Berkeley Unified School District Chooses Certica Solutions to Ease State Reporting.

CSIS and CALPADS Obligations Spur District to Automate and Streamline Data Certification Processes

WAKEFIELD, Mass. -- Certica Solutions today announced that Berkeley Unified School District (BUSD) has chosen Certica's K-12 data certification software to help ease the costs, complexity and stress associated with validating and reconciling school, student and teacher data required by the California Department of Education (CDE) for submission several times each school year.

Certica's software, called Certify([TM]), provides daily, personalized, web-based data certification scorecards to district personnel such as principals, program directors and school data clerks, so they can easily review, research and correct data errors on year-round basis. Providing this web-based data certification capability is enabling BUSD and other California school districts to significantly shorten the time it takes to identify and resolve data problems that can cause erroneous reporting to CDE.

BUSD, a district of approximately 9,000 students in Northern California, needed an easy way to identify errors and definitively measure the quality condition of its school, student and teacher data, without district and school personnel having to scramble just prior to CDE reporting deadlines. Certify software allows districts to run a nightly certification of data in student, human resources, finance and other administrative systems. In California, districts currently use Certify software to automatically validate data against dozens of requirements outlined by the state's primary data collection system, California School Information Services (CSIS). In the near future, Certica Solutions will also provide data certification capability for the requirements outlined in the state's planned data collection systems, California Longitudinal Pupil Achievement Data System (CALPADS) and California Longitudinal Teacher Integrated Data Education System (CALTIDES).

In addition to the objective of easing its state reporting burden, BUSD is also using Certify software to ensure the quality of data in its current student information system, Pearson's SASI, with a view toward implementing Pearson's PowerSchool in time for the 2009-2010 school year. BUSD is running a battery of Certify rules against their SASI data, looking for areas that require correction or resolution before the data can be migrated to the PowerSchool system. Says Jay Nitschke, BUSD's director of technology, "given that data migration is usually the single hardest aspect of transitioning to a new administrative application, we believe that a rigorous, pro-active assessment of our student data in SASI will put us in a better place to make the move to PowerSchool. By identifying potential data errors and correcting them in SASI, we're giving ourselves a leg up on getting PowerSchool in place on time and on budget. Once our PowerSchool system is in place, we can continue the ongoing data certification process to ensure the quality of data we submit to CDE through CSIS, and eventually CALPADS and CALTIDES."

About Certica Solutions, Inc.

Certica Solutions provides compliance and accountability solutions for the K-12 education system. The company's data certification software, called Certify([TM]), enables education agencies to maximize funding, optimize regulatory reporting, and ensure compliance with education policies and mandates. Founded in 2001, Certica counts among its customers several state departments of education, educational service agencies, and numerous school districts nationwide.