Success Stories

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Here are some Success Stories that illustrate how EdTech Software has made an amazing impact on school systems:

St. John Vianney High School

St. John Vianney High School, a private Catholic school in Holmdel, New Jersey, recently had a challenge similar to what many of today’s schools are facing. Their print textbooks were deteriorating, and with funding for the books provided by the state, St. John Vianney needed to find an affordable alternative to preserving the shelf life of their books. “Our text books are not replaced for five to six years and need to last,” said Susan Conrad, Director of Technology for St. John Vianney High School.

The search for a solution became top priority. Conrad’s first step was to contact colleagues from another school in the Diocese of Trenton school district. She remembered that an EdTech representative recently worked with that school, assisting them with the process of transitioning to digital textbooks. She contacted the school’s EdTech representative and had even better than expected results. St. John Vianney was able to piggyback on the plan developed by EdTech for their fellow school, and seamlessly adopted a similar digital platform.

Prior to working with EdTech, Conrad and her team were forced to provide lengthy instructions for all publisher platforms. The platforms required different processes for redemption and logging in, and multiple instructions were created for students and teachers. Working with EdTech helped simplify the steps, creating a standardized implementation process. According to Conrad, “No matter what department, someone needs to have the information in front of them. The purchase orders, codes, etc., are all in one place so that others can share access to it.”

Working digitally, the school has eliminated the daily wear on physical books and, as a bonus, eliminated the inconvenience of students forgetting them. “The convenience for the students is that they can access it from any device –– desktop, laptop, or tablet. They are not restricted to one machine,” she said.

As technology continues to grow within their curriculum, St. John Vianney is taking advantage of technological resources to promote their curriculum’s growth.

The convenience for the students is that they can access it from any device –– desktop, laptop, or tablet. They are not restricted to one machine.

Susan Conrad
Director of Technology

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Christopher Columbus High School

Christopher Columbus High School is a private, all-male Catholic high school located in Miami, Florida. After introducing a one-to-one iPad program, Christopher Columbus decided to move from hardbound books, to an all-digital format. Pedro Garcia-Casals, the school’s Assistant Principal, oversaw the transition from print to digital books. He and his team spent a short time managing the online and digital classrooms on their own and found the process to be chaotic. In order to get the results they wanted, help was necessary.

Prior to making the decision to go digital, Pedro and his team received guidance from a member of EdTech’s Sales team, who he says “advised me on what the schools on the West Coast were doing. We were not ready to move away from hardbound at the time, and he worked with us.”

When a school is ready to move toward digital books, the EdTech team conducts an ebook availability analysis. They research the school’s current hardbound textbooks to see if they’re available in digital format and suggest alternatives if they’re not.

Pedro was relieved to get the support they needed in the digital transition, saying, “The first year was crazy trying to manage the digital implementation myself. Now, I am working with EdTech and everything is smooth.”

Within a year, EdTech helped Christopher Columbus transition from all print, to a 95% digital school. Pedro has seen the impact this has made, saying, “Having their books readily accessible anytime, anywhere has been a huge advantage for our students.”

According to Pedro, one of the most valuable services from EdTech is the scholarship assistance program. “The clencher in the beginning was finding out they offered a scholarship fund for teacher materials, and students on financial assistance. “This has been a huge help each year. It is magnificent. I have not used all of it, and there is still funding for the rest of year.”

The first year was crazy trying to manage the digital implementation myself. Now, I am working with EdTech and everything is smooth.

Pedro Garcia-Casals
Assistant Principal

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Faith West Academy

EdTech makes it easy and simple for schools and students to manage and access individualized digital content using one platform, from any device.

