Online Systems and the Madison School District’s Remote Capabilities/Results (infinite Campus)
The lengthy 2020-2021 remote experience that Madison’s K-12 students endured made me wonder how the taxpayer funded school district is performing with online services.
I was part of a group that reviewed the District’s acquisition of “Infinite Campus” software in the 2000’s. Having been through many software implementations, I asked the District’s then IT/Chief Information Officer if teachers and staff would be required to use this system, as part of their day to day jobs?
“No”.
I asked how they planned to successfully implement the system?
“with great care”.
I then suggested that they forego the purchase and not spend the money (million$ over time) if the system was not made part of everyone’s job.
How did it go?
2010 Madison School District Usage Report. More.
2012 Infinite Campus Usage Referendum.
2012 Madison Teachers, Inc:
As the District contemplates consequences for those teachers who are not using Infinite Campus, MTI has heard from several members about the difficulty in meeting this District expectation.
2013: Infinite Campus To Cover Wisconsin? DPI Intends to Proceed
Fast forward to 2020. I sent an open records request to the Madison School District on 28 July 2020 requesting the following:
Number of distinct teachers who login daily, weekly and monthly
Number of assignments created weekly
Number of report cards created and updated weekly
Number of distinct parents who login daily, weekly and monthly
Number of distinct students who login daily, weekly and monthly
Total Infinite Campus license, hosting and maintenance costs (2019-2020)
I received the following on 14 September 2021, from Mankah Mitchell:
Number of distinct teachers who login daily, weekly and monthly
- On average, 1,558 unique staff members logged in to Infinite Campus each day in the 2019-20 school year in MMSD.
- On average, 2,885 unique staff members logged in to Infinite Campus each week in the 2019-20 school year in MMSD.
- On average, 3,527 unique staff members logged in to Infinite Campus each month in the 2019-20 school year in MMSD.
Number of assignments created weekly
MMSD teachers created a total of 236,650 assignments in Infinite Campus during the 2019-20 school year. MMSD teachers created an average of 6,396 assignments per week in Infinite Campus.
Number of report cards created and updated weekly
- (In the 2019-20 school year…)13,502 elementary (4K-5th grade) students received 2 report cards each, for an estimated total of 27,004 Elementary report cards.
- 5,486 middle school students received 2 report cards each, for an estimated total of 10,972 report cards. In some cases, students also received quarterly progress reports, totaling a maximum possible count of 21,944 quarterly progress reports and report cards combined.
- 7,891 high school students received 2 report cards each, for an estimated total of 15,782 report cards. In some cases, students also received quarterly progress reports, totaling a maximum possible count of 31,564 quarterly progress reports and report cards combined.
Number of distinct parents who login daily, weekly and monthly
- On average, 42 unique parents logged in to Infinite Campus each day in the 2019-20 school year.
- On average, 133 unique parents logged in to Infinite Campus each week in the 2019-20 school year.
- On average, 256 unique parents logged in to Infinite Campus each month in the 2019-20 school year.
Number of distinct students who login daily, weekly and monthly
- On average, 2,671 unique students logged in to Infinite Campus each day in the 2019-20 school year.
- On average, 6,608 unique students logged in to Infinite Campus each week in the 2019-20 school year.
- On average, 9,295 unique students logged in to Infinite Campus each month in the 2019-20 school year.
Total Infinite Campus license, hosting and maintenance costs (2019-2020)
MMSD spent a total of $149,140.92 on Infinite Campus in the 2019-2020 school year.
## The linked pdf report, includes some interesting notes, as well.
I remain interested in this topic for several reasons:
- I was part of the original review group, and had implementation experience.
- I was and am very concerned about the lack of (consistent) pervasive online learning experiences in our very well taxpayer funded K-12 system, amidst long term, disastrous reading results.
- The inability to do this, effectively, while spending millions reflects much larger organizational challenges.
- The imposition of remote learning on our student population – while many other districts managed to stay in person – has long term consequences for all of us.
- A “successful” implementation of a system such as Infinite Campus would have placed everyone in a much better position for the events of 2020-2021.
- ** I do not mean to suggest that Infinite Campus is the be all/end all. Rather, it is the system we have spent millions on….
- ***** I spoke recently with someone familiar with large scale healthcare software implementations. One of the largest vendors conducts a review with clients on the tools they use, sort of use and don’t use along with the costs thereof (and any 3rd party services that may or may not be useful). With respect to Madison, perhaps it is time to rethink many things….
Related (2011): On the 5-2 Madison School Board No (Cole, Hughes, Moss, Passman, Silveira) Madison Preparatory Academy IB Charter School Vote (Howard, Mathiak voted Yes) [rejected].
And, my 2012 conversation with Henry Tyson.
