Delaware Moves Forward with Transcript Transfer Portal Project

  • By Dian Schaffhauser
  • 12/13/10

The Delaware Department of Education has contracted with SunGard Public Sector to build a student transcript exchange portal that that will facilitate electronic data exchange between PK-12 institutions in the state and Delaware colleges and universities that are using SunGard's Banner Digital Campus. The new application will ultimately become part of the standard offerings made by SunGard to its education customers.

"This is different from what currently exists in other states in that we are not seeking to send PDFs, but rather the actual data from our [student information system] that can be utilized by the higher eds in their admissions decisions," said Judi Coffield, policy analyst for the Delaware Department of Education. "This will eliminate time consuming data entry and opportunity for data entry errors."

According to SunGard, the transcript portal will eventually be integrated with the company's student information system, eSchoolPLUS. The new program will let parents and students view the status of the data exchange; it'll also maintain status alerts that can be accessed by the sending and receiving institutions on each end of the process.

In October 2010 the state announced its contract with AcademyOne to develop an interactive Web portal that reports which college courses transfer between Delaware institutions and also provides a background process for transfer of college credits.

In other news, SunGard said it has responded to Delaware's recently issued request for information to develop a new Web site called the "Education Insight Portal." This project, whose request for proposal is expected this month, encompasses development of a Web-based system for delivering customized dashboards and reports for multiple school constituents. The portal, which is scheduled to be piloted in summer 2011, was a key element in helping the state to win a United States Department of Education Race to the Top grant. Delaware will receive about $100 million in funding over the next four years to make changes to its education systems.

Delaware's Department of Education has been working with SunGard's Public Sector division since 1999. In addition to Delaware's statewide deployment of eSchoolPLUS, the organization has also deployed the company's special education management system, IEPPLUS, in districts throughout the state.

About the Author

Dian Schaffhauser is a former senior contributing editor for 1105 Media's education publications THE Journal, Campus Technology and Spaces4Learning.

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