliminate high school busing.
DonBee
Sat, May 14, 2011 : 11:05 a.m.
While I agree with most of these purchases. I have two issues. Originally the smart board were going into the classrooms for special needs children who need help with homework and classwork. For lack of a better description - a special needs study hall. The boards are great in a room where all the students are working on the same thing, or at least a majority are. In this case the students are mixed grades, mixed classes and in most cases only one or two of a dozen students are working on the same issues. How these boards will be used is beyond me. The second is that the tap-it stations are being used to make the general curriculum available to students - Everyday Math and several other programs have alternate curriculum materials available that are intended to be used with accessible technology. I find it interesting that even in 1:1 discussions with staff at AAPS, they insist that they will use the regular materials on these systems, instead of the tailored materials that were designed to help students that need this kind of help to reach the same goals.
SonnyDog09
Sat, May 14, 2011 : 10:37 a.m.
This is more evidence that the schools are NOT being starved of funding. If they have money to spend like this, they are not broke.
leaguebus
Sun, May 15, 2011 : 1:11 a.m.
When a district is broke they shouldn't spend money they don't have on frivolous things like books and software. Get rid of those expensive computers too!
cinnabar7071
Sat, May 14, 2011 : 3:35 p.m.
"Money comes from different sources, and is allocated for specific purposes. " That is the greatest scam ever created by the gov't, and you sir played it perfectly.
kermdd7
Sat, May 14, 2011 : 11:40 a.m.
Money comes from different sources, and is allocated for specific purposes. This money is not part of the state's basic per-pupil allocation, and many who say that the schools are not receiving adequate funding are referring to the per-pupil funding from the state, which is used to cover basic operating costs.
tom swift jr.
Sat, May 14, 2011 : 10:27 a.m.
Prediction... Before noon today, this comment thread will devolve into a discussion about how anyone who works for a school district is overpaid, teachers are lazy, and how this was a bad decision... Heck, I bet we don't make it until 9 am.