Assessment & Reporting Software PARS/4Matrix/Go4School

[E-STAR]

Does anyone use the following software packages listed below for Assessment & Reporting? Would you be able to comment on useful they have been for you.

We have arranged a demos for each them tomorrow morning and want to know how you find using them.

 

• Go4Schools

• Pars

• 4Matrix

 

Many thanks

Esther

[s1monb]

Hi Esther

 

Had a demo of 4Matrix and it looked very good, but having all Apple hardware it would have been a bit of a nightmare trying to roll it out.

 

We have also looked at Sisra, which looks good, but again not Safari compatible.

 

Would be interested to find out what people think of these sort of systems vs traditional DIY solutions.

 

Thanks

 

Simon

[NormalDistribution]

A lot depends on the position of your school/setting I think and also whether you come from an analytical background or a systems background.

 

If you have the resource and expertise to do the work yourself then I would strongly recommend doing so, because it gives you the flexibility to move quickly with the times and you can tailor everything to your precise school needs. In theory this should maximise the usefulness of the analysis you produce and therefore have the best impact upon learning.

 

However off the shelf solutions do have some advantages - mainly being the fact that they will work and they are supported. Many of them are not quite as straightforward as advertised (everything works perfectly on nice clean demo data doesn't it). However generally of the ones i've used I found them to be too limited and too slow to react to changing needs.

 

Take SIMS as an example - I find it astonishing that they haven't put in a yes/no flag yet for the pupil premium. Do you think Ofsted will accept that as a reason why you can't easily get the data from your MIS?

 

SISRA - I must say they give excellent support, but (in my opinion) they have gone over the threshold of being a niche product in a few schools to a wide product for many schools. Which is great for their company and their balance sheets, but are they now too slow to react to neccesary changes that are required? It seems to take them a lot longer now to deliver any meaningful product enhancements.

 

Every school is certainly unique, and actually not many of them approach data in the same way despite national wishes, and more importantly for the same purpose. If you can find a product that fits your needs nicely then go for it, but don't let the quality of your analysis suffer as a result of trying to fit the data into analysis software that is not answering or asking the right questions for you.

 

Of all the software you mention - I hear the best things about 4matrix in general. PARS insight I have also heard some good reviews on how it can link to parents.

[pingleby]

I've read good things about 4matrix but never used it. I'd be interested to know if you were impressed by the demo.

 

We use SISRA for some of our data analysis but I agree with NormalDistribution about slow pace of enhancements.

 

We used to do our own thing in Excel as SISRA didn't seem to be flexible enough for us. We use our own internal assessments to baseline at the start of Y7 and would like to measure from them as well as from KS2 APS. (Obviously English and Maths are a bit different as we can use actual KS2 scores.) So we used to spend hours each term updating excel spreadsheets. We made our macros better so the job didn't take as long, and that made it just about bearable. But we've got rid of them now in favour of MAP Learners. It's much quicker than doing Excel yourself, and probably quicker than the macros we were using (or than SISRA uploads for that matter). It does what we want it to do and the teachers use it much more than they've ever used SISRA. New features seem to come in pretty regularly. Since Christmas it's started being able to display attendance indicators and attitude grades (for example).

[skunk]

4Matrix is a really useful tool, but it is in no way a substitute for all the analysis needs of our school here. I learned that from bitter experience here last summer. If I could persuade anyone that not all analysis needs printing and get them to use 4Matrix on the screen, it would be a much better fit for our needs. However, our SLT, from their own bitter experience, like everything printed for OfSTED as OfSTED seem reluctant to believe anything on a computer screen is as effective and useful as a piece of paper. 4Matrix (last summer) was not great at printing reports for the SLT.

[LosOjos]

EDIT: Please see my follow up post below

 

The only system out of those I have used is SISRA, and I'm desperately trying to push for something else (not much hope at the moment as staff "have only just got used to SISRA" )

 

The reason I say this is that SISRA is very slow on progress, and I am absolutely sick of hearing "that's coming in version 2". It seems every time you ask for something, it's coming in version 2. You point out something their competitors do better, it's being improved in version 2. I asked when the expected release date of version 2 was, apparently they haven't even started developing it yet!

 

I get the distinct impression SISRA v2 will be vapour ware, and I don't like to support a company that leads it's customer base on with false promises. Either tell us why/not something can/can't be done, or don't bother. Promising a future release you haven't even started to develop is bad business IMO!

 

(NOTE: all my personal opinion, not that of my employers!)

[LosOjos]

Hi folks, just wanted to post a follow up to my previous post.

 

I've since been contacted by a SISRA representative and they have confirmed that SISRA v2 is now in development with an expected release date of February 2014. Great news for anybody who is using SISRA!

 

I'd like to retract my previous comment about it being "vapourware" - it is refreshing to be contacted by a company simply to be given an honest update on the current situation.

 

I look forward to using SISRA v2

[Steven_Cleaver]

Hi

 

We use SISRA as well so glad to hear they are looking at SISRA version 2 to be honest we are looking at developing our own so mixture what we get from Assesment Manager Marksheet Analysis\SISRA and the information we get from vast amount of Excel Analysis we do so just try and automate these into one as they are in essence based on the same sets of Data. Then build in Intervention system linked to the data this provides we sort of have all this in three seperate systems so just try and get this into one system now we can see what we want as outcomes, should be interesting as SLT, Myself, Head of ICT, LPG Group, MIS Officer and External Software Developer are all involved so should be interesting.

[vikpaw]

It's funny that days after posting here, they contacted you with an update. I wish it worked as well when we rant about SIMS