08/18/2008
California Awards Statewide Electronic Transcript Contract to National Transcript Center
California School Information Services will enable cost-effective and secure exchange of
electronic student records and transcripts for PK-12 schools, colleges, and universities
The National Transcript Center (NTC), the leading provider of electronic student transcript solutions, announced today that it has signed a contract with California School Information Services (CSIS) to create the CSIS Transcript Center, a statewide electronic student record and transcript exchange system. Based in Sacramento, CSIS is the official California state agency charged with enabling the accurate and timely exchange of student transcripts.
The CSIS Transcript Center will enable any PK-12 public school district in California to send electronic records and transcripts to other districts and higher education institutions anywhere in the country. Public colleges and universities in California are able to receive the transcripts electronically at no charge.
"California education agencies must contend with a large number of school districts, large volume of transcripts sent, and high rate of student mobility," said Mark Johnson, president and CEO of the National Transcript Center. "And, when it came time for California to select the vendor that could handle all those challenges and more, we’re pleased that CSIS chose National Transcript Center. NTC is excited to work with CSIS, California school districts, and other California stakeholders to make the CSIS Transcript Center the most advanced electronic transcript system in the country."
This marks the seventh state contract awarded to NTC by a state education agency in the last 21 months. Other NTC states under contract for an electronic transcript system include Colorado, Texas, Virginia, West Virginia, and Wyoming. NTC now serves over 15 million students under contract, representing over 25,000 education institutions.
CSIS Transcript Center will launch in Fall 2008.
About National Transcript Center
National Transcript Center was established to improve the efficiency, reliability, cost, and security of academic transcript exchange for K-12 schools, state education agencies, colleges and universities, and co-academic organizations. The company’s Web-based solutions offer a simple and quick way for institutions to send, receive, manage, track, and import electronic transcripts and student records in the data format they prefer. National Transcript Center is the largest electronic transcript provider in the world, serving more than 25,000 institutions representing 15 million students. Based in Austin, Texas, National Transcript Center offers a highly secure and highly scalable trading network which provides privacy and identity protection that far exceeds historical offerings. For more information on National Transcript Center, visit www.transcriptcenter.com.
07/28/2008
NTC Selected As District Administration Magazine Site of the Week
District Administration magazine selected National Transcript Center's website as the Dr. Hotlist Site of the Week for the week of Monday, July 28, 2008. Former selections represent a variety of valuable education resources from all sectors.
07/03/2008
Washington Post Article About NTC's Virginia Solution
03/17/2008
NTC JumpStart™ Enables Any School To Begin Sending Electronic Transcripts Immediately
World's leading electronic transcript solution will enable any educational institution to reap benefits of electronic transcripts immediately
AUSTIN, TEXAS, March 17, 2008 – The National Transcript Center (NTC) has announced the Fall 2008 launch of NTC JumpStart™, which will enable any school to start sending PDF documents of student records or transcripts to any other school, organization or employer immediately. NTC currently serves over 15,000 schools, representing over 8.5 million students – making it the world's largest and most comprehensive provider of electronic student transcripts.
Most schools can easily generate a PDF of a student record or transcript. NTC JumpStart™ members will be able to send this PDF to any school in NTC's database of over 137,000 institutions, encompassing all PK-12 and higher education institutions in the country as well as many scholarship organizations and employers. In addition, the record/transcript can be delivered to any individual, organization, or company worldwide through a partnership with Adobe/GeoTrust® that provides the maximum possible authentication of PDF documents.
"We – and our member institutions – love the benefits of exchanging actual student data, and we view NTC JumpStart™ primarily as a temporary solution until a member is ready to begin sending data," said Mark Johnson, president of the National Transcript Center. "We're meeting members' short-term need to begin sending electronic student records and transcripts immediately while we perform the data integration for a longer-term, data-enabled solution. There are also some schools that don't require data or would prefer to send PDFs, and NTC JumpStart™ is a simple, robust and permanent solution for them."
To learn more about NTC's services, including NTC JumpStart™, visit
www.transcriptcenter.com or call 512-879-5400.
About National Transcript Center
National Transcript Center was established to improve the efficiency, reliability, cost, and security of academic transcript exchange for PK-12 schools, state education agencies, colleges and universities, and co-academic organizations. The company's Web-based solutions offer a simple and quick way for institutions to send, receive, manage, track, and import electronic transcripts and student records in the data format they prefer. Based in Austin, Texas, National Transcript Center offers a highly secure and highly scalable trading network which provides privacy and identity protection that far exceeds historical offerings. For more information on National Transcript Center, visit
www.transcriptcenter.com.
