In this episode, we talk with Don Dailey, the 'Don' of Ed-fi collaboratives, about how he heralded the dawn of interoperability technology to Michigan's state education data systems (last godfather pun, we promise). But seriously, he does take us back to the days before personal computers, when student information and district finance systems were on mainframes. Don is the Director of Systems Integration and Interoperability providing leadership to the Michigan Data Hub project as part of the Michigan Association of Intermediate School Administrators. He spearheaded the Michigan Data Hub’s implementation of the Ed-Fi data standard nearly 9 years ago, and he won the Ed-Fi Ambassador of the Year award in 2017. Don and his team have done an amazing job of successfully coordinating data and technology stakeholders, educators, researchers, and even state legislators and other policymakers. We have learned much from him over the years and are excited to have him share a slice of his knowledge in this episode.

Show notes:

Michigan Data Hub: https://www.midatahub.org/what-is-midatahub/what-is-the-midatahub/

Legislative Reports:  https://www.midatahub.org/documentation/legislative-reports/

ROI Study: https://www.midatahub.org/downloads/data_integration/michigan_data_hub_roi_study_1.pdf

Product Catalog: https://www.midatahub.org/product-catalog/

Michigan Association of Intermediate School Administrators: https://www.gomaisa.org/projects/michigan-data-hub/

Music: Exploring The World by Vlad Gluschenko is licensed under a Creative Commons License. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/... https://soundcloud.com/vgl9

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In this episode, we talk with Dr. John Watson, data scientist at the San Diego County Office of Education, about the ways in which data scientists provide value for education organizations. We touch on the evolution of standards in education and the need to be aware of multiple intelligences (both within students and within educators looking at data); the (ideally) iterative process of data solutions and output within education agencies; the “emergency data collection” that occurred at the beginning of the pandemic; the development and limits of standards in the health and education sectors; and trying to balance rapid technological advances with the need for stability and investment in training.

Episode resources:

San Diego County Office of Education: https://www.sdcoe.net/Pages/Home.aspx 

Baker, R. S., Berning, A. W., Gowda, S. M., Zhang, S., & Hawn, A. (2020). Predicting K-12 dropout. Journal of Education for Students Placed at Risk (JESPAR), 25(1), 28-54. (early access version: https://www.upenn.edu/learninganalytics/ryanbaker/PredictingK12Dropout.pdf)

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In this episode, we talk with Dr. Michael Gottfried, applied economist at the University of Pennsylvania, and Dr. Kent McIntosh, professor at the University of Oregon and co-director of the US Department of Education’s Office of Special Education Programs’ National Technical Assistance Center on Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports (PBIS). Dr. Gottfried and Dr. McIntosh are experts on the use of transactional attendance and discipline/behavior data, respectively, in educational research and practice. We hear about their recent research findings and how these findings can be used by school and district staff to reduce inequitable outcomes among students by race/ethnicity. We also discuss the range of implications that pandemic-related school closures have had on research in these areas, and ideas for future research on student engagement and behavior beyond attendance and discipline records.

Episode resources:

Michael Gottfried: https://www.gse.upenn.edu/academics/faculty-directory/gottfried 

https://www.gse.upenn.edu/news/california-district-study-finds-latinx-students-latinx-teachers-attend-more-school

Gottfried, M., Kirksey, J. J., & Fletcher, T. L. (2021). Do high school students with a same-race teacher attend class more often? Educational Evaluation & Policy Analysis. https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.3102/01623737211032241 

Kent McIntosh: https://education.uoregon.edu/directory/faculty/all/kentm

"A school-wide intervention that increases racial equity in exclusionary school discipline." https://www.apa.org/pubs/highlights/spotlight/issue-228#

McIntosh, K., et al. (2021). Equity-focused PBIS approach reduces racial inequities in school discipline: A randomized controlled trial. School Psychology, 36(6), 433-444. https://doi.org/10.1037/spq0000466 

Schoolwide Information System (SWIS) and Positive Behavior Intervention Support Apps (PBISapps.org):

Andrew Rice, CEO of the nonprofit organization Education Analytics, joins us to discuss the roles that research and technology each have to play--separately and together--in the education data/analytics environment. Andrew is trained as an economist and has unique perspectives on the ways in which different sectors can complement each other to meet the needs of K12 education. We also discuss the challenges and rewards of hiring talented, creative, and multidisciplinary people to work in the not-for-profit and/or public sector.

In this episode, the INsite team talks with K12 analytics engineer Marcos Alcozer about his experiences and opinions with the idea of "real time" data and analytics in educational settings. We discuss the importance of understanding users' needs, get into operational databases versus denormalized data warehouses, consider the tradeoffs around performance and cost, and Marcos gets vulnerable about data governance.

Episode resources:

Marcos' youtube channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCMtiBvdj_XGP4gDjh24Z0rw  

Dagster: https://dagster.io/ 

Music: Exploring The World by Vlad Gluschenko is licensed under a Creative Commons License. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/... https://soundcloud.com/vgl9Support by RFM - NCM: https://bit.ly/2xGHypM

“Data cannot speak for itself.” In our first episode, we speak with Dr. Alex Bowers, Professor of Education Leadership at Teachers College, Columbia University, about the topics of data analysis, predictive analytics, and working with educators to leverage data for student and community growth. We discuss his four A’s of early warning systems, which should be Accurate, Accessible, Actionable, and Accountable, as well our experiences with the skillful and collaborative data work that classroom teachers and school leaders are doing across the country. We also touch on the differences between standardized assessments, classroom grades, and other measures of learning and performance; the multiple purposes of schooling in the U.S. and why we have local control; and how tech developers and researchers can better work with educators to help students and communities.

Episode links:

Alex Bowers: https://www.tc.columbia.edu/faculty/ab3764/

OECD Digital Education Outlook 2021: https://www.oecd-ilibrary.org/education/oecd-digital-education-outlook-2021_589b283f-en

Bowers, A. J. (ed.) (2021). Data visualization, dashboards, and evidence use in schools: Data collaborative workshop perspectives of educators, researchers, and data scientists. New York, NY: Teachers College, Columbia University. https://doi.org/10.7916/d8-jj2g-e225 

WWC rpt: https://ies.ed.gov/ncee/wwc/Docs/ReferenceResource/Distance_Learning_RER_508c.pdf

Tamara Munzner: https://www.cs.ubc.ca/~tmm/

Peter Senge: https://www.systemsawareness.org/person/peter-senge/  

Brookhart, et al. (2016). A century of grading research: Meaning and value in the most common educational measure. Review of Educational Research, 86(4), 803-848. https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.3102/0034654316672069 

Bowers, Sprott, & Taff. (2012). Do we know who will drop out? A review of the predictors of dropping out of high school: Precision, sensitivity, and specificity. The High School Journal, 96(2), 77-100. https://academiccommons.columbia.edu/doi/10.7916/D8FB5CZH/download 

UC Consortium on School Research: https://consortium.uchicago.edu/high_school 

The Data Wise Project: https://datawise.gse.harvard.edu/ 

Jim Popham: https://education.asu.edu/inside-the-academy-of-education/honorees/w-james-jim-popham  

Music: Exploring The World by Vlad Gluschenko is licensed under a Creative Commons License. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/... https://soundcloud.com/vgl9Support by RFM - NCM: https://bit.ly/2xGHypM