However, due to teachers having difficulties with inputs, the deadline for grade submissions was extended from Oct. “Theoretically it will make the submission of report card grades seamless and easier, since they’ll already be in Synergy,” Fong said. Then, school administrators and the district transferred and stored Lowell students’ grades in Synergy before report cards could be sent out to students. At the end of each quarter, during the grading window, teachers were required to upload all their grades to School Loop. The district’s switch to using Synergy was in part meant to make finalizing report card grades easier, according to Fong. But it’s very intuitive, easy-to-use and navigate, and there are clear buttons that highlight what actions need to be taken.” Advertisement It’s similar to School Loop - obviously it’s a different system, so the layout is a little different. “The filing system is confusing, as well as the document naming,” he said.ĭespite this, Dodd said that “the same functions that teachers and students have in School Loop is available within Synergy. Marten, former chair of Lowell’s technology committee, disagrees with this assessment of Synergy. Now the information is easier to access for teachers.” “In the past, they could get that information via the counselling departmwent, or the secretary if they had needed to. “Teachers can take attendance and can basically call up things like they would normally be able to, as well as contact info,” he said. However, according to counselor Jonathan Fong, Synergy’s basic level of functionality is similar to School Loop’s, and, in some cases, it provides even more ease of access for teachers. “School Loop’s column of announcements was a key feature that Synergy does not have, and I do think that it was pretty useful to see what is going on district-wide, but now it is just blank,” he said. Senior Jared Wang misses this aspect of School Loop as well.
According to him, this was particularly useful for students looking for internships and work opportunities in the Bay Area. Marten also liked the aspect of School Loop that had district-wide news and announcements as a section that all students and teachers could view. Her issue was that she could only email students in her current classes, so if someone in a club she sponsors wanted to contact her, it would need to be through Gmail.Ĭhemistry teacher Bryan Marten believes that School Loop had much better mass communication options. “It is impossible, through Synergy itself, to email my former students,” English teacher Jennifer Moffitt said. For example, teachers have found it difficult to communicate with their students. “If this is the only good new feature, then it makes me wonder honestly why we had to switch,” Albert said.Īnother big change is the fact that Synergy’s only operational communication system is through email. While this sounds efficient, both Jiang and junior Quinn Albert expressed that their parents do not find this new feature to be quite as much of an improvement as SFUSD made it seem. “If this is the only good new feature, then it makes me wonder honestly why we had to switch.” After the switch to Synergy, parents are able to view all their children’s information in different tabs using a single login. In School Loop, parents needed to create separate accounts if their children attended different schools. One way the Synergy Information System (SIS) makes grades more accessible for parents is through family portals, said SFUSD’s Chief of Technology Officer, Melissa Dodd. The switch to Synergy will save the district a total of $182,000 annually, according to Ed Tech Supervisor Sarah Ashton.Īnother reason for the switch is to improve accessibility. Previously, SFUSD had both Synergy and School Loop contracts and paid for each contract separately.
One reason for the change has to do with saving money. Along with many other students and teachers, Jiang has found the switch from School Loop to Synergy to be problematic. This was sophomore Sarah Jiang’s reaction to the new Synergy interface that has replaced School Loop throughout the San Francisco School District as of the beginning of the 2017–18 school year. “First of all, it took me forever to login, but when I finally did, I was like, ‘What is this low-budget, before-our-lifetime piece of ?’” Hannah Ferguson | OctoIllustration by Hannah Cosselmon