From Chaos to Clarity: How to Master EdTech Management and Future-Proof Your Evaluation Processes

Awesome. Welcome, everyone. We are excited to have you here today to learn a little bit more about how to master EdTech management and future proof your evaluation processes. Now is a really good time to review some of the technical aspects of today's presentation, but there are, some important things to note. So please check the audio setting on your computer as well as your speaker volume settings. If you're having any audio trouble, if you are still having issues, please see our detailed audio troubleshooting file available in the resource list under the q and a window.

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Both the archive and a free to download version of these PowerPoint slides will be available through ed week dot org or using the same login that you all use today. When it comes to mastering EdTech management within your district, we have some experts with us here today. We have Casey Rimmer who is, on our panel from Union County Public Schools in Monroe, North Carolina, and she is the executive director of curriculum and instruction. And then we also have Megan McConnell, who is a customer success manager at Instructure, who's worked closely with our learn platform districts for the last four years now, as a part of the merge with learn platform into Instructure. So she's gonna be able to talk to you a little bit about Manassas Park from Virginia and how they implemented an EdTech management embedding system.

So starting off, talking about the EdTech of years past. How did we get here? EdTech management is going to include all of your contracts for your websites, applications, subscriptions that you're using, around to data privacy and accessibility regulation, making sure that when you're budgeting for these EdTech tools, you're getting the most bang for your buck, having training, resources, and support for your teachers as well as collecting feedback from those teachers on how these EdTech tools are working in your classroom. So to kick us off, right now, school years are ending or either just ended. So with three emojis or less, how would you describe the current state of EdTech management in your district? Is it making you sweat? Is it a piece of cake? Is it peaceful? Is it the wild west? You've got a little cowboy there. We'd love to hear your opinions on how this is going for you all, as individual districts.

While we move on to that, we ask how EdTech is going in your districts because of the number of tools that are being used by school districts. On average, that total number of tools is above two thousand different EdTech resources, websites, applications that students and teachers are accessing for you all as tech directors, as curriculum instruction directors, as tech coaches to try and support. So how can we make that number manageable? And part of that management is data privacy and security. So knowing if two thousand plus tools are going to be safe within your district for students to access, those legislations in place are because of the number of cybersecurity incidents that have happened since twenty twenty two. On my screen right now, you see a map of all of those malware attacks, the cybersecurity breaches.

You also see that there is national legislation. California, New York, Illinois, Florida, all have legislation around how to keep student information safe and best practices. So vetting all two thousand five hundred plus tools that are being used every single year. There's also now higher stakes. We are using information from the best interest of students.

The legislation, not just for data privacy, but for accessibility. The security risks are playing a factor in our conversations. Supporting teacher is one of the factors that you all are trying to manage as well as the ESSER funding cliff. With that funding cliff coming, funding for resources is no longer available. So how do you know that you as a district are paying for the most highly effective tools for your students and that your money is being put to good value.

Creating manageable vetting systems is going to require multiple teams. It's going to require your curriculum instruction team, your superintendent, technology, privacy, teachers, and your finance team. So how can we bring all of these people together into one place with one complete process? What can we do? First step, you can claim your free inventory dashboard to figure out what is being used within your district. That's gonna be your immediate action item for this summer so that you can start to see everything that's being used within your district, including those tools that teachers and students are sourcing on your own. That invisible ed tech that you might not know about, but could be putting you at a security risk or a risk for accessibility compliance breach.

Looking at those tools, there's a link here, to get a free access. Some of you have usage monitoring solutions already in place that are wonderful, where you're looking at all of the EdTech that's being used in your district that is paid for. Make sure you're checking that Invisible EdTech too, giving your district a starting point for next school year. What do we need to vet? Where can we move forward? Speaking of moving forward, what can we do now? So EdTech present. We know in the past, there's an astronomical number of tools being used.

