Ocoee Middle School Realizes Vision Through Schools Interoperability Framework
Updated: March 4, 2004
Ocoee Middle School in Orange County Florida is charging into the future with a state-of-the art school that employs cutting-edge technology to compliment and further the fostering of an optimal learning environment. A Florida State Demonstration School, Ocoee is also a pilot school for the Schools Interoperability Framework (an industry initiative to develop an open specification for ensuring that K-12 instructional and administrative software applications work together more effectively). Running on Microsoft Windows 2000 Servers and Chancery's Zone Integration Server, all of Ocoee's student data applications integrate seamlessly, resulting in saved time and money for the school, increased instructional time for teachers, and increased self-esteem for the students.
Ocoee Gets SMART
In 1997, the Florida legislature appropriated funds for the construction of a model demonstration middle school. This school was to meet standards of the SMART (Soundly Made, Accountable, Reasonable, and Thrifty) Schools Act, passed during a special session. Shortly afterwards, Ocoee Middle School-100 percent over capacity and housed in old buildings in need of repair-was selected by the SMART Schools Clearinghouse Board to be the model school. Designed to accommodate educational programs now and those developed in the future, Ocoee Middle School was especially constructed for the application of new technologies in instructional programs.
In considering the technology plan for Ocoee, the administration and faculty had a vision for the school. This vision included easy access to technology, the creation of electronic student portfolios, email access for students, and a home-school connection for parents. With this vision in mind, they began selecting partners from the private sector.
When Ocoee's Principal, Kate Clark, presented their vision to Microsoft, the response was immediate: "The people at Microsoft said, 'Absolutely, we can help you do that. And we can help you do even more.' And that's how it started," says Clark. "We were looking for some help with the vision and Microsoft provided that," Thus began a relationship that eventually led to Ocoee Middle School becoming involved in the groundbreaking Schools Interoperability Framework (SIF) of which Microsoft is a member. The cornerstone to SIF is a structure in which a variety of systems are able to interoperate with each other and share data. "This was a perfect fit for this project," says Dave Meyers, Program Manager for Microsoft's Education Solutions Group.
Sharing Data Seamlessly
At this point, Chancery Software, Ltd. became an integral part of the project. A company with a long history of working with both Microsoft and the Orange County School District, Chancery creates student-management solutions that run on a Microsoft platform. All of the systems at Ocoee interoperate with each other through a Zone Integration Server-created by Microsoft and Chancery. This application takes messages from one system and provides them to the other systems in the school.
Ocoee Middle School uses the complete Chancery Student Management Solution, an enterprise system with a single core database with applications at the district office (Open District), the school office (Win School), the classroom (eClass), and home (K12Planet). The Chancery solution manages enrollment, attendance, grades, scheduling, report creation, homework assignments, roster based email lists, and more. The Zone Integration Server allows Ocoee to extend the core Chancery enterprise database to include their media center and cafeteria systems.
Huge Time Savings
Ocoee has seen numerous benefits from being a SIF pilot school, running on a Microsoft platform, and using the Chancery solution. In general, Ocoee's technological environment has meant a huge savings in time for both the administration and the faculty.
Ocoee Middle School runs entirely on a Windows 2000 platform, which allows the Information Technology Specialist, Laura Buesse, to manage all 450 workstations for the teachers and the students from one central console, saving her an immense amount of time.
In addition, with the entire school on Windows 2000, students and teachers always have the information they need at their fingertips. The security features of Windows 2000 allow students and teachers to log on to any workstation and have their personalized desktop right there. Buesse explains: "For example, if a student is working on something in an English classroom and they log off and go to their next class where they find they have time to complete their English assignment, they simply log on to any available computer, and their resources are there. They're no longer interrupting classes and copying things on to floppy disks and finding places to print from. That's been a really big savings as far as I'm concerned."
From a data-entry aspect, Ocoee's new system has again saved the school an enormous amount of time and therefore, resources, says Clark. As part of an urban school district, Ocoee has a high rate of student transfers-about 40 percent. In the past, each time a student enrolled in or withdrew from the school, their record had to be put in or taken out of five different systems. With SIF and the Zone Integration Server, a student's data is entered once, and the data flows seamlessly to the other systems in the school. Clark estimates that the new system saves the school about 35 minutes for each student. "Considering that this happens all year long, every day," says Clark, "we're seeing a tremendous amount of savings."
More Time for Teaching
Teachers are also seeing savings in time from several avenues. First of all, the fact that new students only need to have their information entered into the database once means they can be in the classroom faster. "With so many students coming and going, it is critical that we capture as much instructional time as possible," says Clark. "With the quicker enrollment process, we're seeing an increase in instructional time that translates into achievement and focus."
In addition, with the integrated Chancery solution, teachers find that the once arduous process of sending out report cards and progress reports is now simply a matter of clicking the mouse a few times. With the old system, getting progress reports out took about a week and a half and cut into the teachers' instructional and personal time. Now, with the grades already in the eClass Grades program, teachers simply send the information to Buesse who prints out the reports and has them sent home. Clark reports that the least technology savvy teacher in the school "was tremendously excited about eClass Grades because of the immense amount of time she was able to save."
Chancery's K12 Planet is also giving the teachers more time to plan and to teach. "At first there was a little bit of concern among the faculty that they would be inundated with emails from parents," reports Clark. But that concern quickly dissipated as they saw how convenient interacting with parents via email could be. "They receive emails from parents and can sit down at any time of day or night-not just during their planning period-answer the parent's questions, and be done within three minutes," says Clark. "It's a win-win situation. They can respond to the parents in a timely manner that does not impact their planning time or personal time."
Raising Self-Esteem
Finally, and perhaps most importantly, Ocoee's relationship with Microsoft and Chancery has helped to raise the self-esteem of Ocoee's students. "Children of this age are very self conscious. They do not like to be singled out or drawn out from the crowd in any way," notes Clark. And the situation is even more extreme for students who come into a new school after the school year has started. Before the integration of Ocoee's data management systems, new students were singled out every time they needed to access the school's resources for the first time, such as in the media center or the cafeteria. Says Clark: "For students that don't want to be singled out, they want to dig a hole at that point in time and jump in it. Everyone's looking at them, frustrated at the time delay, or just noticing that they're new." Now, the moment a new student is enrolled at the front desk, they immediately have proper access to resources in the classroom, the resources in the library, and the ID system in the cafeteria. "So the impact on self-esteem and self-confidence is there. We can see it immediately," says Clark.
The SIF initiative has also benefited the student's self-esteem through the use of the school ID card. At Ocoee, 38 percent of the students have free or reduced lunch. "In the past, I had children who wouldn't eat because they didn't want anyone to know that they received free or reduced lunch," says Clark. But now, with everyone using the ID card to pay for lunch, no one knows whether a particular student has a free or reduced lunch. Again, this impacts the students' self-esteem as well as creating a more positive learning environment, as students who eat regular meals are able to learn more and concentrate better in class. "This is a direct link to the SIF work," says Clark.
Partners in a Continuing Vision
Future technology plans for Ocoee Middle School include extended access of information to parents, the implementation of hand-held and wireless devices, and extended ways to integrate systems and aggregate data on a district level. And Ocoee plans to continue to forge into the 21st century with Microsoft and Chancery at its side.
"We started with this vision of what we could do, and yet I knew that this vision was only the tip of the iceberg. I was looking for companies that wanted to share this vision and also help us extend it further," says Clark. "Microsoft and Chancery have really taken a lead role in that. They have truly joined us as partners in this school and are helping continue our vision."
For more information on Chancery, visit their Web site.
