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.
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 Kayla Bollinger, a Senior Research Analyst at Education Analytics, to explore the hidden power of business rules in education data analysis. From defining what qualifies as "continuously enrolled" to choosing the right test score, Kayla breaks down how these often-invisible choices shape meaningful insights. We also dive into documentation practices, the impact of shifting policies, and the balance between data access and risk—especially in an era of AI and self-service analytics.Check out previous episodes of the podcast on Spotify, and if you want to listen to episodes on YouTube, here's the link: https://youtu.be/Apg9OEPUAjY
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 newest episode of the DatabasED podcast, co-hosts Molly Stewart (Director of Research & Analytics Services) and Rosh Dhanawade (Vice President of Interoperability Solutions) chat with Principal of Technical Product Strategy Erik Joranlien about running EA's Stadium, a data warehouse product. Throughout the episode, Erik discusses how Stadium integrates seamlessly with StartingBlocks or any Ed-Fi API, and it can be hooked up to Podium or other dashboard tools.
Interested in learning more about what Erik discussed in this episode? Check out the links below:
Check out previous episodes of the podcast on our YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fuA7w94C2fE&list=PL7PoPanSWRsYgtmesAIMn2MIR5bAt3Waw
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 newest episode of the DatabasED podcast, co-hosts Molly Stewart (Director of Research & Analytics Services) and Rosh Dhanawade (Vice President of Interoperability Solutions) chat with Staff Data Engineer Tom Reitz about EA's tooling, Earthmover and Lightbeam. Throughout the episode, Tom discusses the roadblocks he and the team encountered while building Earthmover and Lightbeam and how they overcame them, the resources she would recommend to people interested in learning more about Earthmover and Lightbeam, and what is next for the tools.
Check out the resources that Tom mentioned in this episode:
- Earthmover GitHub: https://github.com/edanalytics/earthmover
- Lightbeam GitHub: https://github.com/edanalytics/lightbeam
- Data Engineer Manager Julianna Alvord's blog discussing Earthmover and Lightbeam: https://www.edanalytics.org/blog/making-interoperability-a-reality-with-assessment-data
Check out previous episodes of the podcast on our Spotify page, and if you want to watch to episodes of the podcast on our YouTube channel, here's the link: https://www.youtube.com/@Education_Analytics
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 newest episode of the DatabasED podcast, co-hosts Molly Stewart (Director of Research & Analytics Services) and Rosh Dhanawade (Vice President of Interoperability Solutions) chat with Cloud Engineer Manager Eshara Mondal about EA's open-source operational data store product, StartingBlocks. Throughout the episode, Eshara discusses the roadblocks she and her team encountered while building StartingBlocks and how they overcame them, the resources she would recommend to people interested in learning more about StartingBlocks, and what is next for the product as it relates to EA's complete product stack.
Check out the StartingBlocks resources that Eshara mentioned in this episode: - StartingBlocks GitHub: https://github.com/edanalytics/startingblocks_oss - StartingBlocks Docs: https://docs.startingblocks.org/ - StartingBlocks Product Page: https://www.edanalytics.org/products/starting-blocks
If you want to watch previous episodes of the podcast, check out EA's YouTube channel.
Interested in being a guest on the podcast or have a podcast suggestion? Fill out this form: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FA
INsite joined Education Analytics (EA) in July 2024, and part of that transition included the re-launch of the DatabasED podcast. Co-host Molly Stewart recently wrote a blog detailing the transition, if you’re interested in learning more, you can read the full blog here.
For Part 2 of the podcast-relaunch, co-host Molly Stewart talks with EA's Chief Solutions Officer Noah Bookman and Chief of Staff Libby Pier. During the episode, Molly chats with Libby and Noah about EA's opportunity for impact in Indiana, how the changing financial landscape poses challenges for school districts, and how EA's history as a research center informs our involvement in tackling the data infrastructure challenge in education.
We recorded audio and video for Part 1 and 2 of the podcast re-launch, so you can find the video version of this episode on YouTube.
INsite joined Education Analytics (EA) in July 2024, and part of that transition included the re-launch of the DatabasED podcast. Co-host Molly Stewart recently wrote a blog detailing the transition, if you’re interested in learning more, you can read the full blog here.
For our first episode back, co-hosts Molly Stewart and Rosh Dhanawade reflect on the podcast—where the podcast began, what they’ve learned throughout the process of creating and maintaining the podcast, and their vision for the podcast going forward. During the second half of the episode, Molly talks with EA’s CEO Andrew Rice about bringing researchers to the table in discussions about Ed-Fi, what has changed within the intersection of interoperability and research since Molly last interviewed Andrew in 2021, and what Andrew thinks will be possible within the Ed-Fi community and the education data space in the next five years.