So in the future, right now, here for next school year, how do we trim this down? There's a variety of different vetting processes that you can put in place. Right now, you can see very different examples from districts who have used Learn Platform or some recommendations for best practices on vetting. It is including multiple teams, and we want to streamline that vetting process to make it as simple as possible. So why formalize this to incorporate all members of your team and have a streamlined process. How are we going to make this happen? Some action items for you all, bring in those multiple teams, create standards of approval.

So what do you need to evaluate? Do you need to look at curriculum alignment? Do you need to look at data privacy standards? Do you need to look at accessibility standards, funding sources? Who is going to vet those? Who's going to be responsible for which pieces of your project? And in which order are you going to create your vetting process? Is it step by step, team by team, or is it all happening at one time for you as a district coming in immediately adding their input? You're gonna wanna check the tools that are being used. That free inventory dashboard is a great example of of a way that you can check your usage. You can use your other existing solutions as well, and then vet those existing tools. So from that list, which tools have you already approved for use, and then consolidate and import lists of existing products in any scattered, contracts that you may have, any scattered resources and training, can we consolidate that into one place? What does that look like? Here's a sample vetting process and request process. So it starts by having the multiple teams asking for curriculum.

Is there educational value to this product? Is this aligned with our standards and our future goals? Asking your technology team technology team. How can we support these resources? Do we have any training videos, professional development, sample lesson plans, and your privacy and legal team looking at the data privacy compliance lists as well. On the brace box here too, we have a list of how this approval process might go. Teachers request the product, who reviews that first, second, and third. That can all be customized based on your district.

And this is where I'm going to introduce Megan here to talk a little bit about how Manassas Park City Schools came in, and they developed their review process. They used a combination of Google Docs, Learn Platform, and really created some clear expectations with their teachers and communication for which tools are going to work best in their processes. Megan, I'm gonna start us off by asking you to share a little bit more about the drivers. Why did Manassas Park see value in creating a streamlined vetting process? Thanks, Hillary. So first, you'll see here on the slide, there were a a number of different drivers, but I think they can be distilled down into a few core ones.

So first and foremost, and this relates to a little bit about what Hillary was sharing earlier when it comes to the data in the inventory dashboard, both through seeing the data there and just what they usage across the district, they the team just felt it was too much for them to manage. They had, one, tools that were duplicating efforts. They had, you know, multiple tools doing the same thing, And that was really difficult as a small team to manage that both from the technology side, but then some of these other aspects such as data privacy and security. They wanted to minimize risk as much as possible when it came to having their student and educator data and information out there. So the fewer the tools they're sharing that with, probably the better.

And then really also creating a single source of truth for their educators and administrators so that there was clarity on what the district had and what the district supported. So they weren't necessarily going out and looking for a new tool as their first step. They were able to reference the specific district's library when it came to here are the tools that we have available, and here are the tools that we were supporting as a district. And then certainly closely tied to that, budgeting and funding, really making sure that they're getting the most out of the dollars that they have. And so, again, they're not duplicating tools, and they're really focusing on the tools that are most helpful and relevant to their district.

Awesome. So now that we know kind of where they started, what their ultimate goals were, can you tell us a little bit more about the evolution of the vetting system within Manassas Arc Systems? Yeah. Absolutely. And I think a a good recommendation to start with, is that you're not going to do it overnight, and and that was certainly the case for Manassas Park as well. So they started as as you're seeing here in the visual in that that state of gas.

So everything was kind of loose. You know, they had a form here or there. They had a list, you know, maybe on an Excel or a Google Sheet of the different tools that they had. But, again, they didn't really have a central place or a central vetting process. You know, it might it might have been an email to that district admin team or an email to your campus administrator.

There wasn't really a formal set of every tool that we're trying to add needs to pass and go through these different steps. And so to move to more of a solid state or group of educators, and that's these educators to first build their initial product library of these are the tools that we know we use predominantly across our district, and we know kind of our those key tools, And then we can start layering on some of those more, campus specific tools or maybe student specific student population tools. But they, again, started with smaller groups of educators, and that's the same as true for their request workflow. So they started with an initial intake form that they've tinkered with. Certainly, it's had a a few revisions, but really leveraging some of their a smaller group of educators to get this up and running so that they could work out the kinks and then expand it across the district.

