Cambridge Public School District Launches New District Web Site

Although the school year is coming to an end, the school district's website is just taking off. Now appearing at www3.cpsd.us is a new and improved Cambridge Public School website. The district's first website was launched many years ago, and continued to grow exponentially. With the widespread growth of Cambridge Public Schools has come the increased importance of having an informative, up-to-date website.

INITIAL STEPS
In order to begin the process of redesigning the District web site, research was conducted to determine the needs and wants of the community, teachers, parents, and students. A user survey was created where more then 500 participants provided feedback and new ideas on functionality and information for the new district web site. Taking all of the information, ideas, and recommendations, CPS staff determined the goals for the new web site and began the web development process.
 
THE NEW WEB SITE
screenshot_small.jpgCPS's new website is focused on the user's experience, making retrieving information easier, faster and in a way that was more efficient than through the old website. The addition of a search function helps viewers find what they are looking for at a click of a button.

This design consists of a simple layout for easy organization for lots of information, flash animation to accentuate the wonderful work happening across the district, as well as great applications such as calendars and news stories that make the website a true asset to the school system, its employees, as well as the students and parents. Within the new website are sections devoted exclusively to students, parents, and staff —all of which makes it easy to find information right away.

NEXT STEPS
This is just the start of the district-wide redesign process. The next phase will involve redesigning all of the school web sites in order to improve them and make them a valuable resource for all. The new site is also built and hosted on the same platform as the District’s new “Youth and Resource Development System” (YARDs). As both YARDs and the Districts web sites continue to evolve the integration points between external information delivery and internal staff, student and parent portals will become more transparent.

The overall goal is to create a seamless online experience for all stakeholders with ease of access to information, communication, collaboration and all online tools to support the mission of Cambridge Public Schools.

A special thanks to all user survey participants and to the testing groups for their hard work and valuable insight.

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