Faith West Academy has always been ahead of the curve when it comes to the world of digital textbooks. As publishers began realizing this was the future of the industry though, just about all of them began using single sign-on access. Jeanna Bickerstaff, Assistant Principal of Curriculum and Instruction at Faith West Academy, became consumed with the overwhelming challenge of organizing access for hundreds of students. Even with teachers’ help, providing online access to the digital textbooks for each student was incredibly time consuming. It would take a lot of her summer, graduating each student from their previous year’s textbooks to make sure there were no duplicate accounts. Jeanna knew she needed a solution, saying, “I came across a sales email from EdTech Solutions that really caught my attention and found myself looking at it a number of times.”

Jeanna began looking into similar companies for online textbook integration but chose to partner with EdTech because of their no-nonsense process. Jeanna says there was a learning curve, but after two weeks she knew exactly what to do to move forward. “The time and dedication that EdTech provides, including support late into the night, is customer service you can’t come by often.” With the comprehensive training and additional support from EdTech, Jeanna was able to take what she learned and help pass it on to teachers and staff, saying, “EdTech scheduled the staff development and I could not have asked for a smoother process.”

As Faith West Academy enters their second year with EdTech, Jeanna is excited because her anxiety about the kids to learning how to use their textbooks has almost disappeared. “With the exception of the new sixth graders, everyone knows what to do. The teachers have become the masters of their books, which has taken a lot of pressure off me, and I get my summer back.”

What she says she likes most about EdTech is, “The response time on any issue with EdTech is quick and that makes my teachers happy, which means the students are happy.” Jeanna further explains that she appreciates the turnaround time for her requests because she does not have days to wait around. With 15 years in the education industry, Jeanna knows a product is only as good as its customer service. “Days for a kid without a textbook means missed quizzes, unfinished homework, and they need access to their books.” She added, “Anyone who’s ridden the wave of digital textbooks would understand what a time saver EdTech’s integration is.”

The response time on any issue with EdTech is quick and that makes my teachers happy, which means the students are happy.

Jeanna Bickerstaff
Assistant Principal

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Benedictine High School

While students and teachers of Benedictine High School were busy making summer plans, Beverly Zima, Auxiliary Book Clerk, found her first summer with the school consumed by one project: setting up the next calendar year’s e-reader access for each student. She quickly realized how daunting the task was. Every publisher had its own login, and sometimes each book from the same publisher even had a separate login.

Even with the help of school guidance counselors, providing online access to 360 students proved to be hundreds of hours of work. “After spending my entire summer organizing 360 students’ ebooks and lists of passwords, I then went to each class and instructed the students and teachers,” she said. “They had to go to the publisher’s website, find their book and bookmark the page. They could have five different websites and five different passwords. I did this for every student, freshmen to seniors.”

With her summer gone and the beginning of the year’s e-reader instruction completed, the headaches still didn’t stop. Students came to her with password issues and teachers weren’t able to access the websites, also coming to Beverly for help.

After the “not so smooth” transition to ebooks in the classroom, the school was determined to find a solution and searched for a company that could streamline the process for them. With this goal in mind, members of the school’s technology department researched companies and found EdTech Software’s website. A meeting was quickly set up between the school’s principal, IT personnel, Beverly and the Operations Manager at EdTech.

Beverly said they also interviewed other companies and were promised a lot of things, but what made EdTech stand out was that, “EdTech created a personal connection by providing a lot of support. The personal attention was unbelievable, saying, ‘don’t worry, we’ll take care of it.’”

The first summer with EdTech took some work getting all the grade levels started and organized, but EdTech made it much easier by contacting the publishers to get the school’s ebook licenses and codes. Beverly said with a sigh of relief, “I didn’t have to do that heavy lifting and now all the kids have to do is get on the dashboard and all their books are in one place.”

When asked what she likes most about working with EdTech, Beverly said, “Besides making my life easy, EdTech provides immediate support. They are there every day, every minute.” She also added, “Once the students and teachers started utilizing the EdTech support hotlines, students even started helping each other.” Since implementing EdTech’s software, Beverly now simply provides EdTech with the list of incoming freshmen and has happily taken her summers back.

EdTech created a personal connection by providing a lot of support. The personal attention was unbelievable, saying, ‘don’t worry, we’ll take care of it’.