Building a fast track: Memphis City Schools let its papers fly out the window when it installed a network infrastructure.

Building a fast track: Memphis City Schools let its papers fly out the window when it installed a network infrastructure. Problem: Without a modern and efficient network infrastructure, teachers and administrators at Memphis (Tenn.) City Schools were spending excessive time completing reports, leaving less time to improve educational processes and assist students. The lag in technology left students to rely mainly on textbooks and isolated dial-up Internet that did not afford them the same opportunities as students in other districts, says Jim Long, principal at Craigmont High School Craigmont High School is a public high school (grades 9-12) located in Memphis, Tennessee in the Raleigh community. It is part of the Memphis City Schools district. As of 2006, the school principal is Sherilyn Brown. The school has an enrollment of approximately 1,600. . Solution: Administrators at Memphis City Schools Memphis City Schools is a school district located in Memphis, Tennessee, United States.MCS serves the entire city of Memphis. Some areas of unincorporated Shelby County are zoned to Memphis City Schools from Kindergarten through 12th grade. realized that with 118,000 students in 182 schools, they needed a more effective way to circulate information throughout the district and provide students with better learning tools. The district partnered with XO Communications XO Communications is a United States telecommunications firm and one of the largest Competitive Local Exchange Carrier (CLEC) in the country. It is owned by XO Holdings, Inc OTCBB: XOHO. and IBM (International Business Machines Corporation, Armonk, NY, www.ibm.com) The world's largest computer company. IBM's product lines include the S/390 mainframes (zSeries), AS/400 midrange business systems (iSeries), RS/6000 workstations and servers (pSeries), Intel-based servers (xSeries) to implement an improved IT infrastructure and managed hosting solution that sped up administrative tasks and left more time, money and resources for students. The district's local area network had been in place since the mid-1980s. Every school was connected, but "all that system offered was mainframe connectivity," says James Smith James Smith is the name of: People named James SmithSports figuresJames Crosbie Smith (1894–1980), English cricketer James Douglas Smith (born 1977), English cricketer James Douglas Smith (born 1940), New Zealand cricketer , executive IT director at Memphis City Schools. There was minimal Internet access See how to access the Internet. in some schools, and it was not cohesive. Documents, such as budget and student performance reports, were typically run once a month. On a tight budget, administrators did not want a service that required a large initial investment. Memphis was eligible for government E-rate funding, saving them 90 percent of the cost to install the system. However, the district still had to maintain and monitor the network. It opted for a pay-as-you-go service, similar to a utility. XO Communications provided the network, while IBM assisted in network design and project management during implementation, completed in 2001. The district uses a managed hosting solution for daily maintenance, Delivering Interesting Lessons Today, the district has greater Web access than before, says Smith, with six drops in every classroom and fast Internet connections at every workstation. Because many textbooks now come with CDs and Internet links, students now have access to multimedia tools. Joy Whitehead, Cordova Cordova,Spain: see Córdoba. Middle School principal, says seventh-grade biology teachers use virtual dissection dissection/dis��sec��tion/ (di-sek��shun)1. the act of dissecting.2. a part or whole of an organism prepared by dissecting. to prepare their students before actual dissection. "Our students are computer literate computer literacyn.The ability to operate a computer and to understand the language used in working with a specific system or systems.computer literate adj. at a very young age," Whitehead says. "Technology engages them better than giving them a book and telling them to read a chapter." The network has "opened up the world of distance learning," says Smith. Students can take classes that, before, could not have been offered due to low demand, such as Russian language Russian language,also called Great Russian, member of the East Slavic group of the Slavic subfamily of the Indo-European family of languages (see Slavic languages). . Getting Student Data Quickly Teachers and administrators have instant access to student performance records, attendance records and lesson-planning tools. "Teachers have more access ... to pull up info on student assessment and student achievement that they didn't have access to before," Smith says. They can easily look up records of a student transferring to their school from somewhere else in the district. Electronic data is circulated throughout the district quickly and efficiently. Performance reports are no longer outdated when teachers receive them, so students get help right away. Reports that once took principals two weeks are now completed in 30 minutes, giving them more time to supervise teachers and concentrate on educational programs and processes. Not only is Memphis City Schools saving time, the district is "also saving money. In the end, savings total $700,000 annually because the district does not have to pay 13 IT technicians to monitor the network. By integrating the telephone system with the network, the district saved more money while giving teachers the added benefit of having a telephone in each classroom. Michelle Lawler is editorial assistant.