The founders of StudentEI recognized that while school districts’ curriculums are designed to equip students with academic and technical skills, they consistently fall short in developing one critical area of student success, everyday skills. Everyday skills, which includes self-performance, communication, teamwork, and resilience, is directly linked to improved academic performance, rapid new skill adoption, and success in the workplace. Armed with this knowledge, the StudentEI team envisioned a technology solution that would assess these skills and measure them quantitatively for the purpose of assisting districts in making their students relevant and prepared.
The process of bringing the idea to reality presented many technical and regulatory challenges. StudentEI knew that in order to create a viable, science-backed, differentiated product with Federal and State regulations in mind, they couldn’t go at it alone.
Looking to New York’s Capital Region for a technology company with a background in education, Student EI partnered with Troy Web’s custom software development experts, behavioral scientists, psychometricians, and industrial-organizational psychologists to help bring their vision to life.
How we helped
With extensive experience in the education space and a history of partnering with early-stage startups, Troy Web offered both the technical proficiency and collaborative spirit needed to successfully co-create an SaaS platform from the ground up.
First, Troy Web implemented a business analysis phase to better understand school district needs and intended business outcomes. Next, the team got to work on wireframing and mapping user flows. Lastly, the team built the first iteration of the industry standard PHP Laravel system, working closely with StudentEI to align the system’s functionalities with the company’s strategic vision.
Troy Web’s iterative, value-based development process encouraged targeted refinement of the system’s capabilities and user experience. This phased approach, which involved continuous feedback assessments from StudentEI and their industry partners, maximized the system’s value and increased its marketplace viability.
The results
StudentEI’s vision to help district leaders ensure that their students are relevant and prepared is now becoming a reality. The company provides school districts with science and evidenced-based assessments that quantitatively measures students’ individual and collective everyday skills. These data insights are then translated into a skills summary report, which provides teachers and administrators with a better understanding of where students are likely to excel or potentially hit a roadblock.
Because data is presented in a format that is easy to understand, the insights are used to achieve goals and initiatives for all stakeholders. This new tool creates an immediate and lasting change in the lives of students, the success of districts, and the preparedness of our future workforce.