Management Information Systems & School Registration 1

School registration systems Used to record attendance. Used for health and safety – who is in the building and who isn’t. Used to discourage truancy. Used to provide statistics to be used in comparisons with other schools.

Old paper-based system Used paper registers. Teachers record marks next to students. Recorded twice a day (i.e. morning and afternoon). Marks added up manually by form teacher. Disadvantages: Registers were often left unattended, which meant students could easily alter the register. Mistakes in register entries meant registers were hard to understand. Statistics for attendance tended only to be produced each term. Teachers were responsible for the accuracy of the registers. Students could register themselves and then play truant by not attending the lessons. Advantages: No training required

Computer-based methods of registration Features include: Capturing student attendance automatically. Very fast recording of attendance details. Avoiding the misuse of the system as far as possible. Enabling not only morning and afternoon attendance to be recorded but also attendance at each lesson. Relatively inexpensive. Ability to work with other ICT systems used in the school, such as the system for recording student details.

ICT methods available OMR (optical mark recognition) Works by teachers shading in boxes on forms. Forms are batched together. Sent for reading by an optical mark reader. Reports can be produced from the system.

ICT methods available Smart cards: use a chip chip is read by a reader to record attendance are open to abuse by students (you can give your card to someone else).

ICT methods available Swipe cards: plastic cards like a credit card contain a magnetic strip with data on it students swipe card through a reader their attendance is recorded.

Biometric methods Biometric – a property of the human body, such as fingerprints or pattern on the retina, that can be used to identify a person. Biometric methods include: fingerprinting retinal scanning.

Advantages/Disadvantages of biometric methods Advantages: Unique to each student / No-one else can register for you Cannot forget like a card /cannot lose a finger as you can a swipe card Real time registration/know immediately where pupils are/can track pupils Frees up teacher time Less human error Disadvantages: Expensive to install Privacy issues / DPA Hygiene issues Faulty equipment causes delays (e.g. dirty camera) Calibration / Time consuming to collect biometric data from people Training for staff and students

Student attendance can be tracked throughout lessons more accurately than paper. Attendance can be monitored by Year head / manager. Tutor can track progress of their class throughout the day. Keep everyone informed of pupil attendance. E.g. all teachers for a pupil can see whether they are in school in previous lessons. Better accuracy than paper. Teachers can be quickly informed of absence etc. Paper costs lower & helping environment. More secure than paper based registers. Summary of Advantages/Disadvantages of Computer Based Registration Cost to introduce. Cost of staff training. A change in working practices may take a while. Data security may be an issue. Viruses could destroy data. Power cut could result in register not being made available. Problems during fire drill? What if teachers forget to take the register?

Management information systems in schools Supply information to managers and other staff to enable them to make effective decisions.

Examples of uses for MIS in schools Yr 9/Yr12 option choices Registration Timetable software Examination entries SEN / Special Educational Needs Finance / Budget Inventory Behaviour Pupil progress (parents or staff) Pupil contact details Locate a pupil / teacher Spotting truancy/ attendance patterns Sending letters to parents Medical needs Cafeteria administration Calendar School announcements

Advantages of management information systems in schools They reduce the workload for teachers in the classroom and in the school office. They can provide up-to-date information for parents. They can support decision making for school managers. They can tackle truancy effectively. They can be used to plan timetables. More efficient tracking and monitoring Central access to data Can access 24/7

Disadvantages of management information systems in schools The software is complex, so all staff need training. Software can be expensive to buy and maintain Cost of giving every teacher an administrator computer / putting a computer in every classroom for the teacher