The court-appointed monitor overseeing the L.A. Unified's long-running effort to implement a comprehensive student information software system released its annual report assessing the district's progress.
LAUSD was mandated to create the system as a result of a federal lawsuit in the 1990s that alleged the district violated special-education students' rights, in part, by keeping disorganized records. The effort has stumbled multiple times along the way.
The district launched the newly developed system -- known as My Integrated Student Information System, or MISIS -- at the beginning of the school year. It was immediately met with outcry from teachers and school staff who said the system had major glitches that prevented them from entering grades and attendance, or even figuring out which students were supposed to be in their classes.
The report by the independent monitor, David Rostetter, noted that there were problems with "data integration" between MISIS and other district data systems, including the system that tracks special-education students. Interface problems between the systems "resulted in inaccurate data in both systems, where students would show up on one system and not the other," the monitor found.
Of 201 schools surveyed by the monitor that were using the new system, more than 80% reported that they had trouble identifying students with special needs and more than two-thirds said they had trouble placing students in the right programs.
Rostetter faulted the district for "lack of transparency" in initially downplaying issues with the new system, including in a news release issued Aug. 15 that said the program's "glitches have affected less than 1 percent of students overall.”
The monitor wrote that his office's findings "validate the concerns and impact on schools reported by the school personnel, professional organizations and as reported by the media during the beginning of this school year." They also "contradict the district’s assertions" that the majority of problems with MISIS had been resolved.
The report, in part, blamed inadequate training for the problems.
However, Rostetter noted that LAUSD remains "committed" to implementing the system and acknowledged the "additional work and commitment to resolve these problems" by school staff and Internet technology workers.
©2014 the Los Angeles Times
