Blackboard Inc. and Pearson, two of the largest providers of technology and services to K-12 education, today announced a collaboration that will improve the integration and flow of data between their complementary K-12 solutions, in direct response to requests from educators.
With this partnership, the companies are looking to improve the integrity, security and flow of data between Blackboard’s comprehensive product portfolio that offers a range of K-12 solutions for teaching, learning, communication and parent engagement, and PowerSchool®, Pearson’s leading K-12 student information system (SIS).
Massachusetts’ Danvers Public Schools’ illustrates the ways that districts around the country will benefit this partnership. Database manager Lisa Zaia said, “Danvers Public Schools uses both PowerSchool and Blackboard solutions and ends up having to manage several daily changes. We are thrilled that Blackboard and Pearson have agreed to improve their product integration to provide better accuracy of our student and staff information.”
“We are pleased to announce this collaboration as a sign of our strong investment in the K-12 market and dedication to ensuring the success of our customers,” said Mark Strassman, senior vice president of industry and product management for Blackboard. “Through our work with Pearson, we will be able to provide better access between two systems many faculty and administrators rely on daily to drive critical activities such as parent engagement and Common Core initiatives.”
The first Blackboard solution that will benefit from PowerSchool integration is Blackboard Connect™, the leading mass notification provider in the country. Planned enhancements include the ability to send notifications from within PowerSchool and greater flexibility with automated notifications to parents. The companies are also actively working to enhance PowerSchool integration with other Blackboard K-12 solutions over the next year.
“Through this enhanced collaboration with Blackboard, we hope to make it easier for K-12 educators to use our solutions to access the information they need to engage students and parents and, ultimately, improve learning outcomes,” said Oliver Wreford, vice president of strategy and partnerships at Pearson.
