DatabasED

INsite, a consortium founded at the Indiana University School of Education, joined EA in July 2024. INsite's podcast, DatabasED, distills the complexities of data processes and analysis into terms and concepts that educators are familiar with and connect with their day-to-day practice. In the latest episode of the DatabasED podcast, co-hosts Molly Stewart (Director of Research & Analytics Services) and Rosh Dhanawade (Vice President of Interoperability Solutions) chat with Eric Hilfer, Chief Technology Officer at 1EdTech, to discuss the importance of bridging communication gaps among different sectors in education, including databases, teaching, and research. They welcome Eric Hilfer, CTO of 1EdTech, to discuss interoperability standards and 1EdTech's role in standardizing educational technology. Eric shares his background in research, teaching, and EdTech, emphasizing the need for nuanced approaches to AI integration in education. The conversation also touches on the practical aspects of integrating OneRoster with Ed-Fi and the importance of community involvement in standard-setting.Check out previous episodes of the podcast on our Spotify page or on our YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCAQSRWQDwtbyi7A4MeBZZMA.

This week we talk with Dr. Amy Hawn Nelson, Director of Training and Technical Assistance at the University of Pennsylvania’s Actionable Intelligence for Social Policy about AISP’s 2020 publication, “A Toolkit for Centering Racial Equity throughout Data Integration.” The Toolkit, and Dr. Hawn Nelson’s discussion in this episode, give great guidance about ways that we can improve the design, governance, use, and quality of data integrations in ways that serve all community stakeholders. We also have a special guest host for this episode; Emily Oakes is the Data Steward for Learning Management and Learning Analytics Data at Indiana University and is also the Principal Unizin IT Consultant for IU. Emily works on similar topics in higher education, and her insights gave us a great perspective on how these issues are similar and different across levels. Episode resources: Actionable Intelligence for Social Policy at UPenn: https://aisp.upenn.edu A Toolkit for Centering Racial Equity Throughout Data Integration: https://www.aisp.upenn.edu/centering-equity/ Finding a Way Forward: How to create a strong legal framework for data integration: https://aisp.upenn.edu/resource-article/finding-a-way-forward-how-to-create-a-strong-legal-framework-for-data-integration/ Equity in Practice Learning Community: https://aisp.upenn.edu/eiplc Quality of Life Explorer (Charlotte-Mecklenburg, NC): https://ui.charlotte.edu/our-work/quality-life-explorer  Music: Exploring The World by Vlad Gluschenko is licensed under a Creative Commons License. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/... https://soundcloud.com/vgl9 Support by RFM - NCM

In Episode 2 of Season 2, we talk with Dr. May Hara of Framingham State University and Dr. Annalee Good of the Wisconsin Center for Education Research about their new book, Teachers as Policy Advocates: Strategies for Collaboration and Change. Following the book’s chapter themes, we discuss policy areas of school safety and discipline, assessment, public health and COVID-19, and digital learning, specifically highlighting areas where the languages of DatabasED potentially intersect. In the words of Dr. Good, the episode helps us “look under the hood” of how education policies can be accessed and addressed by teachers and how teacher policy advocacy often intersects with school and district leadership and even district technology offices. Show resources: Website for Teachers as Policy Advocates: https://www.tcpress.com/teachers-as-policy-advocates-9780807767948  EdCamps: https://digitalpromise.org/edcamp/ Research on EdCamps: Swanson et al. (2014). The Edcamp Model: Powering Up Professional Learning. Published by SAGE. https://us.sagepub.com/en-us/nam/book/edcamp-model  Research on policies around Google and data privacy: Lindh, M., & Nolin, J. (2016). Information we collect: Surveillance and privacy in the implementation of Google apps for education. European Educational Research Journal, 15(6), 644-663. https://doi.org/10.1177/1474904116654917    Perrotta, C., Gulson, K. N., Williamson, B., & Witzenberger, K. (2021). Automation, APIs and the distributed labour of platform pedagogies in Google Classroom. Critical Studies in Education, 62(1), 97-113. https://doi.org/10.1080/17508487.2020.1855597  “Street-level bureaucrats: Weatherley, R., & Lipsky, M. Street-level bureaucrats and institutional innovation: Implementing special-education reform. Harvard Educational Review, 47(2), 171-197. https://www.hepg.org/her-home/issues/harvard-educational-review-volume-47,-issue-2/herarticle/implementing-special-education-reform_903  Related writings from Hara & Good: Blog post on Chat GTP policies: https://www.tcpress.com/blog/responding-chatgpt-schools-effective-policy-design-include-teachers/  Blog post on gun policies: https://www.tcpress.com/blog/effective-school-gun-policy-requires-teacher-voice-strategies-support-teacher-policy-advocacy/  Music: Exploring The World by Vlad Gluschenko is licensed under a Creative Commons License. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/... https://soundcloud.com/vgl9 Support by RFM - NCM

