STEVENS POINT, Wis. (Sept. 29, 2015) – Skyward, an industry leading K-12 school administrative software provider, announces its completion of vendor testing and certification for the company’s Student Management Suite through the Kansas Department of Education (KSDE). Skyward is one of only five state certified vendors and the only vendor tested by three Kansas districts, earning a 100 percent approval rating. KSDE changed its software vendor testing procedure for the 2015-16 school year. Previously, vendors tested their own software, and KSDE certified the software based on testing results produced by the vendors. This year, KSDE asked for district volunteers to test the software they use and provide approval or feedback based on 20 key testing points. “This year’s process was very different in that customers completed the verification steps,” said Beth Gardner, vice president of quality compliance and eLearning at Skyward. “We are the only vendor that had multiple customers participate and one of only five vendors to complete the process. Our efforts to take care of 40-plus Kansas districts really comes to light when we have multiple customers volunteer to tackle this on our behalf.” The three Kansas districts that completed the testing include DeSoto Unified School District 232, Salina Unified School District 305, and Gardner-Edgerton Unified School District 231. “The yearly changes in state requirements for student data can be frustrating, but knowing that Skyward is committed to meeting the requirements for state reporting is a comfort,” said Colette Fangman, data coordinator at DeSoto Unified School District 232. “During field testing, the Skyward state reporting team was eager to make sure they understood the changes and were quick to respond with updates to the software.” Michelle Forney of Salina Unified School District 305 shared similar thoughts on the testing experience. “Although it was during one of the busiest times of the school year, we felt this would be a great way to make sure our state uploads would work as expected. We were able to identify a few things that needed tweaking in the system, and Skyward corrected the issues right away. It took time out of an already busy schedule, but we felt it was a good investment,” Forney added. “We hope to be part of the testing group again next year.” The official testing results are posted on the KSDE website at http://kidsweb.ksde.org/vendors.
