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Student Information Systems (SIS) Application Manager 

Job Number:

230003UT 

Posting Date

: Nov 14, 2023, 10:29:37 PM

Primary Location

: Central-42 West Madison Street (Information & Technology Svcs)

CPS Non-Union Job Grade: S10

Estimated Annual Salary Range

: 100,000.00 - 133,000.00

Position Type: Non-Union Position

Overtime Status

: Exempt

Final salary offers are dependent upon candidate qualifications.

JOB DESCRIPTION ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Chicago Public Schools (CPS) is one of the largest school districts in the United States, serving over 320,000 students in 600+ schools and employing approximately 40,000 people, most of them teachers. CPS has set ambitious goals to ensure that every student, in every school and every neighborhood, has access to a world-class learning experience that prepares each for success in college, career, and civic life. In order to fulfill this mission, we make three commitments to our students, their families, and all Chicagoans: academic progress, financial stability, and integrity. Six core values are embedded within these commitments – student-centered, whole child, equity, academic excellence, community partnership, and continuous learning.

The Office of Information and Technology Services (ITS) works to build the capacity of schools to use information and technology, maintain network infrastructure, security standards, and support other departments to meet district goals. ITS provides innovative technology solutions that improve the quality of education for students, reduce the administrative burden on educators, facilitate parent interaction, increase community engagement, and support CPS’ mission of transparency by focusing on the ease and equity of access to information. 

Job Summary: 

Reporting to the Director of Student Information Systems, the Student Information Systems (SIS) Application Manager is responsible for ensuring the daily stability and long-term strategic growth of the features and functions of the SIS tools (application modules and resources) that directly serve teacher needs and/or support student performance reporting. This role will manage a Student Information Systems team, vendor coordination, departmental relationship management, and collaboration with other SIS and ITS teams. The SIS Application Manager is also responsible for ensuring that the tools support CPS’ educational, school, student, parent, and teacher constituent bases. 

The SIS Application Manager will be held accountable for the following responsibilities:

  • Provide guidance, direction, and leadership to the Business Analysts and Senior Business Analysts in the completion of operational activities, including hiring, development, performance management, monitoring/tracking issues, and adjusting priorities as needed based on the academic calendar and performance metrics.
  • Partner with SIS DevOps team on the turnover of actionable local customizations or vendor requests.
  • Work with all SIS teams to ensure that the configuration of the Aspen and synchronization between the SIS systems meet the requirements of the stake-holding educational business units. Identify and coordinate efforts with other stakeholders who may be impacted by configuration and customization changes. 
  • Work directly with senior leadership in various CPS departments (e.g. OTL, OLCE, OSCPA, Ed Policy, Law, etc.) to ensure Aspen meets all educational standards and that transcripts, report cards, and progress reports meet documented business requirements.
  • Engage with the ITS Service Desk, departments, networks, and schools to capture, elaborate, analyze, and prioritize issues and needs. 
  • Advocate for teacher-related system needs and manage enhancement requests, engagement, and marketing for the teacher audience.
  • Ensure the successful delivery and availability of progress reports, report cards, official transcript reports, and related grade reports, in addition to the maintenance of graduation requirements logic in alignment with CPS graduation requirements policies. 
  • Ensure applications perform at a level commensurate with teacher data entry and reporting needs, especially during peak grade entry windows. 
  • Maintain the integrity of application configurations including teacher gradebook setup, school grading scales, and grading calculations (e.g. final grades GPAs, summer school eligibility, etc.).
  • Collaborate with the Enterprise Training and Support team, departmental teams, and project teams to develop training plans and materials (guides, videos, announcements, communications, webinars, etc.) in response to changes to business rules, configuration of the application suite, and deployments of application enhancements. Training delivery will also be required, with the end goal of transitioning training tasks and knowledge to departmental and ITS supporting groups. 
  • Maintain and enhance data integration interfaces including Google classroom, Skyline, Service Now, Parent and Student Portals, and other third-party tools as approved by ITS. 
  • Coordinate data loads and mass update processes (students assessments, graduation requirement waivers, transcript records alignment, etc.) as required. 
  • Work with various groups to collect data reporting needs to then create and publish the needed reports and extracts to ensure that educator- and student-focused data and metrics are readily available across multiple stakeholder audiences. 
  • Assist the SIS Director in the management of the relationship with application vendors. 
  • Ensure the delivery of all strategic projects and enhancements in addition to ongoing operational task-load.
  • Other duties as assigned. 

In order to be successful and achieve the above responsibilities, the SIS Application Manager must possess the following qualifications: 

Education Required: 

  • Bachelor’s degree from an accredited college or university in Computer Science, Information Technology, or a related field
  • Master’s degree, preferred

Experience Required: 

  • Minimum of seven (7) years of experience managing student information systems, required; 
  • Experience with Follett Aspen, preferred 
  • Minimum of five (5) years of project management experience and/or business analysis experience, required
  • Three (3) years of supervisory or team leadership experience, required
  • Experience analyzing approaches to grading, gradebook setup, and student performance measures in a central office IT role or in a school environment (E.g, teacher, assistant principal, technology coordinator), preferred.

Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities: 

  • Strong verbal and written communication skills: business interviews and requirements writing are major job components.
  • Knowledge of Illinois and CPS assessments, understanding of how to apply assessment data to instruction
  • Ability to design reports for educators to access the data
  • Capability to learn software quickly and then share that knowledge with others
  • Strength in managing vendors and interfacing with various central office departments
  • Proficiency in Full Microsoft Suite and/or Google Suite
  • Experience with MS SQL Server scripting and data analysis strongly preferred. 
  • Strong understanding of database management and systems integration
  • Excellent problem-solving and troubleshooting skills
  • Attention to detail and strong organizational skills
  • Strong communication skills (speaking - including presentations - listening, and writing)
  • Demonstrate high levels of instructional expertise, integrity, honesty, credibility, and the courage to make difficult yet necessary decisions
  • Effective strategic planning capabilities, including the ability to establish long-term vision and goals, and align/manage activities toward goal fulfillment
  • Strong leadership and team building skills, e.g. ability to develop high-performing teams united around a clear vision for serving schools and achieving student success
  • Ability to build collaborative relationships with a variety of constituent groups, including external partners, to ensure the entire system operates in the most effective manner possible to support schools and principals
  • Ability to define problems, analyze data, and outline valid conclusions and action steps

Conditions of Employment

As a condition of employment with the Chicago Public Schools (CPS), employees are required to:

  • Establish/Maintain Chicago Residency - Employees are required to live within the geographic boundaries of the City of Chicago within six months of their CPS hire date and maintain residency throughout their employment with the district. The Chicago residency requirement does not apply to temporary/part-time positions, however, all CPS employees must be residents of Illinois.
  • Be Fully Vaccinated Against COVID-19 - Unless approved for a medical or religious exemption, all employees are required to be up-to-date on COVID-19 vaccinations, including boosters, and to submit proof of vaccination to the district within 30 days of hire. “Up-to-date” on vaccination is defined as being at least two weeks past all primary vaccine doses and any applicable boosters.
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