In Episode 1 of Season 2, we talk with an interdisciplinary group of staff from Loudoun County Public Schools in Virginia, which has been working on their single-district Ed-Fi implementation since 2018. Joanna Kaylor (Supervisor of Enterprise Support and Analytics), Kara Bane (Supervisor of Data Science and Digital Solutions), and Jana Griffith (School Improvement and Accountability Specialist) share with us the pros and cons of doing an Ed-Fi implementation completely in-house; the absolute necessity of scoping a narrow use case at the beginning; and the benefits of having both the technical and instructional side involved in both technical implementation and rollout to users.  Resources mentioned in episode: Qlik business intelligence platform: https://www.qlik.com/us/  Stephanie Evergreen (Evergreen Data: Intentional Reporting and Data Visualization): https://stephanieevergreen.com/

In this brief introduction to season 2, Molly and Rosh discuss changes to INsite over the course of the last year and what is coming in the future!

Our guests this week are Dr. Shane Fairbairn and Sherod Keen from the North East Florida Educational Consortium, or NEFEC. NEFEC is a regional nonprofit educational service agency established to provide cooperative services to small and rural member districts. Through membership in NEFEC, districts are able to meet educational goals and objectives more effectively and affordably. They offer a wide range of programs and services, but today we will primarily be discussing their implementation of the Ed-Fi data standard. NEFEC was the first local education agency consortium to implement the Ed-Fi data standard, beginning in 2013 and serving 15 member districts. Shane, Sherod, and their other colleagues at NEFEC were instrumental in helping guide INsite’s own implementation of the Ed-Fi data standard. During the episode, Shane shares his love of metaphors, Sherod predicts the future of Ed-Fi, and we learn that Rosh is chock-full of dependencies. Episode links: NEFEC (North East Florida Educational Consortium): https://www.nefec.org/ FLCODE (Collaborative on Operational Data for Educators): https://www.flcode.org/ CELT (Center for Educational Leadership and Technology): http://www.celtcorp.com/

“Everything we do supports the teacher-student relationship.” Adam Love, assistant principal at Decatur Middle School in the Metropolitan School District (MSD) of Decatur Township in Indianapolis, was one of the first school-level stakeholders to work closely with us on utilizing interoperable data to make a difference in the lives of students in his building, and his work ultimately resulted in the establishment of data-driven decision making processes across the district. His dedication to his students and teachers inspires us every day, and we are so pleased to share his story and vision with the DatabasED audience. Show notes: https://www.kotterinc.com/8-step-process-for-leading-change/ Kotter’s model for organizational change. Music: Exploring The World by Vlad Gluschenko is licensed under a Creative Commons License. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/... https://soundcloud.com/vgl9 Support by RFM - NCM

