Customized Aspen SIS Saves Time, Money, and Improves Student Outcomes for Large Tennessee School District 

Knox County Schools in Knoxville, Tennessee, is a large district comprising 90 schools, 60,000 students, and 8,000 staff members. The district includes both urban and rural schools with varying needs. After years of struggling with multiple databases and a frustrating, inflexible student information system, Beau Stanley, the district’s IT team leader, recognized the need for a better solution. 

“While our users had become more and more dependent on needing access to their school’s data, the district’s solution did not give IT the ability to create additional data fields to collect information. We were forced to use what the software had − not what we needed,” Stanley said. “Additionally, our users could not create their own reports, so they had to try to use what already existed or call my office for a raw data file. This became a burden for both the schools and my team as it became increasingly difficult to keep up.” 

Stanley and a search committee sought a solution that would allow district schools to help themselves and make timely, data-driven decisions. “Our vision was to have a product that we could customize to meet our users’ ever-changing demands – without starting from scratch,” Stanley said. 

The Solution 

The vision of a “better way” became reality when Knox County Schools found the Follett Aspen® Student Information System (SIS). They discovered Aspen’s rare level of customization and scalability appealed to the district’s wide-ranging needs. They were also impressed with its proven track record with both large and small school districts. 

The Knox County search team rated flexibility, customizability, and performance as vital. After extensive site visits and consideration of technical and cost proposals, the selection committee unanimously chose Aspen. 

“We were excited that the system would allow us to customize things on our own,” Stanley said. “Going forward, we would not be required to always go through the company to make changes. It gave us great freedom.” 

“With Aspen, we were able to implement a software system that allowed for autonomy and flexibility at all our schools while still tracking detailed, minute-to-minute schedules for over 60,000 students,” said Gail Byard, Knox’s Chief Technology Officer. “Considering students, staff, and families, we currently have over 150,000 users on Aspen and its Family Portal. This system is critical to our district in many ways and has held up to this level of demand very well.” 

Richard Baughman, Knox County’s Special Education Consultant, was equally pleased. “Aspen allowed us to keep student data in one system that was previously spread out among several different systems,” he said. “We have been able to consolidate student health data with RTI* and S-Team** information in one place, making gathering student information for special education evaluations much more efficient.” 

Collaboration Beyond the Ordinary 

The district’s IT team, as well as faculty and administrative users, have been impressed with the level of service they have received from Follett. Collaboration began with the decision to implement Aspen and has continued through subsequent years of successful use. 

“Even today, we can pick up the phone and call our state reporting representative whenever we have questions,” Stanley said. “For instance, the state made a change in the way students were loaded for state assessments. We contacted our Follett representative about our concern, and she worked with Follett’s state reporting development team to find a solution that allowed our schools to work much more efficiently.” 

Paula Sarver, RTI Specialist, appreciated Follett’s responsiveness. “When collaboration first began in creating an EdPlan for RTI, we knew very little about Aspen’s capabilities,” she said. “Our Follett representative showed us a few optional plans that had previously been created, and we were able to combine what was useful in other plans to create a unique plan for our district.” 

The Results 

Today, staff at Knox County Schools have found improved efficiencies with many of their daily tasks, and Aspen SIS has been a primary reason. Aspen has transformed the process of reporting student data, creating instructional plans, and applying state-specific guidelines, all of which empower the district’s users, save time and money, and improve student outcomes. 

“Follett’s collaboration with us to customize Aspen to streamline our day-to-day processes has exceeded our expectations,” Stanley said. “For example, most of our 31 middle schools and high schools ‘publish’ report cards or progress reports to the family portal instead of printing them. Imagine the cost savings for our schools of not printing report cards every 4½ weeks!” 

“Another invaluable solution in Aspen is the electronic workflow process,” Stanley added. “We no longer have the significant cost of printing forms. Administrators save the time they previously spent digging through a student’s confidential record to collect information, and teachers no longer have to write their observations on paper. And, of course, a price cannot be placed on improved student success by having previous documentation more readily available.” 

As for the future, the district is confident that ongoing collaboration with Follett will ensure Aspen SIS continues to evolve to meet new and emerging needs. “I feel confident that we can continue to dream about improving our documentation, and Follett will listen and work with us to get what we need accomplished,” Sarver said. 

“The configurable nature of the Aspen software has been invaluable to our staff as we work to meet the varying needs of so many schools and users,” Byard added. “Even more importantly, the ability to easily report and extract data has been a game changer for many of our school users.” 

The EdPlan, another key feature in Aspen popular with Knox County, allows schools to record a student’s educational needs in a report that follows each student from school to school, enabling schools to view a more complete picture when students transfer within the district. 

For more information on how Follett Software can support your district, visit Follett Software.