MySchoolSask (MSS) Student Information System - Aspen
In 2017, the Ministry of Education began planning for implementation of a provincial student information system.
In April 2018 the tender was awarded and school divisions began planning for the transition to MySchoolSask (MSS).
Once fully implemented, MySchoolSask will benefit the province with a single student information system and a real-time electronic record for each student.
From the beginning, the plan included a phased implementation.
In September 2019, Prairie Valley successfully completed the first steps of implementation, which included transferring all student demographic data to the new system.
The next steps are a full roll-out of the system's functionality including the parent and student portals.
We are confident in the new system. It is functioning as expected, all the data is transitioned, accessible and secure.
The new system has a lot of benefits, such as providing equitable and equal access to modern technology for all school divisions (our previous system was end of life), improved reporting, data sharing, data analytics and process efficiencies.
Questions and Answers
What is MySchoolSask?
MySchoolSask is the new centralized provincial student information system. It is the result of a provincial initiative to have one unified student information system across the province.
MySchoolSask replaces legacy systems, such as Prairie Valley's HomeLogic application. The new system has increased capacity to record student demographics, schedules, attendance, marks and reporting. Eventually, MySchoolSask will be implemented province-wide, resulting in common technology for teachers and families.
Prairie Valley is one of approximately half of the province's school divisions that implemented the new program in 2019. All school divisions across the province will be using MySchoolSask by 2021.
Once fully implemented, each student in Saskatchewan will have a single, comprehensive, secure student record in the new system from Kindergarten through to Grade 12.
Why is one unified system better?
Prior to MySchoolSask, school divisions utilized different systems. This created challenges and inefficiencies when students transferred schools and school divisions independently developed their own reporting structures and tools.
A consistent information system across the province will ease the transition of students among school divisions, provide greater reporting and analytical capacity that will help us plan and program for students, create business process efficiencies and provide data security.
What happened to SIRS/HomeLogic?
The program was end of life and was no longer supported by the vendor. Knowing this, Prairie Valley began the process of implementing MySchoolSask in 2018 as part of the first cohort of school divisions to transition to the new system.
What are the benefits of the new system compare to the old?
Prior to MySchoolSask, school divisions in the province were using different data systems. While Prairie Valley's old system, SIRS, was secure, it was outdated and was no longer supported by the vendor.
The new system has a lot of benefits:
- a friendly user interface that is optimized for mobile devices with anytime, anywhere access
more features in the parent and student portals, like at-a-glance views of student calendars and timetables - a single, comprehensive, secure digital student record that follows students from Kindergarten to Grade 12
- equitable and equal access to modern technology for all school divisions (our previous system was end of life)
- real time data updates (once the system is rolled out across the province)
- standard enrolment functionality to register, transfer, withdraw, and archive students
- curriculum management and graduation calculation that looks at student's courses and other data elements to track progress toward graduation requirements
- scheduling functionality
- courses and marks management
- data sharing across divisions
- improved data analytics
- business process efficiencies
MySchoolSask is configured to ensure data security and data privacy while at the same time ensuring every authorized user can easily access the data they need to perform their function. Divisions and schools can configure their preferences to identify what information is available and displayed on the student/parent portal.
Another feature is one teacher record for each teacher in the province. Even if they are teaching in two school divisions, their basic demographic information is only recorded once. Staff members can be assigned different roles at different institutions.
Is this a good change?
Yes. This new software provides significantly more functionality than the previous system and will be well supported in the years ahead. As well, Prairie Valley's legacy system (SIRS) had reached end-of-life and the division needed to move to a new system.
What is the biggest change for me?
For students and families, the biggest change is new and better parent and student portals as well as changes in report cards for elementary grades.
How will this affect report cards?
Implementing MySchoolSask gave the sector an opportunity to move toward greater consistency in reporting and recording student achievement.
As a result, in 2019-2020 parents will notice that the achievement scale for report cards in Kindergarten to Grade 9 are different.
For students in Kindergarten to Grade 5, the change is relatively minor while the change for students in Grades 6 to 9 will be more significant due to how students in these grades are currently assessed –parents will no longer see traditional letter grades ranging from A+ to ED but instead will see a four-tier scale: Beginning, Approaching, Meeting and Exemplary.
There is no change to reporting on Grades 10 to 12 report cards this year.
More information on the update to report cards is available here.
What if I can't find what I'm looking for on MSS? Who do I contact or where do I go for information?
Prairie Valley has developed a number of resources to help students and parents navigate the new system. You can find those resources here. If you need further assistance, contact your school and they can direct you.
Who is responsible for this project?
The Ministry of Education initiated and led the project in collaboration with school divisions. Fujitsu is the service provider, selected via a tender in 2018 and the software is Aspen, known as MySchoolSask.
How long have you been working on this project?
In 2017, the Ministry of Education began planning for implementation. In April 2018 the tender was awarded and school divisions began planning for the transition to MySchoolSask (MSS). School divisions are responsible for end-user support and have some autonomy to determine specific settings and preferences within the system.
Was the timeline on this project extended? Why?
Yes. The vendors and province decided to delay implementation to the 2019 school year rather than implementing in 2018. This was done to give more time for development and ensuring proper transfer of data as each school division was using a different system.
There have also been some considerable challenges in pulling data over from the previous student information system. School and division-based personnel had to manually go through and edit schedules, address, contacts, billets, etc. This has caused some delays, though understandable with a project this size.
Why has the Parent Portal been delayed from when you announced it would be ready?
The plan was to roll the parent portal out across the school division in phases. We originally anticipated that the parent portal would be available in early October and schools could open the parent portal to their school communities as they became ready. However, the data transfer required significantly more manual attention than we anticipated, which delayed the initial roll-out for most schools.
On October 24, the Ministry of Education announced that the 'academics' area in parent and student portals will be suspended effective October 25th at 5 pm to allow time to troubleshoot and test the accuracy of data. This means until further notice, marks will not be visible in the parent or student portal. Attendance information is still viewable.
We know how critical it is for parents to have access to attendance and achievement information to support your child. When we know more about when the academics section of the parent and student portals can be expected to be back up, we will let you know.
We recognize this delay is disappointing and we continue to appreciate your patience as we work with our provincial partners on the full rollout of MySchoolSask across our school division.
When will all parent portals be up and running?
We are awaiting more information from the Ministry of Education. When we know more about when the academics section of the parent and student portals can be expected to be back up, we will let you know.
Why did some schools release the parent portal when others did not?
The plan always was for the parent portal rollout to occur in stages, as schools in our division became ready to release.
When was the software initially rolled out? When will it be completely rolled out?
Initial roll out for teachers and staff occurred in September 2019 as part of a phased approach to implementation. The parent and student portal rollout is phased in, to be completed by the end of November. There could be additional features and functionality added over time.
Why isn't the old system still up while you get the new system working?
Implementing MySchoolSask in Prairie Valley School Division has been a big undertaking that required the support of many within the Education Centre and schools. To ensure we were able to invest full resources into the new application, we made the decision to focus on MSS. Throughout the implementation of MSS, SIRS remained intact as a back-up.
What role has my school had in this rollout?
Schools have taken part in training provided by the vendor and/or Education Centre staff. School administrative assistants have played an integral role in the data migration from the old system and school administrators are supporting implementation through parent and employee communication efforts.
When can we expect the system to be up and running fully? Is there any more 'software' to roll out?
Once the parent and student portals are fully rolled out, the system will be fully functional for Prairie Valley School Division. Parents shouldn't expect any more new software rollouts this year, though new features could be added as updates occur.