Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As discussed in my Member’s statement earlier today, the new PowerSchool student information system was recently launched across NWT school systems. After talking to a number of teachers and board officials, there was a common theme of questions that I wish to share today with the Minister of Education. Arguably, the most common issue discussed was the frustration of the importing of data into the new system. Transfer of data in most cases failed, resulting in administration having to commit excess human resources to make this work. This added undue stress to all staff.
Could the Minister of Education offer an explanation as to why this transfer of data was not better tested earlier to avoid such massive stress across the entire NWT in this conversion?
Thank you, Mr. Dolynny. The honourable Minister of Education, Culture and Employment, Mr. Lafferty.
Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. With any new changes and new system, it will take some time. It’s a learning curve during the transition period.
The data transfer occurred during the summer months when the school board and staff were unavailable. We had no choice but to replace the former electronic student information system that’s been placed upon us as a department. The work of transferring data fell to the staff of my department at that time, and they worked long hours to ensure its integrity.
We are confident, as the Department of Education, Culture and Employment, that the PowerSchool is an excellent resource for teachers, parents, schools and school boards, and my department, to make it a true success, but it will take some time and we are going through some hurdles. We will find solutions to that.
The training for educators did occur according to the required access to the different levels of the system, while a reasonable amount of support was provided from ECE but it happened too late in the school year, thus not allowing users the time to learn and prepare for the report card turnaround. Many teachers were found holding the bag and scrambling to use the system while trying to maintain their teaching agenda.
Could the Minister explain why this system training did not occur at the beginning of the school year and why it occurred only seven to 10 days out before report cards?
The training for PowerSchool attendance and grade book occurred at the beginning of the school year. My department worked with the school boards, as we do on any new system, to coordinate a half-day training for every teacher in the Northwest Territories. This is an area that we’ve embarked on. It’s a new system. There’s also a request for a second tier of training. We are in the process of training that’s been rolled out to the school prior to report card writing so that teachers would have additional training. So there is additional training that’s been requested and we have provided that.
Having support during such a changeover requires the ability to have the proper access for help. Allegedly, schools were supposed to have a school support person assigned at each school, and ECE did promise to make sure teachers had access to what is referred to as PowerSource. It was a technical Internet website where teachers could get such help or support. However, many teachers were unaware of such access and were somewhat upset that they could have definitely used such a service.
Could the Minister explain why this PowerSource support offering was not better communicated with all educators?
I totally agree that we need to have a better communication plan and dialogue with the teachers and school boards. That’s what we’re doing as we speak. The PowerSchool implementation team is comprised of staff from my department and also the board from each of the eight regions. It is a coordinated effort, and also the team works together to roll out the PowerSchool tools and information to all teachers across the Northwest Territories. Also, the boards are encouraged to provide PowerSource access to every teacher at the beginning of the school year. That is a coordinated effort by the school boards along with the teachers and my department. We will continue to make that a true success.
Thank you, Mr. Lafferty. Final supplementary, Mr. Dolynny.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Finally, the report card part of PowerSchool is being implemented at the same time that teachers are working on report cards. This is not an ideal situation. ECE is not communicating with parents, and school districts are left taking the initiative to inform and work with parents during a very stressful transition into this new system.
Could the Minister commit to immediately work with his department to initiate a proper communication announcement and inform parents more about PowerSchool and what to expect with this new system?
Yes, again, I do agree there needs to be better communication dialogue from my department with the school boards, and most especially the teachers. Those are areas that we are going to improve on. We will continue to work constantly and be in contact with Pearson, where we got the product from, and the eight boards lead to find solutions to these technical issues and challenges that we’re faced with. I’m very encouraged, in spite of all the obstacles and challenges that we’re faced with, that teachers, school boards and the department recognize that PowerSchool will be an incredible tool for our educators. We are looking forward to having this success throughout the schools in the Northwest Territories.
Thank you, Mr. Lafferty. The honourable Member for Sahtu, Mr. Yakeleya.
