Through the course of my inquiries about Powerschool, the student data capturing and centralization program, the following note (below) landed in my inbox.

——– Forwarded Message ——–
Subject: Performance Letter from PowerSchool Group, LLC
Date: Wed, 24 Feb 2016 07:39:44 -0600
From: North Carolina Public Schools <NCPublicSchools@public.govdelivery.com>
Reply-To: NCPublicSchools@public.govdelivery.com

NCDPI wishes to acknowledge the performance and stability issues with the PowerSchool product over the past few months. We are aware that the current work environment has not met expectations and is operating at an unacceptable level to support the important work you do on a daily basis. Our emphasis has been to push our vendor, PowerSchool Group, LLC, to resolve these issues in a conclusive way to bring the environment up to an acceptable standard. The attached letter from PowerSchool mentions some of these efforts and acknowledges, from their perspective, their failure to provide the tools you require.

NCDPI will continue to push PowerSchool towards making system improvements that benefit and meet the needs of NC users. Thank you for your continued input and feedback; both are powerful tools in making this happen.

Continue to communicate with us.

Aaron

Aaron Bissonnette
E-SIS Business Analyst
Digital Teaching and Learning Division
NCDPI
919.807.3238Call: 919.807.3238
Aaron.Bissonnette@dpi.nc.gov

Powerschool’s initial set up was very costly. Apparently it is continuing to be.

It has also been very glitchy, has been subject to DDOS attacks, hacking, has been called a ‘train wreck‘ and has provided teachers and administrators across the state with no end of frustration.

Powerschool was a Pearson product.  Powerschool selected due to the long-standing relationship with various officials within the Department of Public Instruction, yet Pearson unloaded the product about a year ago by selling it to Vista Equity Partners.

By the way, three years later, as an elementary student parent I still do not have access. This is an ongoing violation of my FERPA rights and that of any other parents who has not been able to gain access.  If that is your situation, please reach out to me.