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Data Management
Electronic Transcripts at the Tipping Point
3/13/2008
Once transcripts are uploaded to the site by a high school, they are stored by Xap in a Xap-defined proprietary format that allows all information on the transcript to be captured and stored. Rather than exchanging PDFs or other documents, that means Georgia schools using the Xap system are exchanging actual data. That, however, required extensive work with a variety of student information system vendors, Baumman said. Fortunately, vendors were able to see future advantages to adopting to the new system, and thus cooperated.
Georgia made the decision early on, Baumann explained, to eschew electronic transcript systems that exchange images of transcripts--often PDFs. That seemed an interim step to the final goal of a completely electronic data exchange system. Baumann said Georgia was thus the first state to fully implement the PESC (Postsecondary Electronic Standards Council) XML standard online. "Others [states] are still thinking of moving images around. That speeds it up, but ... we made a leap way beyond that," Baumann said.
Once a high school (and student) has released a transcript to Xap using the Georgia system, any Georgia college or university administrator with proper access can go to the mentor Web site, log in, and download the transcript. The site also tracks who has accessed a transcript, so a guidance counselor can keep parents and students in the loop.
One huge challenge during the process was dealing with the low level of standardization that existed among high schools; Baumann found 36 different student information systems in Georgia, for example, each of which had to interact with the Xap system. "Even public schools hadn't standardized [on a single student information system among them]," Baumann said, "and private schools were all over the map. They often didn't even have [a student information system.] They were just using Excel."
Cost is probably one of the biggest benefits, if not the biggest, in moving to an electronic system. Georgia did a cost analysis early in the process and pegged the cost of producing a paper transcript at $10 per, versus $0.50 for an electronic transcript--one-twentieth of the cost.
Schools are "just beginning to see all the benefits" of the system, Baumann said. High school to high school transcript exchange, which would be a huge benefit because of the number of students who transfer between high schools within the state, has "stimulated a lot of discussion," he said. Similarly, exchange of transcripts outside the state beckons, although the topic hasn't been formally broached yet.
Linda L. Briggs is a freelance writer based in San Diego, Calif.
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