Say Goodbye to PowerSchool

Photo from North Penn School District

Next school year, all Durham Public Schools will begin using Infinite Campus instead of PowerSchool. This is the result of an NC State Board of Education vote on November 2, 2023, which awarded a new contract to Infinite Campus to power the North Carolina Student Information System. All school districts and charter schools in North Carolina will complete the transition to Infinite Campus in July 2025.

This decision was made to “bring both efficiency and a new set of modern and powerful tools to the building, classroom, and home to help accelerate personalized learning,” according to the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction (NCDPI). The system will be used for student grades, reviewing attendance, viewing assignments or upcoming exams, notifications for school and district announcements, and more. 

Major features such as centralized data to tailor instruction for individual student needs, a Progress Monitor to track student progress across standards and identify areas for growth, and integration with Canvas are highlights of the Infinite Campus system.

PowerSchool—the current Student Information System—was implemented in 2012 and first used in 2013. Just days ago, PowerSchool was breached by a hacker, exposing 312,000 North Carolina teachers’ Social Security numbers and 910 students’ Social Security numbers. NCDPI says all schools in North Carolina that use PowerSchool have been at least somewhat affected.

Infinite Campus has also earned itself the name “Infinite Clicks” among many users due to the user interface being considered clunky and the extensive amount of clicks needed to get through the pages on the system. The layout of Infinite Campus has been considered confusing and nonintuitive. Teachers and parents have found the large amount of clicks needed to be an annoyance when navigating the system.

Sources:

   1) “Student Information System Modernization,” NCDPI

   2) “North Carolina, Welcome to Infinite Campus,” Infinite Campus

   3) “PowerSchool hack exposes 312,000 NC teachers’ Social Security numbers,” WRAL