To paraphrase the Greek philosopher Plato, the direction in which a person’s education starts will determine that person’s future. Making sure that students are headed in the right educational direction is a top priority for the Phoenix Union High School District in Arizona.

Founded in 1895, today Phoenix Union has 11 full-sized campuses that collectively educate approximately 25,000 students, ages 14 through 18. Its average school has a student body of about 3,000 and a campus of up to 55 acres. To maintain the safety of its many students on such large campuses, the district employs between 10 and 12 security guards per school. It also requires students to carry identification cards that can be used in cafeterias, for discounted public transportation, and to show that they belong on campus.

Within campus borders, however, there was a growing problem. Like many high-school pupils, students in the Phoenix Union High School District were testing the boundaries when it came to getting to class on time. “Tardiness is a chronic high-school problem, but our schools’ administrators were concerned about the sharp increase in the numbers of late and loitering students,” says Marty Hoeffel, former Principal and current Principal Coach for the Phoenix Union High School District. “We needed a way to control the issue and get students to where they should be, while minimizing the disruption of those students who were on time to class.”

When they came across students in the halls or out on campus during class time, security personnel would use radios to call back to the office. A designated staff member there would look up each student’s record within the district’s student information system to determine where that student should be and issue a detention appointment. The security guard would then escort the student to the correct location. “Not only was it time-consuming to call in every late student over the radio, but it also resulted in a lot of radio traffic and tied up those devices that are meant for security purposes,” says Hoeffel. It took so long, in fact, that students with legitimate reasons for being out of class could wait as long as 20 minutes to be cleared and allowed to attend the remainder of their 55-minute class.

The tardiness issue had become so severe—there were up to 200 students per class period—that security guards at some schools began conducting “sweeps.” These involved gathering all lingering students and taking them to a central location, where they were given reading and math assignments. “When a student walks in late in the middle of a lecture or lab, it disrupts the teacher and the whole class. So we made the decision to keep tardy students from detracting from the learning opportunities of their classmates,” explains Hoeffel.

From a tracking standpoint, school administrators often had trouble ensuring that a student’s tardiness was recorded and retained in the right place. Generally, an office assistant received either radio reports or paper detention slips from the security guards and manually noted everything in a large spreadsheet. “But plenty of incidents were not being recorded properly because of the inherent inefficiencies of the manual process,” says Hoeffel. “Students realized that they could skip detention and not suffer any consequences because often the person overseeing detention had no updated, accurate list of expected attendees.”

Administrators asked the district for a solution that would help them solve the rising tardiness problem while maintaining a positive learning environment. “Our teachers and students face considerable pressure to perform up to the mandated state and national levels for education, so we need to do all that we can to have students in class as much as possible,” says Donald Fournier, Division Manager of Information Services for the Phoenix Union High School District. “We weren’t looking for a way to punish students more effectively, but instead to change their behavior by holding them more accountable and removing some of the anonymity of our large campus settings.”

When Fournier evaluated the central processing method, he determined that it was too slow and that whatever technology solution the IS team arrived at would need to be put in the hands of security personnel for patrolling the campuses. During the 2004–2005 school year, the team worked closely with security guards from several schools to identify the features that they would like in a mobile device and system. The guards wanted a system that was rugged and not too heavy or bulky; easy and intuitive to use; that included a built-in scanner to read barcodes on student identification cards; and that had photographic capabilities.

By the 2005–2006 school year, the IS team began implementing the mobile solution, which used 62 Symbol MC 50 devices and ran on Windows Mobile 2003 software. As of January 2006, Fournier had given devices to security and administrative staff members at all 11 district campuses. By the end of the 2006–2007 school year, every campus will have 12 devices, which will be used by everyone from security guards and vice principals to athletic directors and faculty attending school-sponsored events.

Training has almost been a non-issue for Hoeffel and other users thus far. “I was really impressed with how simple it was to use,” says Hoeffel. “After about a five-minute introduction, I was easily maneuvering through the application, largely because it’s such a familiar environment. There wasn’t a bit of intimidation factor for using the solution, and that’s important because most of the security personnel are not advanced technology users—that’s not part of their job.”

