ViKiwi’s Role:

Working with Catapult Technologies, served as Solutions Architect and Content Strategy advisor. Facilitated process to review content and determine content migration approach. Designed new taxonomy for site. Designed an approach for capturing content using Drupal CMS, as well as approach to generate a static website using Drupal for back-end content management. Advised client on SEO strategies and recommended structural changes to the site to improve search engine results.

ViKiwi’s Role:

Served as lead architect of the Peer to Patent Website; managed development of the site and maintains the site on behalf of New York Law School

ViKiwi’s Role:

Worked with Hanee Designs to design this page, and hosts the site on behalf of NYLS and the Open Invention Network. Worked with IP.COM to integrate Post Issue Peer to Patent with the IP.COM functionality.

Accountability in education is about taking actions to improve student performance and using data to evaluate outcomes and make decisions. Every adult in the district is expected to contribute. But determining how non-instructional activities can impact student achievement often poses a challenge. Gee Kin Chou, the president of ViKiwi, has suggested that a simple and tangible way for adults responsible for non-instructional activities to contribute is increasing the efficiency of their own work to free up funds for the classroom, and delivering a level of customer service that allows teachers and administrators to focus on student achievement. He explains that in general, 20-40% of a district’s budget is spent on activities other than instruction. “Every dollar saved can be shifted to the classroom to make budget cuts less painful for students.” And “issues like…inefficient bureaucracies distract urban school superintendents from focusing on student achievement.”1

Chou continues: “While there is no magic target, reducing the percentage of the district budget spent on non-instructional activities while improving service quality should be a strategic goal of every district. But prevailing processes and systems often make it difficult to achieve this goal. Oral communications are often misunderstood, cannot be verified, and are easily ignored. And email has hit its limits: messages disappear from the screen whether the work has been completed or not, users have to keep sending more emails to find out what’s going on, and there is no clear record of what’s been done.”

SchoolMeasures™ , ViKiwi’s free list management technology, can help address these specific issues. SchoolMeasures drives follow-through and increases accountability because everything is written down and visible to stakeholders. Tasks and responsibilities are clear. Everyone knows what was requested, what has been done,and who is responsible for the next step. Performance management data are automatically generated so managers and staff always have good data to make smart decisions. And the collaborative capabilities of SchoolMeasures facilitate discussions and teamwork across organizational boundaries.

Chou suggests, particularly with constant budget pressures, it is imperative that districts implement accountability initiatives that combine process improvements, technology and cultural shifts to reduce the percentage of the district budget spent on non-instructional activities while improving service quality, and increase funds available to help raise student achievement.
1 http://broadresidency.org/become_a_resident/selection_criteria.html

ViKiwi’s Role

ViKiwi as part of the core team that developed the initial design and prototyping for the project.

“Purchasing software license and service agreements can be daunting for any district. Greg Lindner, director of information and technology services for the Elk Grove Unified School District in California, and Steve Midgley, program manager at the Stupski Foundation, advise taking the following steps to successfully negotiate contracts. ” — School CIO

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