At Ed-Fi, we recognize that collaboration is the key to discovery and success. We’re extremely proud of our ever-growing community, which continues to illustrate the advantages of working together.
Across the nation, schools, districts, and teachers struggle to make the most of the assessment data they generate due to a lack of organizational understanding and interoperability standards. To solve this challenge, 13 districts – as well as our very own Strategic Partnerships Manager Sean Casey and Software Solutions Architect Shannon Kerlick – recently gathered at the Data Governance Collaborative (DGC) to discuss not only data governance but also assessment data standards and implementation of Ed-Fi tools to support a variety of areas.
During their time together, accountability and assessment teams directly communicated with IT staff from their local education agencies (LEA) about their needs, pain points, and goals. These LEAs were then able to share their plans and practices for data governance structure to each other and begin planning for the collection and promotion of best practices as a cohesive group.
In most school districts, there is an overwhelming array of assessment data available to teachers, principals, and administrators. Additionally, in many cases, there is no clear theory of action or assessment framework to explain which combination of assessment type or vendor product should be used to best drive appropriate instructional decisions. The DGC helps districts articulate a strong assessment theory of action across the hierarchy of district-school-classroom, which represents an excellent opportunity to apply the complementary concepts of data governance and information architecture.
The DGC brings a variety of leading districts together to share best practices, build a framework on standards for widespread adoption, and drive the marketplace toward better instruction. Through collaboration, the DGC is uniting the community and simplifying the process to accomplish a significant shared goal: improving the learning environment for our students.