In this episode, we talk with educational consultant, data scientist, book author, podcast host, and former educational psychologist Ryan Estrellado about living in the Venn diagrams of overlapping professional communities and finding your (our) place in those intersections. We talk about practical strategies for working with educators who have a wide variety of interests in data and specifically tools for data analysis, and about breaking down common misconceptions about data analysis or data science as it can be used to answer real questions in local educational settings. Although we had planned to focus the episode on Ryan's new book, we accidentally ended up spending an entire hour discussing about unusual professional trajectories and how data and coding have influenced all of us (for the better). Some day we will do another episode where we actually talk about Ryan's book, but in the meantime, we recommend that you go ahead and check it out! The content is truly accessible to all educators, wherever you happen to be in terms of your data journey (whether that journey was embarked upon voluntarily or otherwise). Check out the link below to get a 20% off code for the book! Abbreviations: IDE: Integrated development environment https://www.codecademy.com/article/what-is-an-ide Show notes: Go to ryanestrellado.com to download a free chapter of The K–12 Educator’s Data Guidebook and a 20% off code The K-12 Educator's Data Guidebook: Reimagining Practical Data Use in Schools Donuts in the Lounge: A Podcast for Educators Follow on Twitter & Instagram @ry_estrellado  Data Science in Education using R (free open-source book with hands-on activities to learn R using real-world education contexts): https://datascienceineducation.com/ Strategic Data Project at Harvard: https://sdp.cepr.harvard.edu/home South County SELPA at the San Diego County Office of Education: https://www.sdcoe.net/special-populations/selpas/scselpa Chase Jarvis, Creative Calling https://www.creativelive.com/class/creative-calling-chase-jarvis/lessons/amplify-your-community About Practice podcast (Ryan Estrellado & Joshua Rosenberg): https://open.spotify.com/show/4TzYLKTen3ZiJxiiKdHAsa R Studio (free download): https://www.rstudio.com/products/rstudio/ Tidyverse: https://www.tidyverse.org/ Hadley Wickham’s website and list of books: https://hadley.nz/ Julia Silge: https://juliasilge.com/about/ Kieran Healy: Data Visualization: A Practical Introduction https://socviz.co/ Rosh's favorite vending machine video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mMW6JKNop1Y Music: Exploring The World by Vlad Gluschenko is licensed under a Creative Commons License. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/... https://soundcloud.com/vgl9 Support by RFM - NCM

In part II of Episode 10 (or technically Episode 11, because Anchor does not recognize decimal points), we dive even deeper into the challenges and potential solutions to balancing the need for increased linkages between individualization and standardization of special education data, as well as the possible integration of compliance and accountability processes. Sarah has a data epiphany as well as an idea for a new grant proposal, Joel confesses his newfound love for data science, and Jennifer crosses "podcast guest" off her bucket list. Part II episode resources: SEA: State education agency Results-driven accountability (U.S. Department of Education): https://www2.ed.gov/about/offices/list/osers/osep/rda/index.html Results-driven accountability Indicators (Indiana): https://www.in.gov/doe/students/special-education/results-driven-accountability/ Discussion of federal policies increasing equity: https://learningpolicyinstitute.org/product/advancing-education-2020-brief Music: Music: Exploring The World by Vlad Gluschenko is licensed under a Creative Commons License. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/... https://soundcloud.com/vgl9 Support by RFM - NCM

Today we bring you the first segment of a very special two-part episode in which we get to speak with three guests representing all three of the focus areas that we've been working to bridge in this podcast: Joel Boehner, Assistant Director of Exceptional Learners at South Bend Community School Corporation, Dr. Sarah Hurwitz, associate professor in special education at Indiana University - Bloomington, and Dr. Jennifer Meller, Associate Manager for Special Education Consulting Services at PCG (Public Consulting Group), the vendor providing the statewide Indiana IEP (IIEP) software for managing data and documents related to the education of students with disabilities. In the first segment of this episode, we discuss how the connections among these individuals' work came about, as well as several relatively recent trends in the federal requirements for educating students with disabilities, such as the move from a focus on compliance to results-driven accountability (RDA) and the challenges and opportunities for utilizing a data standard with very individualized education goals and progress data. We hope you enjoy listening to this as much as we enjoyed recording it! Stay tuned for Part II next week. Show notes & abbreviations Joel Boehner: https://www.linkedin.com/in/joelboehner/ Dr. Sarah Hurwitz: https://education.indiana.edu/about/directory/profiles/hurwitz-sarah.html Dr. Jennifer Meller: https://www.publicconsultinggroup.com/leadership/education/dr-jennifer-meller/ Equity in Action: https://education.indiana.edu/community/aac-in-action/index.html Autism Research Collaborative: https://www.iidc.indiana.edu/what-we-offer/autism/ INSOURCE: https://insource.org/ PCG (Public Consulting Group): https://www.publicconsultinggroup.com/ Indiana graduation pathways: https://www.in.gov/doe/students/graduation-pathways/ RDA: results-driven accountability NWEA (MAP - Measures of Academic Progress test from the Northwest Evaluation Association) https://www.nwea.org/the-map-suite/ LEA: local education agency (school district/school corporation) IDEA: Individuals with Disabilities Education Act: https://sites.ed.gov/idea/ IEP: Individualized Education Program (a requirement of the federal Individuals with Disabilities Education Act) IIEP (Indiana IEP): software program to manage IEP data in Indiana (statewide) FAPE: Free, appropriate, public education (a requirement of the federal Individuals with Disabilities Act) FBA: Functional Behavioral Assessment (part of the federal Individuals with Disabilities Education Act; https://www.pacer.org/parent/php/php-c215a.pdf) LRE: Least restrictive environment (a requirement of the federal Individuals with Disabilities Act) Music:  Music: Exploring The World by Vlad Gluschenko is licensed under a Creative Commons License. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/... https://soundcloud.com/vgl9 Support by RFM - NCM

