ONPASS® Pro is a geographic information system (GIS) software designed for school district administrators and planners to present their district and school boundaries on a map and to gather, store, analyze, and present student demographic data, school capacity data, and other geospatial data. This software is a powerful GIS tool for users with no technical GIS expertise.
With very little training, district personnel are able to view school district data on maps and in tabular form. ONPASS Pro users can create and save an unlimited number of scenarios with associated maps and statistics to model changes in their districts. Common planning scenarios include opening a new school, closing a school, changing attendance boundaries, balancing ethnicities and other demographics across schools, and reconfiguring grade levels of schools.
One of the most powerful aspects of ONPASS Pro is the inclusion of geocoded student data. This enables the software to present visual markers (including points or icons) on the map of the location of all students in the district. These points retain all associated data from the student records, allowing for geospatial analysis of this data by demographic variables. ONPASS Pro is available from Planware™, the GIS/Planning division of Educational Data Systems.
Formats/platforms used:
ONPASS Pro runs as a software extension to the newest GIS platform by Esri, ArcGIS® Pro. The standard for GIS around the world, ArcGIS Pro encompasses all the most recent GIS advances in technology, including 64-bit processing, 3-D visualization and analysis, and database support. ONPASS Pro software is available for use with any current Internet browser and is hosted on a virtual machine (VM) managed by Planware so there are very few computer requirements.
Primary website’s URL:
https://eddata.com/services/school-district-planning-services/onpass-pro/
What does ONPASS Pro help with?
ONPASS Pro is a tool that helps district administrators gather geospatial data (such as school locations, school attendance area boundaries, student home addresses, etc.) and student program participation and demographic data in one place, use that data to analyze and model unlimited options, and then move through the decision-making process to meet goals and address issues. It helps to solve problems of school overcrowding or underutilization, both of which impact the quality of student learning and costs for the district. It helps identify students attending school in but living outside the district (inter-district transfers) as well as students who transfer to schools outside their resident school (intra-district transfers) and model changes to the district’s transfer policies. The geospatial aspects of the data allow the district to calculate the distance students must travel to their current or a future school and to analyze walking/riding/busing policies.
ONPASS Pro software provides district administrators the ability to
- Review the capacities of all district schools in the context of where students live and where educational programs are located;
- Change boundaries of one or more schools by reassigning planning areas (small geographic areas) from one school to another;
- Reassess all school attendance areas by using automatic and manual tools to optimize a school’s enrollment capacity;
- Balance student enrollment among schools based on demographic information;
- Review the district's inter- and intra-district student transfer policies;
- Reconfigure grade-level groups at one or more schools or throughout the district;
- Query and filter the student database on geospatial, demographic, special program (bilingual education, special education, primary language, etc.) characteristics and present that data on a map and in reports;
- Create maps to communicate why change is necessary and illustrate multiple solutions; and
- Store the district’s and schools’ official boundaries and utilize the electronic format for creating maps and other official needs.
What types of administrators or administration staff can use ONPASS Pro?
ONPASS Pro software is useful for multiple district personnel, including the superintendent and staff, educational and student services directors, planning department directors, facilities managers, and operations managers.
Time needed:
ONPASS Pro software can be implemented approximately 12 weeks from the purchase order date. The project implementation process includes ONPASS Pro experts loading school and student data, geocoding student addresses, creating district boundaries and base-year maps, and creating planning areas. The project is delivered to the district ready for use.
Pricing Models:
Pricing is an annual subscription model that is based on district size (calculated by the number of school sites in a district and number of students). The first year’s subscription includes a setup fee that includes all implementation activities, a one-year Esri ArcGIS Pro license, and a one-year ONPASS Pro single-use license. Additional user licenses are available at a discount. Second and subsequent year prices are discounted from the first year.
Additional Services:
The district needs to provide current boundary files (shapefiles or KML files), school information (address, school capacity, grade levels served, etc.), and student data records with full address, demographics, and program participation as desired. If current electronic boundary files are not available, Planware can create them for an additional fee.
What makes ONPASS Pro unique?
ONPASS Pro is delivered to the district ready to use, with all data validated through an extensive quality control process. Boundaries are already incoportated, school and student data imported, student addresses geocoded, and maps with planning areas created.
The advantage of the VM configuration over a standard desktop software package is reduced time spent by the district to set up, install, and maintain software on computers within the district, as well as automatic upgrades and enhancements to the software. Additionally, the school district will not need to assign or configure a specific computer or computers to run the software. Because the software uses a remote desktop application to access the VM, it can be run on different computers anywhere, anytime, as needed.
ONPASS Pro is a do-it-yourself tool designed to require little formal training. Non-GIS specialists can use all available functions without spending weeks in training classes. Typical ONPASS Pro users can begin to make scenarios after a one-hour introductory training session. Planware provides training and GIS support in the price of each year’s subscription.
With ONPASS Pro query tools, nontechnical users can create thousands of custom online and exportable spreadsheets and reports based on variations and combinations of the data included in the geodatabase. District administrators can quickly answer questions from their stakeholders and communicate the answers with accurate maps and data tables.
Characteristics--how is it designed for user interface (UI) and user experience (UX)? What instructional design principles are at work here?
The ONPASS Pro software interface is designed to be intiutive and easy to use with the familiar look and feel of tool ribbons, tool buttons in tool groups, windows, drop-down menus, and dialogue boxes that guide the user through steps. Although not necessary, dual monitors help to spread out different windows and the onscreen maps, which can be either docked or floating as the user works through various functions.
Because ONPASS Pro is an extension of ArcGIS Pro by Esri, all the basic and advanced ArcGIS tools and resources are avaialble to users. Underlying base maps, online help, additional training classes and forums as well as the ability to create other GIS projects outside of ONPASS Pro projects are all available to licensed users.
Users access ONPASS Pro software by using their desktop or laptop to log in to a VM managed by Planware that runs the software and holds the district's data. The downloadable remote desktop protocol (RDP) can be installed on each user’s computer; or the program can be run in “browser mode,” which does not require a download. The RDP client software is included in the price of ONPASS Pro.
ONPASS Pro implementation includes access to a secure district web portal for authorized school district users. The district portal is used as a Secure File Transfer Protocol (SFTP) site for securely transferring data (such as student data files, and shapefiles) and for hosting online documentation and Help files accessible by users on demand.
ONPASS Pro keeps data secure in two ways: through connection security and backup security. The RDP uses a 128-bit encryption to secure the connection from end to end so it is secure (similar to Secure Socket Layer, or SSL, in a browser). Likewise, all backups are encrypted using AES256 encryption on the VM before being sent to the cloud for backup storage. At no time is the backup data unencrypted—it is protected both in transit and at rest).
Here's what users are saying:
“ONPASS Pro has made the task of redrawing our boundaries a breeze. It has provided us the public-facing documents, maps, and plans to easily inform constituents of our needed changes. ONPASS Pro provides us the flexibility to quickly build scenarios with data driven backing. Best of all, it’s easy!”
—Eric Wells, Chief Information Officer, Muskogee Public Schools, OK
“ONPASS Pro provides the tools to modify school boundaries and receive instant feedback on the impact of any changes. We have examined several scenarios using ONPASS Pro to help alleviate overcrowded and underutilized schools. The entire community has endorsed the software and expressed satisfaction with the results.”
Scott B. Thompson, Ed.D., Superintendent of Schools, Community Consolidated School District 15, IL