01/24/2008
Virginia Department of Education and National Transcript Center Collaborate on Statewide Electronic Transcript System
Part of a statewide data management initiative, Virginia Transcript Center provides PK-12 schools with convenient, cost-effective and secure system for record and transcript exchange
AUSTIN, TEXAS, Jan. 24, 2008 – The National Transcript Center (NTC), the largest electronic transcript provider in the world, announces today that it is developing the Virginia Transcript Center, a statewide electronic student record and transcript exchange system, for the Virginia Department of Education. The Virginia Transcript Center will be incorporated into the state’s pioneering SIF-based statewide data management system that provides decision-support data to educators at the state, division and school levels. All PK-12 public schools in the Commonwealth of Virginia will be able to exchange electronic records and transcripts with other school divisions and higher education institutions in the state free of charge.
The Virginia Department of Education is enhancing its longitudinal data management system, Educational Information Management System (EIMS), by developing capability within the program for the electronic exchange of student records and transcripts. EIMS enables schools to collect, report and analyze student data and meet the reporting requirements of the federal No Child Left Behind Act. The system also helps education leaders in their efforts to calculate more accurate graduation and dropout rates that fully account for student mobility and other factors.
"Electronic student records exchange is a natural next step in our SIF initiative, where we promote quality data by entering it once, and using it many times. We are pleased to be able to offer this service to Virginia schools as part of the expansion of our Educational Information Management System," said Bethann Canada, Director of Educational Information Management at the Virginia Department of Education.
More than 2,100 PK-12 schools and higher education institutions, which serve more than 1.2 million students, will benefit from this system. Virginia PK-12 public schools can quickly send and receive electronic student records from other public schools, alleviating the issues associated with student mobility and timely student placement. The system will offer schools a faster, cheaper and safer way to exchange records and transcripts than paper-based methods which require substantial costs in human resources, paper and postage.
Additionally, PK-12 schools can send academic transcripts to public colleges and universities in the state. School divisions will save a significant amount of time and money transferring high school transcripts to higher education institutions through the Virginia Transcript Center. Virginia has one of the highest populations of college-bound students in the country, and a majority of students apply to multiple colleges. If needed, electronic records can be sent out of state or to a private school through NTC’s national server for a nominal fee. Students can log in to NTC’s secure Web site using a unique tracking number to follow their transcripts as they are sent and received.
"Virginia is a leader in education data management and serves as a model for other states as they grapple with the nationwide increase in student mobility, dual enrollment and college applications as well as rising education costs," said Mark Johnson, president of the National Transcript Center. "Our solution helps local and state education agencies improve the efficiency, reliability, cost, and security of academic transcript and student record exchange." Virginia is the sixth state over the past year to collaborate with the National Transcript Center on statewide electronic transcript systems.
The Virginia Transcript Center provides a Web-based user interface to transfer, manage, track, and import electronic transcripts and student records. The system extracts student data directly from EIMS and then uses NTC’s proprietary data translation engine to send the data in the format that the receiving school or college prefers. Data formats include PESC High School Transcript XML, SPEEDE EDI and SIF Student Record Exchange. This process ensures data accuracy and minimizes double data-entry.
To prevent transcript fraud and protect student identity, NTC’s electronic transcript system uses Internet security protocols like those used by online banking to safeguard data transmission and offers a highly secure end-to-end transaction process in which only authorized personnel are able to send and receive records. The system is fully compliant with the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA).
The National Transcript Center is teaming with the Educational Measurement group of Pearson, a prime contractor with the Virginia Department of Education on the Virginia Information Management System, and Edustructures to develop the Virginia Transcript Center and provide training to administrators, school staff and counselors. For the remainder of the 2007-2008 school year, select school divisions and higher education institutions will pilot the system, with the intent to expand to PK-12 record exchange in the 2008-2009 school year.
About National Transcript Center
National Transcript Center was established to improve the efficiency, reliability, cost, and security of academic transcript exchange for K-12 schools, state education agencies, colleges and universities, and co-academic organizations. The company’s Web-based solutions offer a simple and quick way for institutions to send, receive, manage, track, and import electronic transcripts and student records in the data format they prefer. National Transcript Center is the largest electronic transcript provider in the world, serving more than 13,000 institutions representing 7.5 million students. Based in Austin, Texas, National Transcript Center offers a highly secure and highly scalable trading network which provides privacy and identity protection that far exceeds historical offerings. For more information on National Transcript Center, visit www.transcriptcenter.com.
