Data Newsletter - Winter 2005
Thank you for visiting our website, www.3d2know.org and requesting information about CoSN's Data-driven
Decision Making Initiative: Vision to Know and Do. This newsletter is part of an ongoing series of periodic updates that you will be receiving.
I hope that this information is of interest and welcome your comments and suggestions. Please contact Irene Spero, Vice President, CoSN,
at irene@cosn.org. Thanks.
COSN'S DATA-DRIVEN DECISION MAKING INITIATIVE TO PARTNER WITH DATA QUALITY CAMPAIGN
CoSN is pleased to announce that it has become an endorsing partner for the Data Quality Campaign,
www.DataQualityCampaign.org, proving the opportunity to
leverage our resource and disseminate information about Vision to Know and Do products and resources.
The Data Quality Campaign is a recently formed national, collaborative effort to encourage and support state policymakers to:
The campaign aims to provide tools and resources that will assist states in their development of quality longitudinal data systems, while also providing a national forum for reducing duplication of effort and promoting greater coordination and consensus among organizations focusing on improving data quality, access and use.
National organizations participating in the campaign are Achieve, Inc, the Alliance for Excellent Education, Council of Chief State School Officers, The Education Trust, the National Center for Educational Accountability, National Center for Higher Education Management Systems, National Governors Association Center for Best Practices, Schools Interoperability Framework Association, Standard & Poor’s School Evaluation Services and State Higher Education Executive Officers. The campaign is supported by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and managed by the National Center for Educational Accountability.
As an endorsing partner, CoSN will work closely with the other national organizations and staff of the Data Quality Campaign on a mutual agenda supporting the effective use of data in the educational setting.
VISION TO KNOW AND DO INITIATIVE PRESENTATIONS
In continuing with our efforts to present information at national meetings about the Data-driven Decision Making Initiative, we are happy to let you know of two upcoming presentations. We hope to see many of you at these meetings.
19th Annual MIS Conference
A workshop will take place at the 19th Annual MIS Conference in Orlando, Florida scheduled for Friday, February 24 from 8:30 to 10:45 am. Full Information about the MIS conference is available at nces.ed.gov/conferences.
The workshop, Helping Educators Use Data Effectively, will be interactive and dynamic starting by setting the current educational context. Participants will then divide into small groups to address the following:
Florida Educational Technology Conference
Vision to Know and Do: Helping Educators Use Data Effectively is scheduled for 12:30 p.m. - 1:25 p.m. on Thursday, March 23, 2006 at the Orlando Convention Center. Panelists will include Russell Clement from Broward County, FLA and Marc Baron from Palm Beach County, FLA.
All presentations are posted on our website, www.3d2know.org at www.3d2know.org/presentations.html.
Please remember to look at the latest presentation by CoSN CEO Keith Krueger to the Ottawa Region MISA Professional Network Centre Symposium in Kingston, Ontario.
COSN ANNUAL K-2 NETWORKING CONFERENCE FEATURES DATA-DRIVEN DECISION MAKING EXPERTS
CoSN's 11th Annual K-12 School Networking Conference: Measuring the VALUE of Education Technology will take place March 6 and 7, 2006 at the Hyatt Regency Crystal City, Arlington, VA. The K-12 School Networking Conference is the premier event for education leaders on technology and learning through the Internet! The conference attracts district, state and national education technology leaders with attendance by over 850 key decision makers from educational institutions and the corporate sector. For further information about the conference go to www.k12schoolnetworking.org.
The CoSN Conference is the place to be if you want to learn more about data-driven decision making from experts and authorities dealing with this issue in the education environment. One of its major focuses is on the use of data and its role in the transformation of learning. For your planning purposes, a list of relevant sessions follows.
Monday, March 6, 2006
M204: The A-Z's of Data Warehousing
School district technology leaders must efficiently and effectively manage data to support No Child Left Behind (NCLB) initiatives and provide timely information to educational leaders. During this session, presenters will share how they created, populated and managed a repository enabling the easy access and manipulation of timely and accurate data. Participants will learn what elements are necessary to create a data warehouse and the types of reports needed that will drive school improvement planning and instructional strategies to support NCLB and increase student achievement for all students.
