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We use eSIS
I'm thrilled that Hawaii moved from about a half-dozen different SIS database products [WinSchool, MacSchool, PowerSchool, etc.] to a common product in eSIS for student scheduling and transcript info. Unlike everywhere else in the country, we have one state-wide school district, and it is really helpful to have us all on one page. We are especially fortunate that we have extremely knowlegable staff supporting us. I spent 25 years as a science teacher and never once received the level of state or district support I get on a daily basis as registrar. I also like the fact that eSIS runs in an Oracle database world, so I know that our data is secure and stable. It also appears that many of the school districts in the west coast are using eSIS, so reports are often provided for transfer students in the same format. Washington state schools also seem to be using the same course codes that we use in Hawaii, and that is a major boost towards ease of accepting student transfers.

That said, our administrators showed their true colors and typical lack of foresight by rejecting the idea of using one SIS database to include SpEd student info, disciplinary info, meal tracker data and a number of other student databases. It appears that very petty arguments between administrators of the different divisions has kept us from implementing many of the features in eSIS that would have allowed us a much more streamlined approach.

As an Oracle administrator, one of the most important database lessons I learned was that data should only be entered once. Our system just about guarantees that we have conflicting data for many of our students.

I can't tell from looking at the X2 web site what its underlying database product is. Nor can I seen any of the course codes that various schools are using. I do like the wide array of reports, and the apparent ease of sharing report formats [eSIS has a lot of reports, but they are cumbersome and expensive to reformat for our specific purposes, other than simple excel or text output] Since cost is a huge factor for school districts, it would be nice to have some idea of what it runs for both local and hosted database options for a school district of about 200K students.

Perhaps in another 5 years or so, just about the time we all get proficient in eSIS, our state will purchase yet another incompatible system that will do a better job of merging all of the student data systems [eSIS could actually do them all, we just didn't purchase all of the various modules available] and we'll get an opportunity to look at X2 or other systems with an eye to purchase and use.

From a practical point of view, it would seem of greater importance for our students that we use common codes and accept common standards for our courses, than that we use the same database. Perhaps under the new administration in DC, we'll move more in that direction over the next few years. I can think of far worse situations that if we all adopted Massachusetts' standards.
Posted by: steve96785   Posted on: 05/06/09 You are currently: a Guest | Members login | Terms of Use
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We use eSIS  steve96785 | 05/06/09

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