We recorded audio and video for Part 1 and 2 of the podcast re-launch, so you can find the video version of this episode on YouTube. Keep a look out for Part 2 in the coming month!
Interested in being a guest on the podcast or have a podcast suggestion? Fill out this form: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScTiud-oFfUJlRGLkd7Rd7XVRpwpLrs1zQFrjYckHkx8YALXA/viewform?usp=sf_link
In our first live-audience episode, hosted at Teachers College in New York City, we talk with Dr. Brandi Hinnant-Crawford (Clemson University), Dr. Ryan Baker (University of Pennsylvania), and Dr. Subriya Jubilee (School District of Philadelphia) about how data and analytics can be used to change rather than reinforce systemic inequities in schools and districts. Major themes in this episode include the importance of a people-centered perspective while using data (including both adults and students); the tools offered by improvement science for empowering educators to measure data points that are relevant and authentic; and the role of system design in limiting possible equity outcomes. Our panelists envision a future in which students are supported to achieve their goals without the barriers of inequitable systems–something that has never yet been accomplished in U.S. education. Special thanks to Dr. Alex Bowers for organizing the ELDA conference and this recording!
Episode resources
Dr. Brandi Hinnant-Crawford
https://www.clemson.edu/education/about/directory/profile.html?userid=bhinnan
https://www.linkedin.com/in/drbnhc/
Dr. Ryan Baker
https://learninganalytics.upenn.edu/ryanbaker/
https://www.linkedin.com/in/ryan-baker-36567482/
Dr. Sabriya Jubilee
https://theorg.com/org/school-district-of-philadelphia/org-chart/sabriya-k-jubilee
https://www.linkedin.com/in/drjubilee/
Hess & Fullerton, “The Numbers we Need” https://www.aei.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/The%20Numbers%20We%20Need.pdf?x91208
Belitz, C., Ocumpaugh, J., Ritter, S., Baker, R. S., Fancsali, S. E., & Bosch, N. (2023). Constructing categories: Moving beyond protected classes in algorithmic fairness. Journal of the Association for Information Science and Technology, 74(6), 663-668. https://pnigel.com/papers/belitz-2023-FQVZJZMC.pdf
https://www.schoolsthatlead.org/
Dr. Asa Hilliard, “all children are geniuses”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bASynMwgog8
Dr. Dana Mitra on student voice: https://danamitra.net/go/dana/
Hinnant-Crawford, B., Bergeron, L., Virtue, E., Cromartie, S., & Harrington, S. Good teaching, warm and demanding classrooms, and critically conscious students: Measuring student perceptions of asset-based equity pedagogy in the classroom. Equity & Excellence in Education. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/10665684.2023.2166446?src=
Darling-Hammond, L., Wechsler, M. E., Levin, S., Leung-Gagne, M., & Tozer, S. (2022). Developing effective principals: What kind of learning matters? [Report]. Learning Policy Institute. https://learningpolicyinstitute.org/product/developing-effective-principals-report
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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
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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/
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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:
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.
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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
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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:
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This week we talk with two leaders from the Metropolitan School District (MSD) of Steuben County in Angola, Indiana, Chantell Manahan (Director of Technology) and Dr. Schauna Relue (Curriculum Director). Over the past two years, our guests have worked as a close, cross-sectional team on the district’s use cases for student and district improvement as part of their implementation of the Ed-Fi data standard. In the episode, we discuss their strategies for data governance, the importance of professional development and support in changing data practices, and ways in which technology can enhance data-driven improvement processes such as “data war rooms.”
Show notes and abbreviations:
Metropolitan School District (MSD) of Steuben County - https://www.msdsteuben.k12.in.us/
CETL certification from the Consortium for School Networking (CoSN) Certified Educational Technology Leader https://www.cosn.org/careers-certification/cetl-certification/
NWEA (MAP - Measures of Academic Progress test from the Northwest Evaluation Association) https://www.nwea.org/the-map-suite/
CSV files: https://www.howtogeek.com/348960/what-is-a-csv-file-and-how-do-i-open-it/
SIS: student information system
RACI (Responsible, Accountable, Consulted, Informed) Matrix: https://cio-wiki.org/wiki/RACI_Matrix
WIDA: An assessment of academic English levels for non-native English speakers (https://wida.wisc.edu/)
Eidex: https://www.eidexinsights.com/
Michigan DataHub: https://open.spotify.com/episode/43wLYDeU6Mi73ViGnW2d2u?si=3MmlfGVUTzC2hA1yY4_qoQ
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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
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