M301: Using Data (and Teacher Collaboration) to Improve Individual Student Performance
School Leaders are under more pressure than ever to show that technology is improving student learning. Before technology can improve student learning, teachers have to find meaning in the data, integrate technology into instruction and work in collaboration with other educators to determine what steps are needed for systemic reform. This session will examine two programs, the Using Data project, focused on using data to improve student instruction and the second, Mapping the Flow of Expertise in schools, focused on measuring integration of education technology in schools. Both programs will emphasize research and data for the purpose of measuring progress in schools.
Tuesday, March 7, 2006
T102: Visionary State Data Strategies
States and schools districts know all too well that the only way to ensure success for every student and to meet the achievement requirements of No Child Left Behind (NCLB) is through the skillful use of data. Having access to data in and of itself though does not ensure success. Learn from experts in the filed who have implemented significant student data systems which have been developed for use by educators.
T202: Using Data to Improve Student Achievement and Improve Teacher Effectiveness
Since the inception of the No Child Left Behind Act in 2002, school districts have created accountability systems to measure progress in student populations through the use of technologies. Teachers and administrators are being availed real-time data to drive instruction. In addition, learning systems are being created to capture student/ teacher linkages, evaluate effectiveness of teachers using longitudinal student achievement data, identify strengths and weaknesses relative to curriculum standards and use data to measure progress of all students. This session highlights two local school districts that have made tremendous strides in creating a culture for accountability by leveraging information technologies that truly improve teacher quality, ensure equitable learning opportunities and demonstrate how data driven instruction improves student achievement.
T205: Maximizing Third-Party Content and Using Real Time Data
This session looks at sources of third-party online content, strategies for evaluating materials and practical hands-on techniques for integrating outside resources to make your online or face-to-face courses more engaging and effective. Presenters discuss how institutions and instructors have integrated third party content to expand and enhance their curricula and how you can do the same with your online or face-to-face courses. Specific Advanced Placement and Science curriculum projects will be shown.
T302: Data Intelligence: Empowering Teachers, Administrators, Students and Parents
Representatives from three school districts - Plano Independent School District (TX), Springfield Public Schools (MA) and Union City Board of Education (MA) will share their experiences in the use of data and technology to improve instruction, allocate limited resources effectively and deliver meaningful professional development. Panelists will highlight new developments in the process of data driven decision making as they describe their efforts to empower teachers, administrators, students and parents. Participants will learn about the results of these data processes and the very real results that have occurred.
T401: Innovative Data-Driven Decision Making
K12 districts are finding it essential to use district data to make decisions based on research findings. Participants in this session will learn about California's development of an online, one-stop information management service designed to help administrators identify and use technology applications that meet their local needs for managing and linking assessment results to instruction. California Learning Resource Network (CLRN) reviews and posts applicable electronic learning assessment resources (ELARs) using criteria based on research on the application of technology to support data-driven decision-making for instructional planning. In addition, participants will learn how Wake County Public School System (NC) uses demographic data to create student assignment plans ensuring economic integration of the district's 139 schools with the goal of limiting the proportion of low-income students in any school to no more than 40 percent. This strategy, credited with dramatic improvements in test scores,
is based on research studies showing the academic benefits of economically diversifying schools and the process of implementing it has significant stake-holder involvement as well as community-wide impact.
T404: Collaborating to Use Real-Time Data
The presentation will look at cooperative ventures for integrating and evaluation technology in the learning environment. In the first presentation, researchers and program staff will describe how two urban districts are collaborating in a single evaluation design to investigate the impact of professional development and embedded technology support on teaching and learning of Math and English Language Arts. District personnel provide each other another lens for interpreting results and identifying the conditions and circumstances that are effective in supporting technology integration. The second presentation also looks at how collaboration outside the school setting is facilitated by technology to enrich the application of learning through community issues. Collaboration, as these two examples illustrate, adds an important dimension to understanding the benefits and potential for learning with technology.
