Today Pearson announced the successful completion of software training for 4,500 staff members at Henry County Schools, GA, on Pearson’s Schoolnet, in time for to the start of school. In late May of this year, Henry County Schools selected Schoolnet as its new web-based Instructional Management System (IMS). This comprehensive technology solution will serve Henry County’s 50 schools and more than 40,000 students.
As one the state’s Race to the Top grant recipients, Henry County Schools were looking to purchase a unified technology platform to drive student performance and make instructional planning more data-driven and efficient for their more than 2,600 teachers.
“With Schoolnet, we will be able to make systemic and systematic decisions around program effectiveness, instructional effectiveness, curriculum implementation, and student learning. Schoolnet will change the way we do business by giving us immediate access to meaningful data in ways we never had before,” said Aaryn Schmuhl, Henry County’s assistant superintendent for learning and leadership.
Schoolnet will serve as the technology backbone for Henry County Schools. The district is adding assessment item banks, as well as implementing Schoolnet resources for management of response to intervention (RTI) and professional development within the system.
“In addition to the curriculum authoring tools, the lesson planner, and the ability to track and tie assessment and curricular items to standards, we are excited about the response to intervention module that will help us to target, track, and intervene with students in need of help,” continued Schmuhl. “In the past, this has been a challenging process for our district because of a lack of centralized tools and processes.”
While Schoolnet allows educators to manage student performance, that information isn’t limited to just the teacher’s view. “We are also very enthusiastic about the parent and student communication portals, which will give our parent community unparalleled access to their student’s education process in ways that extend far beyond your basic grade book portal,” stated Schmuhl.
Over a three day period from July 30 - August 1, 13 Pearson trainers held 114 sessions within the district’s 50 schools to make sure all of the teachers and administrators were prepared to begin using Schoolnet in the schools and classrooms before the first day of school.
“The Schoolnet team has a lot of experience with these implementations, and our teams partnered to move at just the right pace. The implementation process was easy to follow and allowed us to implement and train end-users less than two months after our project kick-off,” said Schumhl.