10/24/2007
PreK-20 Electronic Student Record and Transcript Exchange System Saves Millions for Districts, State Education Agencies
Five states in the past year have selected National Transcript Center to facilitate electronic transcript exchange for preK-20 academic institutions, serving over 7 million students
AUSTIN, TEXAS, Oct. 18, 2007 – In today’s digital age, online banking, electronic legal documents and movement of other sensitive information via the Web has become the norm, yet the majority of student records and transcripts are still sent on paper through postal mail. Increasingly, preK-12 state education agencies and commissions of higher education are working together on statewide e-transcript, or preK-20, initiatives to improve the efficiency, reliability, cost, and security of academic transcript and student record exchange. In the past year, five states have licensed the National Transcript Center (NTC), the largest e-transcript provider in the world, to provide a Web-based system for the transfer of electronic records and transcripts.
With NTC’s statewide solution, public preK-12 and higher education institutions have a faster, safer and cheaper way to send, receive, manage, track, and import electronic transcripts and student records in the data format they prefer. Records can be exchanged among school districts and colleges within the state at no cost to the institution. If needed, electronic records can be sent outside the state through NTC’s national server for a nominal fee.
"States are adding their institutions en masse to electronic record and transcript trading networks because they are now a viable and practical alternative to paper-based methods," said Mark Johnson, president of the National Transcript Center. During the 2006-07 school year, Wyoming, Texas, West Virginia, Connecticut, and Colorado selected NTC for the development and deployment of statewide e-transcript systems. Johnson added, "The availability of new technologies and the increase in student mobility, dual enrollment and college applications have led to the rapid rise in demand for online systems that can move data securely not only from high schools to colleges but from district to district as well."
Schools districts incur significant costs in human resources, paper and postage to manually process transcript and record exchanges. According to a recent poll of high school counselors, 72 percent of students submitted between four and nine college applications for admission in 2003. That number could continue to swell as the number of high school students applying to colleges and the number of colleges that they apply to increases as it has for the past five years.
Compounding the problem is the increase in student mobility. The Associated Press reported in a Nov. 11, 2004, article that at least four in ten students change schools one or more times by the time they are 17 years old, in addition to their normal progression from elementary and middle school to high school. Because paper records can take weeks or months to arrive, many students start at their new schools without academic records, making it difficult for school officials to determine proper placement. As a result, instructional time is often lost and students fall behind.
NTC’s electronic record and transcript system greatly reduces these monetary and instructional costs. The Texas Education Agency, which chose NTC to implement the Texas Records Exchange System, determined that its school districts were spending more than $8.3 million each year to manually process district-to-district and district-to-college records requests, or $7.71 dollars per paper transcript. Through NTC’s system, the state will save $7.7 million annually while providing a quicker and more secure method for student record and transcript data exchange.
Unlike other vendors, NTC offers a full preK-20 solution that provides the same user interface and a centralized system to facilitate student record and transcript exchange between:
- School district to school district
- High school to college
- College to college
- College to school district (e.g. for dual enrollment, research and evaluation)
- High school/college to non-academic institution such as a scholarship organization
NTC's exclusive data translation engine allows schools to exchange academic records and transcripts with institutions that use other data standards without purchasing additional software. Data can be exchanged via PESC High School Transcript XML, PESC College Transcript XML, SPEEDE EDI, SIF Student Record Exchange, and more. This saves district staff and college registrars from re-keying information, thereby reducing the time spent on importing data and ensuring data accuracy. School districts and colleges also have the option of sending records and transcripts in a secure, certified PDF document.
Other benefits of electronic transcript exchange that are critical to state education agencies and its academic institutions are transcript fraud prevention and identity protection. NTC’s solutions offer a highly secure end-to-end transaction process so only authorized personnel are able to send and receive, and uses state-of-the-art Internet security protocols to safeguard data transmission. In addition, each transaction is given a randomly generated and unique ID number that can be tracked via the NTC Web site. NTC is fully compliant with the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act.
To learn more about preK-20 electronic record and transcript systems and steps for implementation, you can download a free white paper.
