Automating Active Directory Account Creation from Infinite Campus

Case Study: Cumberland County Schools

How Cumberland County Schools Transformed Student Account Management with ReadWrite Digital’s Integrator.

Background

Cumberland County Schools (CCS), located in Fayetteville, North Carolina, is one of the largest school districts in the state, serving a diverse student population across more than 80 schools. Like many K-12 districts, CCS faced significant challenges in managing student data across multiple systems, ensuring accurate and timely provisioning of accounts, and maintaining security and efficiency amid a growing digital landscape.

 

The Challenge

Prior to partnering with ReadWrite Digital, CCS was challenged every year with manual, time-intensive processes for provisioning student accounts between their Student Information System (SIS), and Active Directory. These inefficiencies not only consumed valuable IT resources but also introduced risks of errors, delays, security gaps and inconsistencies, impacting students’ and staff’s ability to access critical educational tools.

When CCS embarked on a major transition from PowerSchool, their prior SIS, to Infinite Campus, the value brought by a streamlined, reliable data integration solution became even more apparent.

 

The Solution: ReadWrite Digital’s Integrator

CCS partnered with ReadWrite Digital and implemented Integrator, their integration platform as a service (iPaaS) solution designed for schools. Integrator offered a robust, hands-off approach to automating the synchronization of data between systems, dramatically reducing manual effort (saving more than 1,000 hours in SY24-25 alone), improving the accuracy and security of student account management and increasing overall data quality.

CCS choose Integrator because it met their requirements for example:

    • A fully hosted and automated service requiring no additional servers and licenses for CCS to purchase and manage.
    • Capable of meeting CCS’s requirements and constraints, not the other way around.
    • A secure but easy-to-use platform providing administrative insights and security options.
    • Proven cost-effectiveness with a net cost-savings realized every year.

Implementation Experience

From the outset, ReadWrite Digital collaborated with CCS to:

    • Seamlessly integrate data from PowerSchool (and later Infinite Campus) with Active Directory
    • Automate key processes like account provisioning and data synchronization
    • Customize solutions to meet CCS’s requirements, for example, automating rule-based distribution and security group assignments
    • Provide tailored documentation and hands-on training for CCS staff

 

Do these challenges sound familiar to you? Pick a time to connect.

 

“Working with ReadWrite Digital has been an absolute pleasure,” shared Cassandra Campbell, Network Systems Administrator for CCS. “Their support is exceptional, and their willingness to walk us through each step, provide refresher courses, and tailor documentation to our needs made the process smooth and effective.”

 

Christopher Young, CCS’s Chief Technology Officer, echoed these sentiments:

“ReadWrite Digital consistently went above and beyond, adapting to our specific requirements and delivering reliable, efficient solutions that transformed our administrative processes.”

 

Benefits Realized

Through the partnership with ReadWrite Digital, CCS achieved:

    • Automation and Efficiency: CCS now enjoys fully automated student account provisioning, significantly reducing manual workload and associated errors.
    • Seamless Data Flow: During the transition to Infinite Campus, Integrator ensured data integrity and a smooth migration process.
    • Enhanced Security and Access Management: Real-time synchronization and account management improved the security and reliability of student access to educational resources.
    • Increased Data Quality: Automation to widespread systems combined with data validation and constraint enforcement spotlights bad data and provides a feedback loop into the SIS.
    • Exceptional Support and Collaboration: ReadWrite Digital’s commitment to collaboration and ongoing support gave CCS confidence at every step.
    • Focus on Educational Mission: By modernizing its IT processes, CCS staff could dedicate more time to supporting students, staff, and families.

“Thanks to ReadWrite Digital, we were able to modernize our systems while staying focused on our core mission of serving students,” said Chris Young. “Their Integrator product and exceptional service truly made a transformative impact on our district.”

