TestHound Customer Success Story: Switching From a Rowboat to a Cruise Liner
With prior experience as both a campus testing coordinator (CTC) and district testing coordinator (DTC), Jacksonville ISD's former Director of PEIMS Data and Title IX, Sherry Smith knew that the first order of business was getting TestHound implemented in her district. As a DTC, she spent the majority of her time trying to get all CTCs on the same page with all of their documentation to make tracking materials, students, and accommodations easier. As a director, Smith’s role still included testing, but TestHound streamlined the process immeasurably.
The Challenge
Jacksonville ISD in Jacksonville, Texas, has eight different campuses, and before TestHound, each campus and CTC had their own forms and methods of creating and sharing testing documentation. This created an astronomically large manual workload for the DTC who had to sort and identify information throughout inconsistent piles of documents. “When I became district testing coordinator, I made it very clear to them that we needed TestHound for consistency,” said Smith.
“We just weren’t as efficient as we should have been. There was a lot of leg work trying to make sure every base was covered.”
To avoid further time-consuming hardship in the district, Smith became an advocate for TestHound to streamline all forms of communication and paperwork. She knew that Excel and shelves full of records weren’t the way forward for the district. “I was able to get everyone on board and TestHound pulled us all in for training,” said Smith.
“Everything instantly became more streamlined. Everything looks the same, which makes it easier — you can get right to the nuts and bolts of it. We’re not searching for specific information on multiple differently formatted documents anymore.”
Before TestHound, Smith shared that she had multiple drawers of physical paperwork that cluttered her office space and made it hard to access and find necessary information. After setup, these issues were resolved into one platform that ties together all of these disparate data systems for testing coordinators across the district.
The Solution
Smith first heard about TestHound from education and testing conferences where she was able to meet representatives and hear testimonies from others who had found success with it. “I was just in awe of the color-coding and organization,” said Smith.
“The capabilities were everything we needed and there were a lot of people speaking very highly of the product — now including me!”
The moment Jacksonville ISD chose to go with TestHound, Education Advanced sent a representative to train the employees and get everyone on the same page with the product. “They were very, very patient and helpful with our questions,” said Smith. “Which was extremely helpful as everyone was freaking out because it was something new that they’d never experienced before. The training aspect of TestHound was incredible.”
One of Smith’s campus testing coordinators even told her that they should have a bake sale to raise more money for this new system. “She told me, ‘We cannot lose TestHound!’” said Smith.
“They just work so well with our student information system (SIS) and all of our vendors. It’s seamless.”
Smith also noted the significance of TestHound’s Auto Pilot and Performance Tracker features, which automatically feed information from the district into the system, so that each department can easily track student accommodations and generate reports. “As the DTC, I absolutely loved TestHound’s Auto Pilot and Performance Tracker,” said Smith. “Both of them had a huge, positive impact on my job.”
The Results
With Jacksonville ISD’s nearly 5000 students spread out among eight campuses, manual spreadsheets for testing, accommodations, and more originally took up the majority of CTCs’ and DTCs’ work time. TestHound transformed this process to create a secure, searchable database for real-time tracking and error-free materials control. With this product, Smith could ensure that students were always getting the right accommodations and appropriate teams.
“With TestHound, we can add students in and update information without having to recreate the entire spreadsheet,” said Smith.
“Students are getting the right tests, with the right language — and our administrators can confidently sign off on that.”
According to Smith, TestHound empowers CTCs and DTCs to spend their work time on value-add tasks, like serving students, rather than the manual processes they had to manage beforehand. “I think time is the biggest measurable benefit,” said Smith.
“I’m sure TestHound has also saved us money, but time is truly the best result. What used to take us multiple days can now be done in a reasonable amount of time.”
Before TestHound, Jacksonville ISD’s testing coordinators were not properly equipped with the tools they needed to do their jobs efficiently and effectively. “We were like a rowboat in the middle of the ocean,” said Smith. “And TestHound is the big cruise liner that came to pick us up with five different restaurants, game rooms on every floor, and spa treatments. It’s just a complete paradigm shift.”
“Using TestHound was the best decision for our district, my CTCs and I would not be able to function without it!”
The Product
TestHound is a comprehensive K-12 testing software and the only test enablement solution that integrates data from disparate systems into a single platform for efficient assessment coordination. By utilizing the efficiencies provided through the platform, tasks that could take several days to accomplish using alternative methods can be done within a matter of hours. TestHound empowers overextended school staff to efficiently and accurately coordinate K-12 assessments, allowing them to spend their valuable time on other priorities.
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