About National Transcript Center
National Transcript Center was established to improve the efficiency, reliability, cost, and security of academic transcript exchange for K-12 schools, state education agencies, colleges and universities, and co-academic organizations. The company’s Web-based solutions offer a simple and quick way for institutions to send, receive, manage, track, and import electronic transcripts and student records in the data format they prefer. National Transcript Center is the largest e-transcript provider in the world, serving more than 13,000 institutions representing 7.5 million students. Based in Austin, Texas, National Transcript Center offers a highly secure and highly scalable trading network, which provides privacy and identity protection that far exceeds historical offerings. For more information on National Transcript Center, visit www.transcriptcenter.com.
07/17/2007
Introducing the Fastest Way to Connect Colleges to the SPEEDE Server – QuickConnect™ from NTC
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06/25/2007
West Virginia Licenses NTC for Statewide PK-20 System
The West Virginia Department of Education (WVDE) has engaged NTC to deploy a state-specific version of NTC’s PK-20 transcript system, tentatively named the "West Virginia Transcript Center." NTC’s application will translate K12 data from the West Virginia Educational Information System (WVEIS) into PESC XML and SPEEDE EDI for the public higher education institutions in the state. West Virginia is a state with an established history of education technology leadership. The creation of a statewide electronic transcript system represents the next chapter in that story.
02/13/2007
NTC Wins Statewide Contract in Texas – Largest eTranscript Contract Ever Awarded
AUSTIN, TEXAS – The National Transcript Center (NTC) announced today that it was awarded a three-year contract from the Texas Education Agency (TEA) for the development and deployment of the Texas Records Exchange System (TREx). Edvance Research, Inc. (ERI), a leading research firm to educational agencies was subcontracted to direct statewide training and customer support.
NTC is a division of ESP Solutions Group, the leading designer and developer of large-scale data systems for PK-20 education. TEA is the second-largest state education agency in the country with approximately 4.5 million public school students and 8,000 campuses. The union of industry giants such as NTC/ESP and TEA makes the TREx program a ground-breaking venture.
TREx will improve the efficiency, cost, and security of student record exchange in Texas. It will allow every Texas public school district to transfer student records in an electronic format to other schools in Texas. In addition, districts can send high school transcripts to every public college and university in the state of Texas electronically through the SPEEDE Server at The University of Texas at Austin, at no cost to the district. Private schools will be able to join TREx for a fee.
Texas school districts will also have the ability to send Individual Education Programs and Personal Graduation Plans at no cost to the district. These documents will be sent as attachments to the student record when appropriate.
In addition, TREx participants have the option to send records and transcripts electronically to out-of-state colleges and universities and school districts via the NTC National Server. Through a connection to the NTC National Server, Texas school districts will also have the option to send certified PDFs to employers, scholarship providers, certifying bodies, and other non-academic recipients. NTC’s strategic partnership with Avow Systems, Inc., enables the electronic student records and transcripts provider to deliver Avowed™ certified PDF documents containing the highest level of security and authentication available – Adobe® blue ribbon certification. School districts will be charged a fee for using these optional services.
"The TREx system is scheduled for statewide roll-out starting in Fall 2007," said Mark Johnson, president of the National Transcript Center. Johnson adds, "TEA has always been a visionary leader with student data systems, so it is no surprise that they are out in front of electronic student record and transcript exchange."
"Registrars and counselors will welcome the arrival of an electronic student records transfer system," stated Dr. Barbara Clements, chief standards officer of NTC. "Instead of spending hours at the copier and looking up addresses, the TREx system will reduce the time to send a transcript from weeks to seconds. More importantly, it brings unparalleled improvements in security and confidentiality."
Dr. Glynn Ligon, chief executive officer of ESP Solutions Group commented, "NTC is the leading electronic student record and transcript solution available to State Education Agencies." He added, "NTC addresses both K-12 student mobility needs as well as college transcripts for higher education institutions. Together, TREx and NTC will establish a cutting-edge program for the exchange of student records, a program that will in turn be a model for other states."
The TREx system is scheduled for statewide roll-out starting in Fall 2007. "Texas school districts will be pleased with the high degree of support they will receive through these providers," stated Dr. Dean Nafziger, chief executive officer at ERI. "ERI and NTC stand ready to help usher in the digital age for registrars and counselors."
