Frequently Asked Questions About ERAC

What is ERAC?
Who belongs to ERAC?
How does ERAC operate?
How much do districts realize in savings?
As a member of ERAC, is my district required to make all of our video, textbook, software and learning resource purchases through ERAC?
How does ERAC determine which software to make available for schools and districts to purchase?
How are videos selected for inclusion in ERAC’s annual Video Catalogue?
What is the role of an ERAC District Contact?
How do I find out the name of my district's contact person with ERAC?
How do I volunteer to become part of an ERAC committee?
Are independent schools able to join ERAC?
How much does it cost to be a member of ERAC?

What is ERAC?
ERAC is a consortium of BC public school districts and independent schools that work together to cooperate on software, textbook, video and learning resource evaluations and purchases, in order to realize process efficiencies to generate financial savings. The district-led consortium's goal is to reduce the amount of time school and school district staff spend evaluating, selecting, negotiating and purchasing software, textbooks, videos and learning resources, and to help bring down purchase prices. In 2006, ERAC started evaluating novels and now maintains a growing, online catalogue of novels the trained evaluators working for ERAC have reviewed and recommended for classroom instruction. In 2008 ERAC started identifying and evaluating learning resources curriculum revisions, for the BC Ministry of Education.

ERAC was formed in 2003, in a partnership between school districts and the BC Ministry of Education. In 2005, school districts assumed full responsibility for the day-to-day operations of the consortium. ERAC is operated out of the Vancouver School Board offices by a small complement of staff assisted by contractors. Under a special arrangement, it operates under the umbrella of the Vancouver School Board. The Ministry of Education provides funding for ERAC and school districts and independent schools pay an annual fee to belong to ERAC.

Who belongs to ERAC?
Every BC public school district and a number of independent schools are members of ERAC.

How does ERAC operate?
ERAC is operated by school districts, which set the consortium's priorities and directions. It is overseen by an Executive Committee, comprised of senior school-district administrators and one (non-voting) Ministry of Education representative. Maureen Ciarniello, Assistant Superintendent, West Vancouver, chairs the Executive Committee while Judy Dallas is ERAC's Executive Director. The consortium's Learning Resource Advisory Committees, comprised of school district representatives, also provide direction for ERAC's work.

How much do districts realize in savings?
The savings in each district depend on the volume of that district's purchases but collectively, during the 2007-08 school year, ERAC member districts saved almost $3 million in their video, software and learning resource purchases. Perhaps more importantly, as members of ERAC school districts also realize process savings related to their software, video and learning resource acquisition. In terms of software purchases, ERAC works with districts to determine districts' software needs, evaluates software to meet those needs, and then establishes software agreements with savings for participating districts. This work results in lower costs for the actual software but it also saves districts many hours of staff time they would have spent evaluating software and contacting various vendors.

In terms of video purchases, ERAC leads a rigorous evaluation process that results in a collection of the most recent, exemplary supplementary education videos that have been reviewed by BC teachers. About 10-15 per cent of the videos submitted by distributors are determined by the teachers to meet a high enough standard and have a sufficient fit with the BC curriculum to be included in the collection. ERAC establishes pricing for the videos that is almost always lower than the list price. Teachers and teacher-librarians say they can order supplementary videos from the ERAC collection with confidence, knowing that the videos have been highly recommended by their BC peers. The collection also includes Ministry-Recommended videos. MARC records and free shipping are included with every video.

In 2006, the Ministry of Education clarified the requirement that novels used in the classroom must be approved via each school district’s local learning resource approval process, as established by the district and approved by the local school board. Considering the huge number of novels that must be evaluated, it would be far too costly for districts to do the work independently. Starting in 2006, ERAC created its online novel catalogue by arranging for training for BC teachers and teacher-librarians, who then review novel titles assigned by ERAC. ERAC arranges novel evaluation sessions at various times throughout the year; the novels the evaluators recommend are then added to the online novel catalogue.

ERAC, along with the Alberta Learning Resource Centre (LRC) also offers an annual Early Order Discount Program. From January to mid-May, schools and districts may order core resources online, at a discount. The resources are delivered to districts prior to the start of the next school year.

ERAC also issues regular reports on timely topics, such as Computer Aided Drafting and Design, video streaming, open source software and wireless security, savings districts the time involved in researching and creating similar reports.

