By Abigail Brandwein
In a move aimed towards improving the accessibility and efficiency of its student information system, the Irvington School District has transitioned from using Home Access Center (HAC) to Infinite Campus. The switch of platforms was anticipated to streamline academic tracking, and enhance communication between teachers, students, and their families. Unfortunately, making the change has been a challenging adjustment for all parties involved.
The decision to move from Home Access Center to Infinite Campus was made in order to adopt a more modern and integrated platform that meets the needs of the school community. Home Access Center, while functional, is an older system that primarily focuses on grade tracking. With Infinite Campus, students can manage assessments, behavioral records, schedules, and even health records, on top of being able to follow their grades.
Additionally, Infinite Campus offers a mobile app, which allows students to be notified of gradebook updates as they happen. Teachers can send reminders, announcements, and updates to students and parents, ensuring that everyone stays informed. The app is also grounds for faster access to the system, whereas on Home Access Center, students and parents were required to go through a login process before using the website each time.
While there are clear benefits of Infinite Campus, the abrupt replacement brings difficulties for all users who have grown accustomed to using Home Access Center.
“It’s absolutely been an adjustment going from Home Access to Infinite Campus… learning to do things a different way was definitely a challenge for me, but I was able to do what I needed to do on Infinite Campus within a few days on the app,” says Student Assistance Counselor, Danielle Gamar.
To aide teachers with the switch, Irvington schools offered training sessions to help them effectively navigate and utilize the new system. Ms. Cassidy, a technology and math teacher, was also available to help teachers learn the ropes of Infinite Campus. For students, there is a help desk provided to help with any technical issues or questions that arise with the new system.
Student feedback towards Infinite Campus is generally negative, because of a feature that blocks students from viewing their grades.
Junior Daniel Nyarady states, “Infinite Campus is a major downgrade from Home Access, because I can’t always see my quarter grades.”
During the school day, students are unable to access their quarter grades for each class. Individual grades on assignments, past assignment grades, and all other features on the app are still on hand, though general grades cannot be viewed until 4 pm on school days. This is likely due to academic comparison between students, which happened often with Home Access Center.
