Keynote Address:

A New Generation of Learning: Diverse Students, Emerging Technologies,
and a Sustainability Challenge

Dr. Mark David Milliron
The mix of millennials, gen-x'ers and baby boomers teaching and learning together makes the provision of modern education a complex process. In addition, blended learning, mobile devices, gaming, social networking, high-impact presentation technologies and analytics are bringing new twists and quick turns to our on-ground and online learning environments. What else is ahead? How much more can we take? How do we retain the human touch? How do we make these learning environments sustainable? Come join the conversation about how this new generation of learning is taking shape.
 

Breakout Sessions:

The Power to Know You're Making a Difference: Embracing Insight Initiatives

Dr. Mark David Milliron
Services like online banking, shopping and TiVo have driven the expectation that technology will be thoughtfully used to better inform and to enable teaching and learning, student services and institutional management. Moreover, they have driven the expectation that institutions will leverage "insight"- enterprise-wide intelligence systems, data mining and predictive analytics--to make a difference in how they teach and reach students, better customize services and drive strategic planning, institutional effectiveness and accountability efforts. During this presentation, we'll track similar movements in the commercial, government and healthcare industries and look at the implications and issues surrounding the search for insight in the world of education.

Using Data for Continuous Improvement

Dr. Victoria Bernhardt, Executive Director, Education for the Future
This interactive workshop will give participants an overview of the data analysis work that can lead their schools and school districts to understand what needs to change in order to get different results. Dr. Bernhardt will guide participants through the multiple measures of data and show them how to pull all the data pieces together to create a plan that will make a difference for teaching and learning.

Data-Driven Instruction: Meeting the Needs of All Learners

Rebecca J. Blink, Ph.D., Director of Curriculum and Instruction, Chilton School District
This session will focus on a Data-Driven Instructional System (DDIS) model to assist school districts in focusing their school improvement efforts.  This model contains six components: data collection, data reflection, data translation, data driven instructional design, design feedback and summative/formative assessment. Examples of programs created to meet the needs of all learners and supported by data will be shared.

Response to Intervention: A Comprehensive Action Plan

Diane Holben, Director of Accountability and Assessment, Jeff Baird, Project Manager, Robin Powlus, Data Analyst, Allentown School District, Allentown, PA
As the Allentown School District implements RtI, TetraData custom reports provide quick access to universal screening information. Data from the reports assists decision making to place students inappropriate interventions and provides a history of student participation in interventions.  The presentation will review district-wide processes and present preliminary results from pilot schools.  In addition, the presentation will discuss validation of the indicators used to identify students at risk.

Data Teams and Data Cultures:  Alignment for Action

Marcy Lauck, Manager, Continuous Improvement Programs, San Jose, USD
How do we build district and school cultures that empower teachers and administrators to use data to close achievement gaps and achieve better results for every student?  From the boardroom to the classroom, San Jose Unified School District has maintained a shared vision of high expectations for every student that is supported by strong policies, timely data, aligned systems and ongoing professional development yielding gap-closing organizational performance results.  This presentation will focus on building data cultures and data teams that are based on a shared responsibility for student learning and commitment to equity. Attendees will learn data analysis processes that create system-wide, aligned data conversations, provide a framework for collaborative inquiry and guide teachers in developing focused action plans that support instructional improvement.

Show Me the Money! - How to Successfully Secure Funding for School Improvement Programs

Bill Erlendson, Assistant Superintendent for Program Accountability and Community Development, San Jose USD
What is the secret to securing funding for innovative school and district programs?  San Jose Unified School District has generated millions of dollars in support of school improvement initiatives by aggressively pursuing a variety of internal and external funding sources.  This session will focus upon critical strategies proven successful in developing district, non-profit, federal, state and business support for closing the achievement gap through data driven school improvement.

Process Mapping - The Basics

Karen Fox, Director of Education Solution Services and Caroline King, Director of Project Management, Follett Software
Process mapping is a crucial activity in the development of a school improvement plan. The exercise of analyzing core processes provides insight into the challenges and inefficiencies that exist within the organization. This session will cover the basics of process mapping to support continuous improvement goals.  Additionally, participants will have the opportunity to practice mapping a process for their organization.

Note: To obtain the maximum benefit of the process mapping exercise, it is recommended that at least 2 representatives from each district attend and collaborate.

Successful Rollout in Your District

Karen Fox, Director of Education Solution Services, Follett Software
What are the ingredients to ensure successful implementation, adoption and support for your district's D3M solution?  This session will provide an overview of the key steps to ensure successful implementation and socialization of your D3M solution including techniques in gaining support, planning, communicating, training and overall management of the implementation.  You will also hear from a panel of successful customers that followed these steps and as a result are now seeing significant improvement gains in their district.

Data, Data Everywhere...But What Query to Run?

Mary Gilstrap, Customer Service, Follett Software
Discover the top queries that every user should know, why they are the top queries and how to create, customize and interpret them.  Come to this session ready to take those basic queries you learned in training to the next level. Some of the functionality we'll cover includes using Time Set Limits to view data elements from various time periods (and what's up with the drill-through on those TSL numbers?) and learning how to maximize the Hierarchy Constraint Wizard. Whether you're a new user to Data Analyzer or an old hand at creating queries, you'll learn something you can use at this session.

DASH Indicators to Support Continuous Improvement

Angie Duignan, Application Trainer, Follett Software
As district goals shift from year to year, the district project team is often faced with how to mirror those objectives with DASH indicators.  This session provides insight into how custom indicators can be used, created and supported to align indicators to district improvement plans and provides a brief introduction on how to customize standard indicators.

Data Discovery and Data Validation, the New Approach for Data Services

Monica Sullivan, Data Services Manager, Follett Software
Learn how to use Data Discovery and Data Validation to set a solid foundation for your CDS (DASH) and Data Warehouse (Analysis Suite) data elements.  This presentation will cover the basics for the new process with specific customer examples and successes!

Using Other Measurement Types in TetraData Analyzer

Jason See, Application Trainer, Follett Software
Have you ever wondered what the other Analyzer measurements are used for or how to use them? Correlation Coefficient, Min, Max, etc… no problem!  This hands-on session will take you through some of the other query measurements of TetraData Analyzer and show you how to further utilize Analyzer.

TetraData DASH Admin Refresher: Tweaking Standard Queries Behind Standard Indicators

Noah Antisdel, Application Trainer, Follett Software
This session will be hands-on, where participants can get a refresher on creating indicators in TetraData DASH.  Participants will also be exposed to editing the queries behind DASH's indicators thus creating their own custom indicators.

How to Use Your Data Dictionary in TetraData Analyzer

Carrie Armbruster, Technical Trainer, Follett Software
This hands-on session will demonstrate the benefits of using the Data Dictionary and show how to build robust descriptions about the Objects and Attributes in TetraData Analyzer. These custom descriptions can be viewed by end users while working in Analyzer, providing specific details about the Object or Attribute. Following the session, participants will have allotted time to work within their own Data Dictionary to create the custom descriptions. Participants should bring detailed descriptions about several of their warehouse Object and Attributes.

Filtering Stuff - Zeroing in on Your Data

Michael Philipp, Manager of Training Services
This advanced session will focus on the use of the Constraint Wizard and the Matrix Constraint Language in TetraData Analyzer. By using the constraint wizard or the matrix constraint language, participants will be able to quickly filter through data in Analyzer. This session will also expose participants to parameter queries that will prompt a user for data before running the query.