And that's where we are today. And so, really, what they've built is a central system for their educators and administrators to be able to reference and see what tools do we have available. And then if we do want new tools considered, we have a place to initiate that, and that's all done in the same system. And that really allows them to, again, kind of efficient. They're a small team.

So this allow this has saved them a ton of time as well when it comes to managing that whole Awesome. And then last but not least, can you walk us through what that official process is now for Manassas Park City? Yeah. Absolutely. And so I would say too, this is a these different milestones you see listed here are, I would say, pretty common across the board. They just look a little bit different for each of our district partners.

So you can see here when it comes to their formal vetting process, so they're looking at a tool or they're reevaluating tool, that can be initiated a couple different ways. I referenced one of those. That can be an educator or an administrator starting a request by filling out the request form. They also also reference that inventory dashboard. So if they see a tool that starts popping up there that seems unfamiliar, they will initiate the request and vetting process with that tool as well.

So it doesn't have to necessarily be you know, directly from an educator. And then from there, there are three areas that they use to evaluate a tool. So the first one is from the technology side. So they look at a tool and make sure that it's going to be compatible with their systems. Is this something that's going to be easy for us to roster, easy for us to put, you know, through our SSO, just thinking about their capacity as a technology team? They also look from a student data and privacy standpoint.

Is this tool you know, especially if it's something that we have to share student or educator data with, is this something that we're comfortable doing based on their security and privacy policies? And in some cases, we might they might go ahead and get a data privacy agreement with that vendor. And then the final piece is they is more of the instructional side. So this is where they work closely with the curriculum team. And depending on the tool, they'll tap certain curriculum folks to provide feedback, and they're formally part of that vetting process. So each tool will go through those three areas.

The people that actually evaluate it might be slightly different just based on the tool, but those are the key things that they they evaluate the tool on. Once it goes through that process, they publish it to their district library. And even if it's something that they're deciding not to approve, they do put that on the library. So there's clarity on why the the tool was not approved for reference. And then the final piece is a a newer thing that they've added to their process but is super impactful.

They also have a community facing library. So community, you know, parents, guardians can go and see what tools are available at that district, and they link resources there such as how to access that tool at home. So that's an example of how this evolves. It's not sort of a one and done or a static. It's constantly growing, and it's constantly tweaking as well.

Awesome. Thank you, Megan. That's super helpful. So Yeah. To summarize here on what you can do right now this summer as you're prepping for next school year.

We go back to those action items of how can we make this happen, bring in multiple teams to help with the vetting process, make sure you have stakeholders holders from curriculum, technology, finance, building admins. Teachers can be involved in this process. Create those standards for approval. What do you all need to make sure this EdTech aligns with, and what are your priorities? Check which tools are being used so that you can then start vetting those tools. Use this process that you've defined, something similar to Manassas Park, something similar to the suggestions presentation to then vet those tools that are being accessed and then share those out with your teachers for next school year, saying, here's the tools that we know are safe, that are reliable, that we want you to use.

And the way that learn platform can help with this is by creating a centralized library of all of your tools as well as built in vetting processes directly in learn platform for teachers to request processes, request new products, and to, create workflows where those requests move through your different teams, which brings us into the future of EdTech. So how do you sustain your EdTech ecosystem? Once you've established using So one, it's getting that teacher buy in that's gonna be so important to make sure that teachers are willing to make those requests for new products, and it's not the wild wild west out there. Getting teacher buy in is something that learn platform can help support by having a clear request process. You'll see one of these screenshots here is submitting a request where you can customize that request form. You could do this through a Google form.

You could do this oftentimes through your health ticketing as well of this is exactly what teachers need to do and be able to communicate that out to them. So it's the same process every single time. Instead of getting the emails, the phone calls, the in the hallway passing comments, going to three different teams, they're coming to one spot doing the same thing every single time, but also communicate the standards of approval for that tool. An example of something that Manassas Park has done, is this reason for assigned statuses. It's a customizable checklist where you can share out and communicate, hey.

