The Free Press, Mankato, MN

Local News

November 29, 2008

Technology will help track student progress

"Infinite Campus" purchased with referendum money

By Tanner Kent

MANKATO — If information is power, then Mankato Area Public Schools have started flexing their muscles.

Now three months into the school year — and in time for the fall conferences that wrapped up last week — the district has fully unveiled its new student information system, Infinite Campus.

Able to track and manipulate nearly every conceivable piece of student data, the district began implementing the program in the months before school started. But because the new program is so large and complex, district technology coordinator Doug Johnson said the implementation process had to be deliberate.

“We rolled it out on a gradual basis,” he said. “We wanted to make sure everything worked before we released it.”

The $134,000 Infinite Campus software was purchased last year with revenue from the district’s 2005 technology referendum. Providing an additional $500,000 each year to the district in technology revenue, the 2005 referendum has also been used to purchase new computers and Smart Boards.

Infinite Campus can track all the standard data, like student grades and absences. But administrators can also use it to analyze standardized testing data. Teachers can use it to develop individualized lesson plans. School officials can use it to track demographic data and project enrollments.

But, Johnson said, the most important aspect of the program might be its uses for parents. After a simple login process, Johnson said parents have complete access to their child’s grades, absences and assignments as well as other information that teachers make available.

In January, the district is planning on extending that access to students in grades 6-12.

“The philosophy is we want to make parents our partners in the educational process,” Johnson said.

Infinite Campus replaces Sasi XP, which the district began using almost 10 years ago. Updates are no longer available and support for the old system has all but disappeared.

Roosevelt Elementary administrative assistant Betty Groth was on the team that reviewed student information systems and chose Infinite Campus.

“I love the new system,” said Groth when the software was purchased. “The old one is antiquated.”

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