No matter how many students a school or district has, one thing
remains the same--the vital importance of tracking student attendance,
grades, standardized test scores, school or district transfers, and
more. Administrators, teachers, students, and parents all depend on a
reliable Student Information System (SIS) to give accurate reports and
updates.

And the U.S Department of Education's announcement that it will
require schools to use a uniform method to calculate graduation and
dropout rates highlights the need for easy-to-use products that can be
seamlessly installed and quickly learned.

With the generous support of Pearson School Systems, we've compiled
stories from the eSchool News archives, as well as some best practices
and additional resources to help your school staff make the most
informed decision as possible when considering SIS implementation.

Today's students could fail at life, says Harvard's Tony Wagner, because their schools are too busy teaching to the test  

Wagner said the problem is that you can have all the equipment
and technology you want, but "if you don't teach kids how to think, how
to think beyond multiple choice, you've got a problem."

He told another story illustrating this same problem:

Our name has changed from the Office of Indian Education Programs, OIEP, to the Bureau of Indian Education, BIE. <!--The website address has changed from oiep.bia.edu to BIE.EDU-->

After you have looked over our new site, please take a moment and
tell us if you were able to find the information you were seeking and
provide any comments or recommendations you have to make the site even
better. Click on Contact BIE - Feedback to provide your comments.

The BIE has responsibility for 184 elementary and secondary schools
and dormitories as well as 24 colleges, and our Bureau-operated Haskell
Indian Nations University and Southwest Indian Polytechnic Institute.
Our post-secondary institutions, schools and dormitories are located on
63 reservations in 23 states across the United States serving
approximately 60,000 students representing 238 different tribes.

Xiwasan sutixa’ is Aymara for ‘this is our name’  – and there is a new name in the OLE family: OLE Bolivia. Under the gifted leadership of Yamandu (Yama) Ploskonka, OLE has hit the ground running in this South American country!

While formal incorporation of a national OLE is in progress with recruitment of a national board of directors, Yama has brought together a team of local volunteers to translate the Sugar computer interface used in the XO computers from One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) into Aymara, the language spoken by over two million Bolivians. During the weekend of September 13-14 the team worked through a 25-hour-long marathon session on this important project. . A further translation project will allow OLE members to use the Course Development Studio and access the Billion Kids Library in Aymara.