The challenge of finding a student information system for CTE has been substantial. We have examined many systems, all of them designed for school districts and requiring the pounding of the square peg into the round hole to work for CTE. We also had some very specific technical requirements to make sure we didn’t land in something proprietary that forever tied us to a vendor. One of those needs included an open structure that would allow us to connect the solution to our other data-related projects.
 
We are now in our third week of a very successful roll-out of ClassMate for CTE (http://classlink.com/products/classmate/) from the people at ClassLink. As someone who comes from the private sector and is highly critical of vendors, I have been completely stunned by this vendor. They have been phenomenal. We purchased the solution in late June and began deployment in late July. The vendor, having obviously done this many times, guided the implementation beautifully, alerted us to all the possible issues we might face along with their recommended mitigations, and landed us on our feet for attendance and grading with the start of the school year.
 
We still have several pieces of the system to implement, but I have no reason to believe – particularly since they are not driven by such tight deadlines – that we have anything to worry about. The system is great and the vendor *knows* CTE. They deserve your full attention if you are searching for possible solutions.
 
I would be very happy to answer any questions you have about any of this – by phone or email. I hope this is helpful.
 
Most sincerely,
 
Steven
 
Steven J. Tryon
Director of Technology
Oswego County BOCES
179 County Route 64
Mexico, NY 13114
p. 315 .963 .4303  
f. 315 .963 .4306
e.  sjtryon@oswegoboces.com
www.oswegoBOCES.org
http://TechnologyIntegration.org