Sublette County School District #1 serves approximately 1,100 K-12 students and is dedicated to enhancing education through technology. To support its mission, the district implemented a 1:1 program, equipping each student with a personal learning device.
The introduction of the 1:1 program brought significant challenges. Students and staff faced difficulties accessing digital resources due to the need to manage multiple usernames and passwords. “We saw a big challenge for students in accessing…resources when everyone had a different password, everywhere,” explained Chris Rule, the district’s Director of Technology.
The process of creating and managing student accounts was cumbersome, with administrators manually setting up each account. This time-consuming approach made it difficult to maintain efficiency and accuracy. Additionally, the district lacked the means to evaluate whether the digital tools they invested in were being effectively utilized, creating uncertainty about the value of these resources.
To address these issues, the district partnered with ClassLink for a comprehensive solution tailored to their needs. ClassLink’s single sign-on (SSO) platform simplified access to digital tools. Rule highlighted the impact: “Students [could] sign in the first time with one password and…pass that identity on to the next application,” saving valuable classroom time and improving ease of use.
ClassLink’s account provisioning tool, OneSync, automated the creation and management of student accounts. “OneSync allows us to easily create and provision accounts both on Active Directory and in Google,” said Rule. “It automatically creates the account, sets up their password, and provisions it without [the IT team] having to touch it, and [the process] happens within minutes.”
The district also utilized ClassLink Roster Server to integrate with PowerSchool, ensuring that student data, class schedules, and rosters were updated seamlessly. Rule described the system as a “translator” that enabled smoother data sharing across platforms.
ClassLink Analytics provided insights into application usage, enabling administrators to track how tools were being accessed and used. Rule noted, “With one simple report, we can observe how each application performs in great detail, including the amount of time the kids are online or the [number] of times something gets accessed.” These insights helped the district optimize its investment in educational resources.
ClassLink is absolutely the way to go because while it’s easy to use, it’s still very powerful, and at the district level, I don’t know that I would be able to do my job without ClassLink.