 

Conclusion

For school systems seeking a reliable, responsive partner to streamline account provisioning, data and identity automation, ReadWrite Digital’s Integrator stands out as a proven solution. CCS’s experience showcases how expert support, innovative technology, and a focus on school system success can empower educational institutions to thrive in a digital world as they reduce costs while overcoming data management challenges.

 

Learn More About Automating Active Directory for Your Schools >

 

Ready to see how we can do the same for you? Request a Demo.

Importing PowerSchool and Active Directory data into Apple School Manager to set up users

Apple School Manager (ASM) is a web-based portal which allows school IT managers to deploy and configure Apple devices (Macs, iPads, iPhones, iPod and Apple TV) from a browser. While Apple provides some built-in integration with your student information system (SIS), those users will have Apple ID’s created with new account credentials. Apple provides for federated authentication to allow students and teachers access to Apple devices with their school domain credentials. Your SIS and AD data need to meet certain requirements to take advantage of federated authentication.

The ReadWrite Digital Integrator ASM Agent automates the integration and ongoing update of data from your SIS (e.g. PowerSchool) and Active Directory (AD). This facilitates federated authentication and ensures students and teachers can access their device using the same credentials stored in AD in conjunction with roster data from the SIS. It bridges the gap between ASM federated authentication requirements and your data. Some of the benefits of the ASM Agent include:

  • Unattended data integration. Set it and forget it. Once the job is configured, it just runs. Email notifications will let you know if it requires your attention.
  • Email addresses do not need to be in the SIS. In most cases, AD will be the source of truth for email. The ASM Agent will combine AD email for students and staff with SIS data for import into ASM. If all or some emails are in your SIS, that’s ok too.
  • Data validation. ASM validates data and the import will fail under certain circumstances. This is common in areas like the import of classes. The ASM Agent validates data before sending to ASM, ensuring successful imports.
  • Custom rules and data sources. Sometimes your data rules and sources are not neatly aligned with a standard configuration, the ASM Agent can accommodate any such needs.
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Accessing PowerSchool Data

The ReadWrite Digital Integrator agent for PowerSchool makes your core student data available to the many different applications used by students and teachers. ReadWrite Digital goes beyond single-sign-on and actually provision students, teachers, classes, schedules, grades and more PowerSchool data to your critical applications without any manual data export or import on your part.
As your student body and teacher assignments fluctuate, ReadWrite Digital will maintain the synchronization of data between PowerSchool and corresponding accounts in such systems as Active Directory (actually creating accounts), Discovery Education, Clever, Blackboard, and more. Sometimes PowerSchool only has part of the essential data required by many systems. For instance, many schools will use Active Directory (AD) as the system of record for student email. ReadWrite Digital’s Integrator will combine PowerSchool data with data from other systems like AD to provide the most accurate data to downstream apps. This is especially valuable for schools with one-to-one device programs where access to online content is critical to learning success.
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Accessing Mastery Connect Test Score Data

The ReadWrite Digital Integrator agent for Mastery Connect provides quick and accurate intake, parsing, matching and delivery of well-instrumented data from your Mastery test data whether they are interim (benchmark) or formative tests.
Our integration agent will match Mastery Connect internal IDs to your SIS student and teacher data including student number, demographics, sections and schedules. In addition, we create metadata about the tests in Mastery Connect and aggregate benchmark assessments which can be critical for intake of the data by other apps. The aggregation can include a roll-up of standards level scores instrumented on a multi-level achievement scale of your choosing with your customized descriptions and color coding for each level.
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Accessing WIDA Access for ELLs Test Score Data

The ReadWrite Digital Integrator agent for WIDA Access for ELLs provides quick and accurate intake, parsing, matching and delivery of well-instrumented data from your English language learner assessments.
Our integration agent will match WIDA and WIDA Alternate test records to your student information as it is held in your SIS. In addition, we create metadata about the WIDA Access tests which is critical for intake of the data by other apps. Scores can be instrumented on a multi-level achievement scale of your choosing with your customized descriptions and color coding for each level.
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