As a member of ERAC, is my district required to make all of our video, textbook, software and learning resource purchases through ERAC?
No. Districts and schools make the final decision on what they’re going to buy and what provider they’re going to use. Members that have participated in ERAC’s deals have historically saved between 13-60 percent on video purchases and 14-75 percent on software purchases. ERAC’s Early Order Discount Program also offers discounts on core resources.

In making their purchases through ERAC, districts and schools save on staff time because ERAC does the evaluation of software and videos and establishes the agreements with suppliers and distributors.

How does ERAC determine which software to make available for schools and districts to purchase?
Throughout the year, ERAC works closely with member districts assessing members' software needs and priorities. ERAC works on a number of agreements concurrently, bringing educational, utility and productivity software to members at discounted prices. ERAC's Learning Resource Advisory Committee assesses members' needs and establishes districts’ software priorities through regular communication with school districts, by working with teacher specialist associations and by running member surveys. ERAC also carries out evaluations of software that could fulfill members' needs. When it knows which software would best meet districts' needs, ERAC negotiates with suppliers for discounts and for the licensing agreements. This saves a tremendous amount of district staff time because, as members of ERAC, individual member districts do not have to spend time comparing and evaluating software and negotiating prices. As a consortium, ERAC has strong purchasing power so it can negotiate higher price discounts for all districts.

How are videos selected for inclusion in ERAC’s annual Video Catalogue?
During the winter, ERAC invites publishers to submit their recent English and French supplementary videos. ERAC arranges for about 70 urban and rural BC Kindergarten - Grade 12 teachers and teacher-librarians to receive training in video evaluation. The teachers are trained in evaluating supplementary videos (returning evaluators do an online refresher course). They follow a list of criteria to evaluate the videos. Every video goes through a quick “first cut” review, where evaluators reject it or recommend that it go through a deeper evaluation. A pair of evaluators goes through each video for the in-depth evaluation. Only videos with a score of at least four on a five-point scale are included in the catalogue. Typically, ERAC evaluators review more than 2,000 videos, recommending only about 15 percent for inclusion in the collection. The ERAC Video Collection also includes Ministry-Recommended videos.

What is the role of an ERAC District Contact?
Every ERAC member school district or independent school assigns representatives to serve as its software, learning resource and professional learning contacts. Usually, there are separate software, learning resource and professional learning contact people but, in some districts, all three roles are filled by one person. District Contacts receive regular updates on ERAC news from the consortium and they, in turn, share that information throughout their school district. District Contacts also receive news on ERAC's video sales, new software agreements and other special reports that they are expected to communicate with others in the district. District Contacts may choose to work with their school district's communications specialist, if the district has one in place, to help distribute news as efficiently as possible.

How do I find out the name of my district's contact person with ERAC?
For a full list of district contacts, please look in the "ERAC Contacts" section in the drop-down menu under “About Us”. In most cases, your district contact should be able to answer any of your questions about ERAC or direct you to the correct ERAC person. If not, contact Barb Hyde at 604-713-5920 and she will connect you with the right person.

How do I volunteer to become part of an ERAC committee?
ERAC welcomes new members to its committees as openings become available. ERAC tries to maintain equal representation on committees; that means regional or organizational representatives for committees will be selected from nominees that can represent that region or organization. If you are interested in serving on a committee, please contact Judy Dallas at 604-713- 5119 or jdallas@bcerac.ca or any member of the Executive Committee.

Are independent schools able to join ERAC?
Yes. Independent schools that receive funding from the Ministry of Education (group one and two schools) are eligible to become associate members of the consortium for an annual fee of between $400-$600, depending upon the size of the school. For more information or to apply for membership, call ERAC at 604-713-5920 or e-mail bcerac@bcerac.ca. Schools interested in applying will receive a membership application package.

How much does it cost to be a member of ERAC?
For school districts, membership fees range from $600 to $13,600, depending on the size of the districts. For independent schools, membership fees range from $400-$600, depending on the size of the school. Participating members realize savings far greater than their membership fee. In 2009-10, every BC school district belongs to ERAC. For more information, please contact Executive Director Judy Dallas at 604-713-5119 or jdallas@bcerac.ca.

If you have any other questions that are not answered here, please contact ERAC Executive Assistant Barb Hyde at 604-713-5920.

ERAC | Second Floor, 1580 West Broadway, Vancouver, BC V6J 5K8 | Phone: 604-713-5920 Fax: 604-713-5921 | Email: info@bcerac.ca

Please think about the environment before printing