Case Study

The Challenge:

Caddo Parish Public Schools (CPPS), serving approximately 36,000 students in northwestern Louisiana, administers several of the state’s top-performing schools and has won more than a dozen merit-based awards from the U.S. Department of Education. CPPS has partnered with Lightspeed Systems since 2018 for a myriad of solutions, including Lightspeed Alert™ for crisis monitoring and support.

Promoting Student Engagement

Recently, Caddo Parish sought support for their 2,000 elementary and secondary school teachers managing 1:1 classrooms for students in grades 5-12. Their goal was to improve students’ focus on learning by minimizing online distractions and increasing transparency and control for teachers.

Evaluating Edtech Impact

CPPS also wanted to optimize their edtech ecosystem by leveraging actionable insights from educational app usage and streamlining data management and analysis. They recognized the opportunity to utilize available data to make smarter decisions and better utilize their resources, a growing imperative given reductions in federal funding and staffing shortages. However, with an existing process that was decentralized and time-consuming, the district struggled to efficiently manage license renewals, effectively evaluate edtech investments, and easily identify professional development needs.

The Solution

Caddo Parish turned to Lightspeed Systems for a solution that would help them achieve both of their goals. With Lightspeed’s Engagement & Impact Solution, the district benefits from a suite of products that combines the best of classroom management and data analytics to keep students focused, participating, and utilizing high value edtech both in and out of the classroom.

Lightspeed Classroom Management™ helps teachers effectively manage classrooms in a 1:1 world. Through real-time visibility and control of student device activity, teachers can save time and manage lessons with ease.

Lightspeed Digital Insight™ empowers IT and curriculum leaders with a single view of district edtech usage to quickly understand app engagement, assess the value of their investments, and manage their digital learning ecosystem. View robust analytics, facilitate app approvals, manage licenses, track spending, and ensure data privacy compliance—all in one platform.

Creating An Engaging Learning Environment

With Lightspeed Classroom Management, elementary teachers at Caddo Parish can effortlessly manage their classroom lessons. The tool provides real-time visibility and control of student device activity, allowing teachers to easily push out vetted URLs, close distracting tabs, block inappropriate websites, and enable screen sharing for a collaborative and interactive classroom.

Justin Steele, Caddo Parish’s Supervisor of Educational Technology, explained that different teachers had different pain points with student browsing behaviors, but all were able to address these issues using the various features of Lightspeed Classroom Management.

Whether it’s leveraging Web Rules to block access to YouTube, or deploying device locking to limit distractions when needed, Lightspeed’s classroom tool is helping our educators keep students on track.

“Whether it’s leveraging Web Rules to block access to YouTube, or deploying device locking to limit distractions when needed, Lightspeed’s classroom tool is helping our educators keep students on track,” said Steele.

Accessing Actionable Insights

Looking for a better understanding of how their edtech apps are being used, CPPS now leverages Lightspeed Digital Insight. Utilizing the program’s granular usage reports, CPPS can access more accurate data than previously available with their former product. This has enabled the district to gain insight into app usage at various levels, including district, campus, class, and student.

Before [Lightspeed] Digital Insight, we had to go to the individual app vendors to get all the usage information and sit through a soft sell to get the data that we needed. We now have access to quick, customizable reports. It is so much more streamlined.

As a centralized source for their analytics, Lightspeed Digital Insight also saves the district time by eliminating the manual data collection process. “Before [Lightspeed] Digital Insight, we had to go to the individual app vendors to get all the usage information and sit through a soft sell to get the data that we needed,” said Steele. “We now have access to quick, customizable reports. It is so much more streamlined.” Additionally, the district uses Lightspeed Digital Insight to manage their licenses more effectively. The program’s license management reports enable the district to utilize usage data to prioritize renewals based on potential impact, and they can successfully track active licenses, upcoming expirations, and renewals.

This data is so important because it opens up a conversation for us with our stakeholders about how apps are being used vs. what we expected when we initially licensed the applications. [Lightspeed] Digital Insight gives us visibility and information to be able to act quickly.

“This data is so important because it opens up a conversation for us with our stakeholders about how apps are being used vs. what we expected when we initially licensed the applications,” continued Steele. “[Lightspeed] Digital Insight gives us visibility and information to be able to act quickly.”

Lightspeed Digital Insight has optimized more than just the district’s licensing processes. Built-in capabilities, such as the App Approval workflow and the Approved Apps list, have streamlined teacher requests for new digital tools and allowed for greater sharing and collaboration amongst various stakeholders, including the board. CPPS also values Lightspeed Digital Insight’s ability to capture data on the individual device level. “There is an individual agent on each device that captures an accurate picture of what is happening. We fully trust the data,”
adds Steele.

Using the data captured in Lightspeed Digital Insight, CPPS can better understand how their edtech apps are being used and make more informed decisions regarding their technology investments.

The Impact

Using Lightspeed’s Engagement & Impact Solution, staff at Caddo Parish Public Schools have been able to save both teachers’ and staff’s time, maximize instruction time, and more effectively evaluate the impact of their digital investments to scale digital learning.

Saving Teachers’ Time

Steele recalled how Lightspeed Classroom Management enabled teachers at Caddo Parish to be proactive about managing their classrooms and student devices, removing IT as a middleman and streamlining the learning process. “[Lightspeed] Classroom Management helped our district bridge the gap that was previously filled by IT support, and we’re able to save time in the process,” shared Steele.

“[Lightspeed] Digital Insight has helped us prioritize certain applications over others by giving us transparency into how often those tools are used, and therefore valued by our district."

Growing The Impact Of EdTech Investments

With Lightspeed Digital Insight, CPPS has been able to make more informed edtech investment decisions. “[Lightspeed] Digital Insight has helped us prioritize certain applications over others by giving us transparency into how often those tools are used, and therefore valued by our district,” continued Steele. For example, the district noticed an increase in usage by teachers and students of an app that had initially been identified to be cut. Upon further investigation and positive teacher feedback, the district decided to renew the app and increase licensing to meet its popularity. On the other hand, they discovered that another app, in which the district had invested a significant amount of money, was only 50% utilized. “We will be re-negotiating that contract at renewal and will save 58% in spending for that platform, and an overall 16% in budget spending for the year,” shared Steele.

Identifying Teacher Training Opportunities

“[Lightspeed] Digital Insight has also helped us identify professional development needs by seeing app usage year over year,” Steele added. By determining which apps are growing in popularity, the district can identify potential opportunities for additional teacher training to enhance the apps’ effectiveness. Conversely, if an app is deemed essential but underutilized, the district can identify the need to invest in professional development for teachers to scale the impact of high-value digital learning tools.

Enhancing Student Safety With An Integrated Solution Suite

Finally, Caddo Parish Public Schools utilizes Lightspeed Classroom Management and Lightspeed Digital Insight in tandem with Lightspeed Alert™ to enhance their student safety protocol. If the district receives a notification of a safety threat or concern via Lightspeed Alert, they can refer to the classroom management tool to view the student’s real-time online activity. Additionally, Lightspeed Digital Insight provides detailed app usage data and time spent online, allowing the district to investigate further.

“With this information, schools have the proof they need to have difficult conversations with teachers and administrators about students,” reflected Steele. “Each tool complements the other, enabling schools to conduct thorough research and provide the necessary information to their staff to make informed decisions.”