When a guard encounters a student after class has started, a quick scan of the barcode on that student’s identification card brings up that student’s record, including schedule and emergency contact information in addition to a photograph—right on the mobile device. The guard verifies the student’s identity, checks to see that the student is indeed supposed to be in class at that time, and then immediately issues a detention appointment. Within a minute or two, guards can record detention information in the device and send students on their way. Some schools still maintain a centralized processing center and only release students from that area during the next passing period, but other schools are sending students directly to class, where they are only a few minutes late.

When a guard docks a device at the end of a shift, it automatically sends that information to the student information system. The school’s office staff then can produce and distribute an up-to-date report listing all the students who are expected to show up for detention.

The Phoenix Union High School District has made great strides in ensuring that students are where they ought to be, which increases the potential for a complete educational experience for the whole student body. Also, administrators and security personnel are able to provide a safer campus environment, and they can be more proactive about helping students who are routinely late because they have the information that they need to notice trends in behavior. “We’ve streamlined our process and, in doing so, made information accessible and life easier for people in a number of different roles throughout our high schools,” says Hoeffel.

Because security guards have at-their-fingertips access to student-related information and the ability to process information about tardiness, they are able to get students to the right location faster. “It’s much more efficient now that people don’t have to radio in a report about each student and wait for information from the office,” says Hoeffel. “No longer spending half of the class period dealing with tardy students frees up our radio air time and gets students into a learning environment more quickly. It also gives administrators and security personnel more time to devote to the students who need their attention.”

Fournier, Hoeffel, and other district leaders view the mobile system as a success in large part because students’ behavior in the high schools has changed. “Students quickly realized that they were less likely to get away with cutting class penalty-free and that the anonymity of being one of 3,000 on 55 acres just wasn’t as available anymore,” says Hoeffel. “We’ve seen a 40 percent reduction in tardiness in one of our high schools.” That change in student behavior is evidence of the success of the district’s innovative use of technology in fostering a better educational environment, which district leaders hope will translate into better-educated students and higher test scores.

In addition to the improvement in student behavior, school administrators noticed a change in the relationship between students and those carrying the mobile devices. Students were interested in the new technology, which gave security guards, vice principals, and others the opportunity to start conversations to get to know the students better. The increased interaction improved the relationship between each school’s staff and student body.

Some administrators are establishing tighter control over who is on school property by positioning security guards with devices at the entry points of the schools. The guards scan all students’ identification cards as they enter to ensure that everyone who comes in is meant to be there. “Administrators also bring the devices home on occasion to give them instant access to student information in case they need to address calls from social services or the police requesting contact information,” says Hoeffel. “Not only can they provide the right data more quickly, they can do so without the time and inconvenience of returning to the school building, which used to be necessary.”

Others among school faculty and staff—including athletic directors at both home and away games and teachers supervising school events such as dances—consider the mobile devices as additional safety tools. “Those responsible for students in school-sponsored settings can take action more quickly if there’s an incident or accident, thanks to their access to emergency contact information,” says Hoeffel.

“We had a student who got hit by a car while crossing the street from one of our schools,” says Fournier. “The administrator on duty immediately called emergency services and, by scanning the student’s identification card, was able to get emergency contact information for the parents and call them right away. In this case, the parent was able to rush over to the accident site and ride in the ambulance with the child.”

Now that the security and administrative staff have the means to keep a better account of student behavior, interventionists at every high school have access to accurate information about students on a daily basis. The interventionists can analyze up-to-date information, look for patterns—such as a student repeatedly missing a particular class—and work directly with students or their counselors to help resolve whatever underlying issues may be causing the tardiness problem.

Concludes Hoeffel, “The key to our success has been to give everyone immediate access to the information that they need, allowing us to instantly know more about our students and maintain a healthier campus environment.”

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