Statement
STATEMENT BY HONOURABLE SHARIE B. DE CASTRO
MINISTER FOR EDUCATION, YOUTH AFFAIRS & SPORTS
EIGHT SITTING OF THE FOURTH SESSION OF THE FOURTH HOUSE OF ASSEMBLY OF THE VIRGIN ISLANDS
TUESDAY, 15TH NOVEMBER, 2022
POWERSCHOOL STUDENT INFORMATION SYSTEM
Madam Speaker, PowerSchool is the Student Information System used by the Ministry of Education, Youth Affairs and Sports to digitize and store students’ data. PowerSchool is an internet-based student information system that is used in our public schools. It functions either independently or with other computer applications to provide educators with robust tools for viewing, storing, and retrieving students’ data.
Madam Speaker, PowerSchool tracks student records and progress. School administrators and teachers enter the data into the system, where it is stored and can then be accessed by running searches and reports. Parents can monitor their children's progress, access course outlines, determine assignment schedules and learn about school activities. The information managed by PowerSchool include grades, attendance records, school schedules, class schedules, graduation progress, credit recovery data, community service, daily bulletins, and citizenship.
Madam Speaker, this school year, the Ministry has continued the execution of its mandate of digitization through the implementation of special data capture add-ons to capture data to inform graduation plan progress, credit recovery, summer school programmes and community service from Grades five (5) to twelve (12). Madam Speaker, these add-ons will help to further enhance the education ecosystem through technology that connects students, teachers, administrators and parents with the shared goal of improving student outcomes.
Madam Speaker, the next area of advancement will be the unified classroom special programme which will enable the capability to track the data to improve student outcomes in special education, as well as the community service application designed to allow students to input their community service activities directly into PowerSchool for verification and approval. Additionally, steps are being taken to give the Alternative Secondary Education Programme access to PowerSchool.
Madam Speaker, PowerSchool has been used for many years in the system. However, the additions this year will ensure improved accuracy and accountability in the aforementioned key areas. Madam Speaker, this is all in an effort to improve the system by effectively monitoring, evaluating and reporting on areas such as enrollment, attendance, learning, instruction, grading, assessments and analytics- all in one unified platform.
Thank you Madam Speaker.