02/03/2007
First-Ever SIF Electronic Transcript Produced by National Transcript Center
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11/28/2006
National Transcript Center Partners With Avow Systems, Inc. to Become First K-12 Electronic Transcript Vendor to Offer Adobe®/GeoTrust®-Certified PDF Documents
AUSTIN, Texas, Nov. 28 /PRNewswire/ – National Transcript Center (NTC) announced today a strategic partnership with Avow Systems, Inc., enabling the electronic student records and transcripts provider to deliver Avowed(TM) certified PDF documents containing the highest level of security and authentication available – Adobe®/GeoTrust® blue ribbon certification. A long-time leader in the development of secure, user-friendly, and scalable student record exchange solutions, NTC is currently the only service offering this level of document security to the K-12 community.
Using Avow Systems' +ADDS(TM) Document Authentication Service, the NTC system will apply a unique digital signature to a PDF document, rendering it Avowed(TM) by Avow Systems, automatically trusted by Adobe® Systems, Inc. and GeoTrust®, Inc., the most respected names in electronic transaction authentication and certification. As a result, NTC's member institutions, including K-12 school districts, colleges, and universities around the country will be able to instantaneously send digitally signed PDF transcripts to any person in the world that has either the ubiquitous free Adobe® Reader(TM) or Adobe® Acrobat(TM) products. Recipients of these authenticated PDF documents will be provided automated and immediate validation by Adobe® that they can trust NTC as the author and know that the document has not been altered.
NTC's Avowed(TM) PDFs are a stark contrast to other PDF "solutions" in the marketplace that often send only a static image of a paper transcript and offer no guarantee of authenticity. In an academic world increasingly filled with greater technological challenges, NTC offers a complete solution, delivering actual student data, in addition to an Avowed(TM) PDF of that file, and eliminating the need to re-key student information.
"School districts and postsecondary institutions need to know that not all electronic transcript vendors are created equal," said Mark Johnson, president of the National Transcript Center. "Our relationship with Avow represents another best-in-class partnership through NTC. Our customers can expect NTC to continue to find premium solutions and integrate those into our offering."
"Our strategic relationship with NTC is important to the K-12 community in that together we offer the first K-12 end-to-end secure electronic document solution using world-class, proven technology," explains Ron Hyman, general manager of Avow Systems.
About National Transcript Center
The National Transcript Center was established to improve the efficiency, reliability, cost, and security of academic transcript exchange for K-12 schools, state education agencies, colleges and universities, and co-academic organizations. Based in Austin, Texas, the National Transcript Center is a highly secure and highly scalable trading network. NTC offers privacy and identity protection that far exceeds today's offerings.
For more information on the National Transcript Center, please visit www.transcriptcenter.com.
About Avow Systems
Avow Systems is the industry leader in providing end-to-end solutions for electronic Educational document processing. Leveraging Adobe®'s certified PDF technology, Avow's Authentic Document Delivery Services (+ADDS(TM)) offers cost effective alternatives to paper. +ADDS(TM) provides a secure, integrated and streamlined solution for any official electronic documents, i.e. digital transcripts.
11/09/2006
NTC Becomes First eTranscript Vendor to Announce Support for SIFA's Student Record Exchange Specifications
The National Transcript Center (NTC) announced today that it has officially introduced support for the Schools Interoperability Framework (SIF) 2.0 e-transcript specification. The announcement establishes NTC as the first e-transcript vendor to support the new specification just 2 weeks after the standard was officially published on October 25, 2006.
"With education fully entering the era of e-transcript exchange, NTC stands ready to support school districts as they upgrade their student information system to include SIF 2.0 capabilities," said Mark Johnson, president of the National Transcript Center. NTC, through its parent company ESP Solutions Group, is an established leader in the education standards community and has long supported the efforts of SIFA. Several SIFA board members and task force leaders are employees of NTC and ESP Solutions Group.
10/03/2006
Barbara Clements, Chief Standards Officer for NTC, Appointed to PESC Board of Directors
Directors of the Postsecondary Electronic Standards Council (PESC) have officially announced the appointment of Dr. Barbara Clements to the PESC's Board of Directors.
Dr. Clements, Chief Standards Officer at NTC, is nationally recognized for her work with education information systems and is regarded as a visionary leader in data standards for both PK-12 and postsecondary education.
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05/20/2005
Electronic Data Transfers Could Slow Transcript Fraud
Fraud involving student transcripts is increasing dramatically. Now all that is about to change, or so says Glynn Ligon, president of ESP Solutions Group, an Austin, Texas-based provider of education data systems for state education agencies.
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