ARE YOU LOOKING FOR PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT AROUND DATA-DRIVEN DECISION MAKING?
We have professional development materials to help you become more proficient in the use of data!!
As part of our Essential Leadership Skills (ELS) Series, CoSN released its offering on Data Driven Decision Making. Designed as professional development resources for district level technology decision makers, the materials include a comprehensive monograph (backgrounder book) and workshop CD with participant workbook to help use data effectively in the educational process.
The Data Driven Decision Making Essential Leadership Skills Series materials are available from the CoSN online catalog https://my.cosn.org/mycosn/store/. Members be sure to log in to myCoSN first to receive significant member discounts.
About the Data-driven Decision Making Initiative
The goals of the Data-driven Decision Making Initiative are to:
Data-driven Decision Making: Vision to Know and Do is made possible through the generous support of Educational Testing
Service (www.ets.org), IBM (www.ibm.com; NYSE: IBM),
SAS (www.sas.com and www.sasinschool.com),
PLATO Learning (www.plato.com), Dell (www.dell.om),
Pearson School Systems (www.pearsonschoolsystems.com),
Co-nect (www.co-nect.com),
PowerSchool (www.apple.com/education/powerschool),
SchoolNet (www.schoolnet.com) and
Texas Instruments (education.ti.com).
Scholastic Administr@tor (www.scholasticadministrator.com) is the media partner for the
project.
About CoSN
Founded in 1992, the Consortium for School Networking (CoSN), a national non-profit membership organization, is the premier voice in education technology leadership. CoSN's mission is to serve as the national organization for K-12 technology leaders who use technology strategically to improve learning.
Other CoSN Initiatives
Accessible Technologies for All Students Project is a major new leadership initiative of the Consortium for School Networking
(CoSN). The goal of this initiative is increased achievement and success for all students through the unlimited and effective use of
accessible technologies. For further information go to www.accessibletech4all.org
Taking Total Cost of Ownership to the Classroom (TCO) is designed to help school leaders understand the range of costs associated with purchasing and maintaining technology within a school district. As part of the TCO project, CoSN provides the CoSN-Gartner TCO Tool, which enables administrators to easily assess TCO for their school district. Learn more at www.classroomtco.org.
Cyber Security for the Digital District is designed to provide education technology leaders and policy-makers with strategies and tools they can use to ensure the privacy of data and the safe operation of technology within their school systems. Learn more at www.securedistrict.org.
Safeguarding the Wired Schoolhouse enables educators to understand technical and non-technical options for Internet safety in schools. The project includes a range of information, checklists and resources, plus a complete Toolkit to guide school officials when they talk to parents and other community members about online safety issues. Learn more at www.safewiredschools.org.
CoSN's Chief Technology Officers (CTO) Council provides professional development and networking opportunities for district-level technology directors. The CTO Council meets three times a year at national education conferences. Learn more at www.cosn.org/resources/cto_council/.
The CoSN Compendium is an annual "must-read" for K-12 technology leaders. For more information, please visit www.cosn.org/resources/compendium/.
CoSN's Internet & Education Webcasts are 60-minute interactive professional development forums conducted via the Internet and designed specifically from a district technology perspective. To see the lineup for 2004-2005 or to register for a webcast, visit www.cosn.org/events/webcasts/.
You are receiving this e-newsletter because you visited www.3d2know.org and requested information about CoSN's Data-driven Decision Making Initiative: Vision to Know and Do. This newsletter is the fourth in a series of periodic updates. I hope you find this information interesting and useful, and I welcome your comments and suggestions. Please share this e-newsleteter with others who share your interest in this topic. If you have any questions, please contact me at: Irene Spero, Vice President, CoSN, irene@cosn.org or 866/267-8747 x112.
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