This is why we're using the tools that we're using. You could, give this to teachers as a way if a tool is denied. You're not the big bad tech director who won't let them use anything. You are there to help keep students safe, and we know that teachers want to keep students safe. That's abundantly obvious.

Another option is providing an opportunity for teacher feedback. This could be, again, a Google form that you send out. It could be through learn platform with our built in grading rubric. It has eight different categories of EdTech with clear criteria where teachers can give these products a grade and share out with you all why they love certain tools, why these tools are effective in their classroom. So it comes time for you all to start looking at budget cuts, looking at which tools are we gonna continue to fund, which ones are effective.

Teachers have input into that. And it's all in one place in learn platform so they can make their requests, give that feedback, see why a tool is or is not approved, while also seeing the resources that you all add into the library of tools saying, oh, one stop shop. Here is my sample lesson plan. Here are our help videos. Here's why tools are successful in different classrooms.

So you're getting that qualitative feedback. You have the quantitative feedback of what's being used, but now you can incorporate that qualitative feedback from your teachers too. The next step of creating that sustainable ecosystem is going to be working, to bolster sustainability with workflows. So how are you guys as tech directors, as curriculum, directors going to be able to create a sustainable workflow where there's reminders? So within learn platform, you can set action based reminders for incoming requests when a teacher submits a request. Who gets that notification first? Is it going to the tech team, the curriculum team? What is the automatic email response that you wanna send out to teachers to communicate, hey.

We're looking at this school. You could do this with calendar, notifications in your Google Calendar where you're looking at tech requests and you're searching your inbox or you're looking at your, help requests to see what requests have come in. But you can also set time based reminders in one platform in addition to those action email reminders where you're reviewing your usage data. So before the end of the year, before contract renewals, can you save money by coming in and looking at what tools are being used, how often they're being used. You can set automated reminders to update your data privacy agreements.

Most of these standard national data privacy agreements have about a three year time on them. So every three years, you get that notification. Hey. This one's up for review. Have any changes been made, or do they need to be made? You can review your contracts, look at your contract end dates.

So you get a notification six months before your contract's ending, three months before that you need to go ahead and reach out, get that renewal, estimation. You can set a reminder for budgeting season saying, hey. Let's go in and sort by the contract costs, contract end dates, and then you can also set a reminder to to add resources for the beginning of the school year and say, alright. Let's make sure we update these. Something's changed ever so slightly from last year.

Again, you could do this with a calendar. You could do this with email reminders, but within learn platform, it is built into one spot for you so that as your EdTech ecosystem progresses, you have those reminders to come back, check-in on usage, and constantly update and evolve that ecosystem. When we're talking about evolving your EdTech ecosystem, it's important that you look beyond just usage. So you've established a list of all of the approved tools. You're getting your teacher feedback, and you are also getting, that usage information.

But beyond is a tool being used, You really wanna start looking at, how is this tool impactful for your students? And if it's not impactful, then is it just a video game? If it's not helping students move that academic needle, is it a video game? And this is something very unique to learn platform because we come in, and we have a research team that will partner with you all as districts to help bring together not just usage, but also student outcomes. So this can be map testing data, star testing and data, I Ready testing data, end of the year data, customizable to you all, as well as student demographics to ensure that the particular EdTech solutions you have are working for all students within your district. You can also say, hey. If this tool is not working, is there a solution out there that is better for us? Is there a better curriculum option that is going to help all of our students learn and grow at the rate that we, are shooting for, that our goal is to reach? So being able to find and address any of those gaps where certain populations or demographics or grade levels may not be growing quite as much and identifying the cost savings for you all on your behalf. And when it comes to talking about beyond usage, that's our rapid cycle evaluations.

These rapid cycle evaluations are bringing together, like I mentioned, the demographics, the, assessment scores. It's helping you look at is there effect on student learning and growth. On this slide, you're currently able to see some examples of the impact that a particular tool has shown, for students. So based on how often they use this tool, based off of different demographics, customizing the outcome and usage, analytics. And one of our schools that has put this into place, this idea of we have a list of tools, we've gotten teacher feedback, we've gotten usage, now we want that data of is this tool impactful, is going to be Union County Public Schools.

