Data management company Mizuni, Inc. has just unveiled a new performance platform for schools.  Called Mizuni Aspire, the company claims it is the next-generation platform that delivers secure, cloud-based data management solutions for K-12 district partners. According to Mizuni, it provides data visualization, proactive notifications and predictive analysis in a user interface that has been developed specifically for touch screen tablets and smartphones.

Mizuni Aspire was created to accomplish three primary goals—improving student performance, delivering cloud-based solutions to address K-12 schools district needs and lowering the total cost of ownership for district partners.

Mizuni Aspire comprises modules that solve specific problems common to K-12 school districts, according to company officials. These modules can be used individually or combined to create a more powerful and cohesive data management platform.

The two Mizuni Aspire modules include Mizuni Aspire Perform and Mizuni Aspire Integrate. Mizuni Aspire Perform allows school districts to establish and monitor goals across student performance indicators shown by research to predict student achievement. Some of the key performance indicators include attendance, college entrance assessments, course credits, discipline, formative and state assessments, grades, mobility and suspension information. Also, according to Mizuni, the module’s intuitive Web user interface enables educators to monitor performance trends for each individual student while also providing analysis at the classroom, small learning community, grade and school building levels.

In addition, Mizuni Aspire Integrate automates data transfer between school district applications eliminating redundant data entry, while improving data quality and timeliness. The solution comprises application-specific data adapters and cloud-based messaging services that securely connect data adapters and achieve the desired near real-time data flows. At this time, Mizuni Data Adapters are available for most student information systems and K-12 applications. Also, to reduce implementation time and cost, the Mizuni Aspire Integrate module can seamlessly provide data to other Mizuni Aspire modules.

Shane Gibbons, director of Research & Development at Mizuni said in a statement, "We noticed three trends in K-12 Education that are changing the data management environment: reduction of technology budgets for software applications; frequent turnover and decrease in technology staff; and expectation of anytime, everywhere access for all applications. These financial and resource pressures mixed with higher user expectations led us to invest in the research and development of Mizuni Aspire."