The Problem

The National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) is a program within the U.S. Department of Education's National Center for Education Statistics (NCES). NAEP has a commitment to providing the highest quality reporting on what American students know and can do in several areas of study. The growing public interest in educational quality is evidenced in the No Child Left Behind Act, one result of which has been to require reporting NAEP assessment results in much shorter time frames than before.

NAEP has also had a commitment to using the Web in pursuit of its mission and offers powerful data analysis tools on its public website. Yet the program had not used Internet technology to any large degree for its internal processes. The bulk of program activity is carried out by several contractors and by an extended network of field staff and state coordinators. Over a thousand people work for NAEP in one capacity or another. Achieving efficiencies in both public communication and in internal collaboration would require a central organizing force as well as innovative applications of technology.

Statement of Work

In the NAEP Alliance contract awarded in 2002, the role of web operations and management contractor was created to address several NCES objectives:

• leveraging the Web and emerging technologies to ensure the timely and efficient release of NAEP products and services;
• providing a central organizing presence for Web-related activities in a multi-contractor environment;
• reducing the need for duplication of staff and other resources across the multiple information providers and users; and
• enhancing quality across all aspects of NAEP Web operations.

Approach: Adding Value Through Focus on Mission

Fulcrum IT was awarded a prime contract as the web operations and maintenance contractor and has achieved impressive results in a short period of time due to its mission-sensitive development strategy and its highly qualified staff.

Fulcrum IT's development approach is to address the highest business priorities with resources that can be rapidly deployed, then provide more complete and integrated solutions in subsequent phases.

With an eye to value, Fulcrum IT frequently employs commercial off-the-shelf products and customizes them to meet the client's particular needs. These include Sharepoint, Microsoft Content Management Server, NetMeeting, and Microsoft CRM.

Fulcrum IT employs the latest technologies. Where possible, all new NAEP systems will be developed using Microsoft .Net. Programming is in C#.

Fulcrum IT's high standards for hiring only the best and most experienced employees ensure that clients receive the highest quality results for their money.

Results—1: Tackling Urgent Needs

Fulcrum IT began providing solutions for urgent problems within weeks of contract award.

Migration of NAEP Public and Private Sites

Challenge

Once the contract was awarded, Fulcrum IT became responsible for operating and maintaining the NAEP public and private sites. The public and private sites had to be migrated to Fulcrum IT servers, while preserving service levels and avoiding any disruption of service during the migration process.

Solution

Development of the Integrated Management System

Challenge

Members of the NAEP organization belong to different companies in disparate regions of the country, creating the immediate need for a central communication medium. A system had to be built that would enable collaboration on all types of NAEP-related work, from reviewing an assessment report to publishing a bulletin board message.

Solution

Results—2: Coordinating Technology Activities

The various NAEP contractors all have technology departments and many of them use the Internet to accomplish their program objectives.

NAEP Security and Confidentiality Plan

Challenge

The Department of Education requires that all contractors adhere to strict security and confidentiality requirements. The requirements are aimed at safeguarding confidential information, embargoed results, personal data, etc. With the vast amount of NAEP-related activities occurring on Fulcrum IT's infrastructure, it was imperative that formal documentation be provided in a short timeframe.

Solution

Web Content Coordination Plan

Challenge

When Fulcrum IT assumed responsibility for content management, the company also assumed the role of web content coordinator for the entire public website. A new plan for updating content on the public websites had to be developed and coordinated with the NAEP organization.

Solution

Through a series of interviews with key players involved in the existing web content management process, Fulcrum IT formulated a coordination plan. This outlined the new workflow and delivery schedule to orchestrate the development and production of all web content. The comprehensive plan was communicated throughout the NAEP organization and quickly adopted by all involved parties.

Assuring Quality in Web Operations

Challenge

The credibility of the NAEP program can be undermined by the smallest discrepancy, especially when presenting data and information using the Internet, which reaches a large audience instantaneously. Therefore, it became apparent that Fulcrum IT needed a dedicated Quality team responsible for imposing Quality Control standards and procedures on all NAEP web activities.

Solution

Fulcrum IT oversees a Quality team that established and monitors Quality Control standards and procedures, thus assuring quality in everything from software development to web standards.

Technology Advocate and Advisor

Fulcrum IT plays a key role as technology expert and advisor for the various contractors, serving as a communications channel among the separate technology departments and hosting quarterly coordination meetings.

Results—3: Mapping the Technology Future

NAEP's commitment to applying the most advanced appropriate technologies led them to select Fulcrum IT, a technology leader, as web operations and management contractor.

Assess and Analyze NAEP Web Technology Needs

Challenge

NCES expects Fulcrum IT, as a technology leader, to guide the NAEP organization in keeping on the forefront of emerging web technologies that will improve their web presence and optimize business operations. Fulcrum IT has the challenge of balancing where the NAEP organization fits into the technology adoption lifecycle; acknowledging that there's a need to stay ahead of the predictable majority without being as risky as the innovators.

Solution

Delivering a Web Content Management System

Challenge

Due to the condensed timeframe for reporting on assessments, the number of simultaneous updates to the public websites increased significantly. This new environment demands the use of a fully functional content management tool that will cut the time to make changes. Such tools can provide templates to reduce the risk of errors and increase the number of users with the appropriate skill-set to make the updates.

Solution

Fulcrum IT launched a Web Content Management System (Web CMS), a highly customized implementation of Microsoft Content Management Server. The Web CMS allows program staff among the various contractors to manage and publish Web content within an approval framework that matches NAEP's business workflow. Fulcrum IT provided expanded functionality appropriate to NAEP through ASP.net and C# customization.

Development of Additional Systems and Solutions

Fulcrum IT has undertaken a formal requirements analysis on many fronts, including a report draft tracking and approval framework, the next release of the IMS, and the next version of the Help Desk solution.

Results—4: Addressing Unanticipated Needs

Fulcrum IT has been asked to perform a number of services that were not specified in the original contract.

• Fulcrum IT is beginning an effort to introduce Microsoft CRM for use with NAEP-wide customer service and contact management.
• Finding that NAEP was spending considerable sums on a web conferencing vendor, Fulcrum IT proposed a customized Microsoft NetMeeting-based solution and implemented it within two weeks.
• To sort out competing visions of a new data tool interface, Fulcrum IT conducted formal state-of-the-art usability studies to evaluate options and guide development.
• Fulcrum IT has launched a process to improve the rankings of the NAEP website in major search engines.
• Fulcrum IT has provided VPN access to Department of Education computer users, such as the NAEP Technical Documentation Workgroup.

Conclusion

Fulcrum IT has more than 20 years of experience serving their clients by defining and building customized, innovative solutions that satisfy their business objectives. Fulcrum IT has a wealth of information technology expertise, with deep skill-sets including software engineering, architectural and systems integration, and business process analysis and re-engineering. Fulcrum IT's extensive knowledge base can be leveraged to solve a vast spectrum of business problems in an efficient, cost-effective manner and produce results that far exceed client expectations.