Case Study

Overview

With a strong focus on data governance, Fayette County Public Schools partners with Lightspeed Systems® to effectively manage their edtech ecosystem—in and outside of the classroom. Lightspeed’s Engagement & Impact solution provides Fayette County with a comprehensive, easy-to-use solution that ensures student data privacy, empowers teachers to manage devices within the classroom, and enables smart and informed edtech decision making.

Opportunity: Scalable Management Of Edtech Investments And Student Data Privacy In A Large-scale 1:1 Ecosystem

With the launch of their 1:1 device initiative in 2017, Fayette County Public Schools wanted to unlock the full potential the program could provide. In addition to increased student engagement and learning opportunities, the district sought to foster student responsibility and independence and bridge summer learning gaps through supplemental educational programs. However, Fayette County knew that ensuring student data privacy on the school-issued devices was going to be a challenge. “We knew from the beginning that we were going to be sending these devices home each day and over the summer, and because of FERPA and state regulations, we knew that we were going to need a filtering solution,” explained Jim Farmer, Chief Technology Officer.

In addition to robust filtering capabilities, Fayette County also wanted to help teachers effectively manage their classrooms in this new 1:1 setting. “The teachers were excited. But we needed to be able to provide teachers with some easy-to-use tools to manage all of these devices,” stated Farmer.

And finally, with a large-scale rollout consisting of more than 18,000 Chromebooks for students grades 2-12 across 24 campuses, Fayette County also needed streamlined tools and usage information to enable effective edtech management of devices and learning applications for the greatest instructional impact and return on investment. The need for visibility and transparency has become an even bigger priority for the district over the past few years. “We needed insight into where all these Chromebooks are going, what apps students are using, how long they are on them … All these things have become really important for us to analyze and make good decisions to ensure we aregetting a return on investment for the software,” stressed Farmer.

We needed insight into where all these Chromebooks are going, what apps students are using, how long they are on them … All these things have become really important for us to analyze and make good decisions to ensure we are getting a return on investment for the software.

Solution: A Strong Partnership For Smarter Edtech Management

Fayette County’s partnership with Lightspeed Systems, which has evolved over the years to meet the district’s growing technology needs, began with Lightspeed Filter™ in 2017. Recognizing that student, staff, and parent data is extremely valuable, Fayette County initially prioritized the need for a best-in-class filtering solution. “During the review process, a big section of the vetting was around the filtering piece and the safety and security of our kids. That is foundation number one. If we can’t keep our kids safe, then we’re moving on,” shared Farmer. Interoperability and open dialogue were also essential in the decision to partner with Lightspeed Systems. Our student information system is the brains of our whole operation, so we obviously need that to work well with other platforms,” Farmer explained. “We also had concerns about using a specific data exchange platform, and the value of our partnership with Lightspeed Systems really came through in those conversations. Lightspeed took our concerns very seriously and worked with us to accommodate our preference of using OneRoster.” Since this work with Fayette County, Lightspeed Systems has released OneRoster API and CSV integrations for data syncing to accommodate all clients who prefer this sync source.

We created an easy process to have videos reviewed and added to our list of approved videos. And when we exceeded the initial 500 video limit during the pandemic, it was impressive how quickly Lightspeed was able to make adjustments to meet our needs.

A couple of years later, when Fayette County decided to begin using YouTube in the classroom, they turned to Lightspeed Filter to provide an extra layer of filtering that would go beyond YouTube’s basic restricted mode. “We created an easy process to have videos reviewed and added to our list of approved videos. And when we exceeded the initial 500 video limit during the pandemic, it was impressive how quickly Lightspeed was able to make adjustments to meet our needs,” Matthew Smithson, Network Analyst and administrator to all Lightspeed products, said. “I am happy to say that we do not have a problem with students getting to inappropriate YouTube videos.”

Lightspeed Classroom Management™ gives Fayette County teachers real-time visibility and control of student device activity. Teachers have been able to help students focus and reduce device distractions with focused website lists that they can easily update daily.The district has also been pleased with the continued development of the product and is looking forward to increasing usage over the next year.

Fayette County leverages Lightspeed Digital Insight™ for robust app usage analytics, streamlined data privacy management, and simplified app approvals. The district has been in the process of reviewing all existing applications, and the visibility and transparency from Lightspeed Digital Insight has been critical for understanding app engagement and ensuring the value and security of their investments. Additionally, Lightspeed Digital Insight provides a succinct view of all important app information in one place. “As we are reviewing all our apps, we are able to document everything in Lightspeed Digital Insight—how much it costs, how many users, and usage at the district, school, grade, and student level,” stated Smithson. “We have vetted over 130 apps in the past year. We hope by the beginning of school next year that our teachers are not using any student platforms that are not in that list.”

Lightspeed Digital Insight has paid for itself. We have decided not to purchase things because of the data we’ve seen in Digital Insight.

Results: Informed Decision-making For Improved EdTech ROI And Instructional Impact

Following an incredibly smooth initial rollout, Lightspeed Systems has continued to deliver intuitive and easy-to-use solutions for Fayette County. “One of the things that’s impressive to me is how user friendly the platform is and that it doesn’t take a whole team of technical staff to administer,” stated Farmer. “Working with Lightspeed Systems has been a really smooth partnership for us from the technical and administration side.”

With Lightspeed Digital Insight, Fayette County has been able to identify and support edtech resources that are making the greatest instructional impact. “Lightspeed Digital Insight has paid for itself. We have decided not to purchase things because of the data we’ve seen in Digital Insight,” Smithson said.

Farmer went on to explain, “Information we get from Digital Insight helps us make decisions about what applications and platforms to invest in. It gives us insight into tools that we’re paying for as well as those that we’re not paying for but maybe we should because we have a lot of schools using them,” Farmer explained further.

In addition to informing edtech investment, Lightspeed Digital Insight has informed curriculum decisions with data-driven, cross-functional conversations that were not possible before. “Now the curriculum teams can see what people are actually using and what they aren’t. Now they are seeing the numbers and have actual concrete evidence to support conversations schools and leadership,” stated Farmer.

Deeper analysis of usage data has also helped Fayette County uncover professional development opportunities. “We’ve discovered that if we’re not getting the usage we want out of a product, it’s not always because it’s not a good product. It may be that we haven’t engaged with the partner enough on professional development or gotten the word out on appropriate usage and benefits,” said Farmer.

“Lightspeed Systems has been fantastic. Some of my peers who don’t use Lightspeed have moved on to their second or third filtering platform, and we’ve stayed with Lightspeed for six years. From that perspective, the partnership has been rock solid,” Farmer said. “We’ve been happy to renew that [contract] every year since 2017 because of our satisfaction with Lightspeed Systems.”