Databus Issue: 2004 4 10/01/2004
Support Structure Approach for Statewide Student Identifier Project
Martha Friedrich Director of Client Services
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With the passage in 2002 of SB1453, several aspects of California’s response to the “No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act of 2001” became federal mandate. As an integral part, California School Information Services (CSIS) was given the responsibility to assist local education agencies (LEAs) in obtaining Statewide Student Identifiers (SSIDs). Had enough alphabet soup yet? Hang on. The client services department at CSIS has the responsibility to train and support local education agency (LEA) clients engaged in the process to obtain statewide student identifiers for their enrolled students. Responsibility as in “from beginning to end” from outreach and dissemination of the requirement to having SSIDs established within 1,000, plus LEAs for more than six million students (allowing for mobility beyond California’s borders).
The good news for client services was that the normal course of CSIS business provided a substantial head start: 1.9 million students in over 200 LEAs had already been established. Still, in order to reach over 850 LEAs and issue more than four million identifiers in a very short window, CSIS needed to search for ways to become even more efficient and effective. Our goal was to improve efficiency to keep costs down, yet be effective to achieve 100 percent LEA success within the short window.
CSIS recognized that the profile of the 850 LEAs were of varying degrees—from agencies with large information technology (IT) shops to one man/woman shop, rural LEAs to urban LEAs, LEAs with extremely large student enrollment populations (greater than 90,000 student enrollment and 100 schools) to LEAs with tiny student enrollment (five students and one school). The challenge was to deploy a variety of methods for all to be successful and utilize staff that could perform in this diverse environment.
Effective and efficient support staff wear many hats
To that end, CSIS utilizes four trainers who share the workload of creating training material, presenting training sessions, following up support calls and monitoring LEA progress. CSIS also determined that a full-time helpdesk staff member was necessary to answer phone calls. The helpdesk was to respond to first level support calls. Our support plan allowed for the overflow calls to rollover to the four trainers to make sure LEAs would receive a timely response and keep the momentum going.
Effective and efficient training
Costs were an important consideration in rolling out the support plan. Getting the biggest bang for the buck was the trick with training. CSIS could not afford to spend time on the road for weeks each quarter and still reach everyone. To keep training costs low and, yet, provide abundant quality training opportunities, CSIS employed the use of a Web tool to host training sessions via the Internet. Local clients did not have to leave their office and CSIS could reach several individuals at each site. WebEx (the Web tool selected by CSIS) has proved to be an excellent training tool for the LEAs, but CSIS recognized the need for more than one method to reach out to the LEAs to make sure they would be successful in this joint endeavor.
Effective and efficient support structure to handle the field diversity needs
From CSIS training endeavors through our state reporting initiative with more than 200 LEAs, we learned that as with the diverse LEA demographic there were also a similar variety of ”absorption rates” of the training material. The CSIS material is a lot to present and many LEAs would require additional one-on-one conversation to solidify the Identifier process. LEAs needed to perform client setup on a local machine, obtain a digital certificate, learn the identifier portion of CSIS’s state reporting and records transfer (SRRTS) application and then research student matches. This is a sequence of events that could overwhelm even the best of site registrars. Not to mention developing the necessary process strategy to employ locally—this would invariably differ from LEA to LEA.
Eliminate obstacles for LEAs
Finally, CSIS needed to create a structure to assist LEAs having a hard time getting started and completing the work. This last risk mitigation technique is for CSIS Client Services staff to engage in one on one support. Staff members utilize the WebEx PC control function when LEAs need “hands-on” support to complete a task on their local machine. In so doing, CSIS is able to provide step-by-step instruction to those who need an initial jumpstart. Local progress is monitored weekly and CSIS can quickly spot LEAs who are falling behind, then offer additional support to make the local Identifier work and the statewide project successful.
Need help in obtaining your statewide student identifiers?
The CSIS Web site at http://www.csis.k12.ca.us/ (the Statewide Student ID dropdown tab) provides a place to start for background information, training materials, FAQs and the schedule of training available. If that seems daunting, please send an e-mail to ssid@csis.k12.ca.us.