In this episode, Silvia Brunet-Jones, Technical Program Director of the K-12 Technology portfolio at the Michael & Susan Dell Foundation, gives us the origin story of Ed-Fi, which goes all the way back to Hurricane Katrina and student relocations from Louisiana to Texas. She highlights the early focus in the development of Ed-Fi of providing value both for state accountability reporting and for local district operational data use for teaching, learning, intervention, research allocation, and other purposes. In discussing current needs and priorities, Silvia speaks about humanizing the data, providing agency and empowerment for data owners and users, and the need for cross-sectional teams and empathy among different stakeholders. Listen to the end to enjoy a brief blooper reel. Correction: The number of students displaced by Hurricane Katrina and relocated to Texas is cited as at least 46,000 (exact number unknown due to record keeping). https://www.edweek.org/leadership/post-katrina-some-students-gave-up-home-for-a-better-school/2015/08 Show notes and resources: Silvia Brunet-Jones: https://www.dell.org/employee/silvia-brunet-jones/ The Ed-Fi Academy: https://academy.ed-fi.org/ Balfanz, R., Herzog, L., & Mac Iver, D. J. (2007). Preventing student disengagement and keeping students on the graduation path in urban middle-grades schools: Early identification and effective interventions. Educational Psychologist, 42(4), 223-235. Acronyms: XML (6:12): https://www.howtogeek.com/357092/what-is-an-xml-file-and-how-do-i-open-one/ ODBC (13:59): https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/sql/odbc/microsoft-open-database-connectivity-odbc?view=sql-server-ver15 SQL (14:26): https://www.khanacademy.org/computing/computer-programming/sql CSV (22:19) and comma delimited files: https://kb.blackbaud.com/knowledgebase/Article/75155 FTP (23:06): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File_Transfer_Protocol API (23:35): https://www.ibm.com/cloud/learn/api SIS (38:44): Student Information System (student information databases within school districts) 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

In this episode, we reminisce with Tim Pritchett, Technology Director at Monroe County Community School Corporation here in Bloomington, about our experiences moving through the early and difficult stages of implementing Ed-Fi and how we all ended up safely on the other side. We touch on personal and professional development, having faith in big ideas, and the power of multiple sectors being focused on one goal. Episode Resources: Sample Data Generator (Ed-Fi Tech Docs):  https://techdocs.ed-fi.org/display/SDG/Sample+Data+Generator Music: Exploring The World by Vlad Gluschenko is licensed under a Creative Commons License. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/... https://soundcloud.com/vgl9 Support by RFM - NCM: https://bit.ly/2xGHypM

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 Support by RFM - NCM: https://bit.ly/2xGHypM

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) 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:

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): https://www.pbisapps.org/products/swis https://www.pbisapps.org/resource/referral-category-definitions https://www.pbisapps.org/resource/referral-form-examples-2