Implementation

January 2004 – November 2005

With the finalization of the study and the funding set aside for the WISE project by the 2004 legislative session, the process of implementation began. First order of business, find other sources of funding and hire a project manager to oversee the details. In late spring and into the summer months, strong administration support for the project could be witnessed when e-rate dollars were discussed as a possible source of funding. After discussion between the front office and units within the Department, e-rate dollars were earmarked for WISE. Project manager job specifications were finalized in the summer. A Project Manager was hired in September of 2004 to begin implementation of the WISE project. However, the implementation meant not only the WISE project but coordination of the statewide student identifier application project. Integration of this additional project underneath the WISE umbrella is crucial to the overall success of WISE.

November 2005 – March 2007

The goal of WISER ID implementation by November 2005 was met and in February 2006, the PAWS pre-code file was reported vertically to the State. This same method of vertical reporting was successfully used in April 2006 for the WDE 671 data, in October 2006 for the enrollment data with the Teacher-Class-Student (TCS) report to the state, in December 2006 for the WDE 425 data (CSV only), and then again in February of 2007 for WDE 684 data. This form of vertical reporting will now be the standard for all reports from Districts to the State for both State and Federal reporting.

December 2004 marked the release of the RFP’s for the WISE project and the statewide Student Record ID application (SRID). Vendor respondents were required to have all their questions submitted to WDE by January 7th and WDE responses back to the vendors by January 14th. A conference call for the interested vendors and WDE was held on January 21st to allow for additional vendor questions to be addressed by the WDE staff. All interested vendors intending to bid on the RFP’s had to have “Intent to Bid” submitted to WDE by the end of the day on January 21st. There were four vendor responses on the WISE project RFP and five for the SRID RFP.

• The vendor presentations were held the second week in February 2005 and scheduled randomly based on the vendor’s “Intent to Bid”. The presentations were reviewed by the selection committee that was developed in December 2004. The committee members consisted of four WDE personnel and four district personnel, all with strong backgrounds in data and technology. Two of the committee members were on both the WISE Study Design Team and the RFP selection committee.
  
  
• Each presentation was reviewed in detail by the committee and evaluated against all the vendor presentations for content and meeting the RFP deliverables. After extensive review and discussion by the committee it was determined that ESP Solutions Group was the vendor of choice for both RFP’s. ESP Solutions Group will partner with Edustructures for the WISE project and eScholar for the SRID project.
  
  
• The contracts for both RFP’s were completed in March and signed in early April by WDE and ESP Solutions Group. The first kick off meeting for the two projects was held on April 19, 2005. Attendees for the initial kick off meeting were WDE, ESP, Edustructures and eScholar technicians and it was held in Casper, Wyoming. Additional regional meetings to discuss the implementation plan will be held by WDE and ESP at locations determined by the project plans. A greater understanding of district systems, special needs and/or requirements, timelines, and vendor expectations will be the goal of the regional meetings. Districts that may require additional assistance with the implementation will be identified at the regional meetings. The first year, six districts will be targeted and two the following year.
  
  
• The WDE and their vendors hosted two WISE Technical Data Advisory Groups during the summer of 2005. The first meeting was held in Powell with Park County School District #1 demonstrating their horizontal SIF integration. Districts were given their first set of implementation timelines and were asked for feedback.
  
  
• At the July meeting, districts were given a district implementation checklist to aid them in their setup. Other meeting topics included: aggregation point configurations, the website for WISE topology survey, WISE Implementation Checklist, agent configuration, Student Locator Framework (SLF), and State and District Data Profiles.
  
  
• WISER IDs training sessions were conducted for district personnel in August. Training sites were Rock Springs, Riverton, and Sheridan. For those districts that could not attend, another session was scheduled in September 2005. Large district turnout was witnessed.
  
  
• Pilot districts became the focus in September. Those districts were the first to setup the Student Locator Framework. This is the first step in implementing the WISE project. The month also saw the first new WISER ID issued statewide using SIF.
  
  
• WISER ID implementation was completed in November of 2005 with all districts being able to assign WISER ID’s and then repopulating their SIS in preparation for state data collections.