Nothing Is Impossible
Consider the challenge of delivering customized productivity tools to Prep for Prep, a uniquely powerful organization that supports some of the most promising yet underserved students in New York City from middle school through college and into their careers. The Prep for Prep network links public schools, day and boarding schools, colleges, employers, cultural programs, teachers, counselors, civic leaders and corporate mentors to its compelling mission:
Prep for Prep is a long-term investment strategy to develop the leadership potential of able young people from segments of society grossly under-represented in the leadership pool from which all of our major institutions draw. By expanding the nation’s leadership resources, we aim to impact indirectly on a set of inter-related problems that threaten to rend our society. The Prep Community includes over 4,000 students and alumni. [from the 2010 Annual Report of Prep for Prep]
Each year, over 1000 New York City public schools nominate approximately 8,300 candidates for places in Prep for Prep and PREP 9. Approximately 1,200 students progress to a final round; approximately 200 candidates are accepted into Prep’s rigorous programs. Typically 75% of these students are placed in day schools as seventh graders (Prep for Prep) or boarding schools as ninth graders (PREP 9). In a typical year 40 day schools and 20 boarding schools accept students from Prep's academic programs.
Prep monitors the academic and personal progress of each student in grades 7–12 through monthly meetings with individual counselors assigned to every student and available to every parent. Tutoring is available, if needed. Leadership Development Opportunities include internships, workshops, travel abroad, community service, and a leadership curriculum. The Prep for Prep relationship extends into college and career.
Thirty-three years after its founding, Prep’s graduates are transforming their companies, schools, and communities for the better. In 2010, Prep celebrated its first CEO of a publicly traded company, its first partner in a major law firm, and its first judge. Prep’s first White House Fellow was named as was its tenth Fulbright Fellow. Prep alums serve on the Board or Alumni Boards of their alma maters. Nine Prep alums are charter school founders, principals, or trustees. And 45% of its college graduates made a gift to Prep in 2010—three times the average rate of alumni participation at most independent schools.
Prep for Prep had a growing need to harness its data. After an exhaustive search for a provider to manage the scope of this enterprise, Prep for Prep chose inRESONANCE. We interviewed Prep’s Director of Finance and Administration, Jonathan Mills, as the complex implementation phase drew to a close. Mills has been with Prep for Prep since 1996.
What did Prep for Prep need?
We needed a lot. We were behind in many ways. At the time of this search, we already had a custom-built, organization-wide database that had in one place information that had previously been stored in various ways (such as excel spreadsheets) and in various places; pulling it together was a big deal for us. We knew from the outset that our database had a weak interface; it was not easy for people to manipulate, especially for data entry. For instance, if we wanted to record results for a group of students who had taken a test, it took a lot of time to enter data in each record separately. Reporting was limited. Nonetheless, we were hoping to capitalize on the fact that we had all the data in one database. We looked for a new system to provide a lot more efficiency.
Another priority was to provide tools that our academic component could access. What we had was useful in many ways, but far from what people needed who run a school. We were hoping to conquer that. In addition to academics, we needed to manage the many different things that Prep does—the activities, the services—information about all that was being captured outside the database. We didn’t have the channels we needed to serve more of the organization, and we were losing information about individual students and alumni. We wanted to provide the tools for everyone to consolidate their information.
What were your concerns going in?
Our concerns were, first, for integration. Could a solution meet the needs of all the different parts of the organization and incorporate everything into a single solution? Could it meet the particular requirements of the Prep for Prep academic core? But there is so much more we need to do: Prep’s ongoing relationships with our students and alumni are so different from those of a typical school. We needed a solution that would accommodate our particular organization.
How has this project with inRESONANCE gone?
Very well. There were problems and frustrations along the way, and making such a monumental transition was pretty painful at times, but we really are pleased with the outcome.
There was a lot of creative thinking required. inRESONANCE was taking a very sound fundamental product and adapting it for us. This project has succeeded because of the insightful, thoughtful work we have been able to do together. It has been possible because of the open nature of the software, inRESONANCE’s willingness to teach our staff members its admin functions, and the customizations we have been able to make.
The relationships we maintain and track are particularly complex, especially with respect to the schools in which a student is enrolled. When you consider the school a student was in when applying to Prep, and the fact that some of our students attend day schools that end at 8th grade and then continue into boarding school, the enrollment picture becomes very complicated. Remember that our relationship with each student then extends into college and grad school. We need to track where each student is enrolled at each grade level and to see the entire enrollment history. The database has been able to accommodate all this.
The need to be able to compare our students’ performance across all the academic environments (dozens of schools, different marking periods, different grading systems) was a huge challenge—I am talking in particular about the customization work Marti MacNeil (Certified FileMaker developer for iR’s Customer Service Group) has done. She has developed a common calculation for GPAs that is astounding. We had been dreaming about database needs and hopes for 20 years, and this is one of those features we were dreaming about. Dozens of vendors looked into it. They all said it was impossible and that we would have to continue comparing all these various GPAs by hand. That is, very senior managers here at Prep for Prep would have to spend hours with calculators, taking ungodly amounts of time to do this. Marti was able to automate this very complicated process. A host of companies said it couldn’t be done, but inRESONANCE has done it.
We have seen improved productivity in any number of areas. For example, in our admissions process: the efficiencies that are characteristic of the iR solutions have been saving lots of time. Our admissions staff tell us they are working differently, that we have made a huge step forward.
The fact that our faculty are now entering grades online through TAM (Teacher Access Module) is saving considerable administrative staff time. Moreover, for our senior administrators in Academic Programs, having access to information from the Preparatory Components, specifically grades and comments, over a long period of time is simply invaluable. Being able to access independent school grades with the click of a mouse has been described as a dream come true. As I said earlier, the relationships we maintain are particularly complex. In the past, seeking out this kind of information was extremely difficult and time consuming. Now the information is at our fingertips.
What would you tell others about inRESONANCE?
First, that inRESONANCE was the best solution for us. We thought that going in and, as we have worked with it, we are convinced that no one else could have come close to what inRESONANCE has brought to us. This is a terrific product and we have been impressed by the inRESONANCE team. At the outset, the leadership struck us as smart, sincere, and dedicated. Now I can say that just about everyone we have worked with at iR—and ours was a long, comprehensive project so I think we have worked with almost everyone there—strikes us the same way. Our needs are complex so this project was complex, and we did have bumps in the road. But overall, this is a real success story. Not long ago, representatives of one of the foundations that contributed significantly to the cost of the project told me they have been terrifically impressed. They used words like “ground-breaking” and “transformative.”
The enthusiasm here at Prep for Prep for our inRESONANCE solution is very high.
