Tampa, Florida; April 2^nd, 2013: Hillsborough County Public Schools has selected the Edsby gradebook and social learning platform to provide a district-wide modernization of tools used by teachers to track and share grades, assignments, and class-related information with students and parents. The solution will be supplied by Aptiris Inc., which will also be providing integration, training and related services.  Edsby, built by CoreFour Inc., is a modern cloud-based gradebook and social learning platform which enables school districts to quickly and cost-effectively deploy a suite of advanced teaching and learning capabilities that are tightly integrated with the existing IT infrastructure of the district. The agreement covers a five year period commencing July 1, 2013.

Hillsborough County Public Schools encompasses over 260 schools and with an education community of over 194,000 students and over 15,000 teachers, it ranks as one of the ten largest school districts in the US. After an extensive search and evaluation process by a team of over twenty district educators, administrators, parents, and information technology specialists, Edsby was the leading choice of the evaluation team. Said James Stewart, a high school chemistry teacher: “I saw in Edsby the fulfillment of a wish list that I’ve had since I started teaching. The gradebook itself has everything that I need. But Edsby also has features that allow me to connect to students and families in ways that feel natural to these students, who are digital natives and twenty first century learners… Edsby finally gives our teachers and students a secure, intuitive, powerful toolset to bring educational collaboration into the modern age.”

“We are very excited to have Hillsborough County Public Schools join the growing set of education organizations that have chosen Edsby to help transform how their teachers, students and parents engage with each other using modern technology such as the web, smartphones and tablets” said John Myers, CEO of CoreFour, the builders of Edsby. “The selection process they used was very thorough, and we are delighted that the broad capabilities that Edsby provides, coupled with its easy-to-learn user experience has resulted in Edsby being chosen”.

“We look forward to the key services that Edsby will provide to all the stakeholders in our education community here at Hillsborough,” said Gregory Hart, the Manager of Web Communication at Hillsborough County Public Schools. “We know that having students and their families more engaged with student progress and achievement is vital step in improving student outcomes, and Edsby will enable our organization to make significant progress in this area, especially as it relates to the Florida commitments to the Race To The Top program.”

Aptiris Inc. a Georgia-based certified Edsby reseller that has provided advanced communication and collaboration solutions to school districts across the U.S. for over a decade, will deliver Edsby to Hillsborough. “Aptiris has recently added Edsby to the portfolio of offerings we provide to education customers.” said Gary Falcon, President of Aptiris. “It is the most innovative and capable new product we’ve seen in the education space in a long time, and we’re pleased to be able to work with Hillsborough and Edsby to bring these benefits to the teachers, students and parents of the district.”

About Edsby:

Edsby is focused on one very specific goal – to be the world’s best software solution for enabling school districts and private schools to connect their teachers, students and parents together using the kinds of modern technologies that have become so pervasive in so many other aspects of peoples’ lives.  The makers of Edsby have been creating and delivering advanced communication and collaboration solutions to education organizations of all sizes around the world for over twenty years.  See edsby.com for details. Contact Scott Welch (VP Sales & Marketing, [email protected], +1-416-277-8894) for any further information.

About Hillsborough County Public Schools:

Hillsborough County Public Schools (HCPS) is the eighth largest public school district in the United States, with approximately 194,000 students and 25,000 staff in the most recent year. HCPS is dedicated to excellence in public education, featuring four of the top 100 high schools in the US (Washington Post) and two of the top 100 Magnet High Schools (US News & World Report). In 2011 the College Board recognized HCPS as having the largest annual increase in Advanced Placement scores for three consecutive years. HCPS is also the recipient of a seven year, $100 million grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation for teacher effectiveness. See publicaffairs.mysdhc.org for more details.

About Aptiris:

Aptiris is a leading provider of training, services and software products for online communication and collaboration in education. Serving its clients since 1998 from its central office outside Atlanta, GA, Aptiris operates across North America, specializing in systems integration, training, support, and software customization, providing real-world expertise based on more than a decade of experience in enterprise systems administration, corporate training, end-user support, K-12 and higher education teaching, and applications development. Contact [email protected] for any further information.