And we have Casey Rumer here from Union County who's gonna be able to tell you a little bit more about why they, as a district, wanted to get involved in a tool that was going to look at these data measurements and why they needed an EdTech effectiveness system within their district. So, Casey, I'm gonna let you start off with some project drivers for you all. Awesome. Thank you, Hillary. So my our story in Union County Public Schools started out just like Manassas Park City Schools.

We were struggling with an inventory. We were struggling with what is, what was approved. And so the the the phrase that it was like a gas was, like, it was very gassy. Right? And our list of products was was very loosely defined. And and not only was that frustrating for us, it was very frustrating, for both our curriculum and our technology team, but our teachers as well.

And so we started out of necessity, and we kind of temporarily put a pause on all purchases, for tech products and said we just need to get a handle on what we're purchasing, what's approved, what's implemented, and and everything in between those things. So just like with Manassas, Park City, right, we had to come up with an active in or an accurate inventory of our products first, and eliminate things like redundancies. Right? Different different costs and things like that. So that's really kind of how some of this started for us, and it started quite a long time ago. We've been doing this.

We've been with Learn Platform for a really long time, but we also were really paying attention to COPPA and CIPA as far back. I just looked it up right before the webinar started. As far back as two thousand fourteen, and there was a lot of people because technology was so new and web based products and access and logging in was so new, a lot of folks did not actually have, like, a really good understanding of terms of service and privacy agreements and things like that. And so, we are paying attention to some of those things, and Learn Platform really came in and just gave us a a platform to do all of these things. And we did not start using Learn Platform as a whole comprehensive ecosystem management process, and and we just kept adding one piece at a time.

Right? So we started with that inventory. And so when we start thinking about, like, how was that turned into, like, what it is now at our ecosystem, is one of the really important things are really, really changing, like, time periods was COVID for us. Right? Just like you all, that's that's your story too. We were actually using Learn Platform prior to COVID. And so it was really helpful for us to say during this crazy chaotic time, right, we have approved products.

They're listed here. Please go back and visit that because we knew one thing was for sure. Right? Even if products were free. Right? My mom always used to teach me nothing in the world is free. So all of those products that they were listing for free and they were passing around and and and thank you to the EdTech companies that did that.

Right? But we knew that that was gonna backfire because we knew teachers were gonna fall in love with some products, and we were not gonna be able to sustain them either with money after COVID. Right? And we couldn't sustain them with professional development. Right? I had a very small team at the time. I knew that there was no way that I could train my team on twelve different products that did the same thing. I could train on one product that does twelve things, and that would be much easier for us to support and sustain.

And so we did not even share, that list of free products because we just wanted to redirect folks back to the products. If we had a product that did something similar, we just doubled down on that, and we doubled down on the professional learning and the resources and the guidance that we shared with folks. But we always say, like, is it approved? If it's approved, you if it's in the library is approved, there's no extra steps. Right? And in North Carolina, I don't know if anyone's from North Carolina, we have a statewide approval, data sharing agreement, and sometimes that takes a lot of steps. And so that's enough of a deterrent to be like, well, if this is already approved, I don't have the endurance to go through that process with another product.

So I'll just use this product that's already approved. We have some professional development, some resources for it. So, we really kind of cashed in on some of that change during COVID, especially with some of those free products. So now we have a a a, I'm sorry. We have, like, a a pretty comprehensive approved list, and our teachers kinda know to go there.

Right? The approval process, just like in Manassas Park, it looks very, very similar. I was actually like, wow. That could exactly be our vetting process too. But here is the key, and here's the secret for you all. The one thing that has made a huge difference for us is that finance knows and understands this process.

Right? So I have, someone who works in finance, and she'll call me and she'll say, hey. This school wants to buy xTool, but it's not approved and learned. And she'll say, is it okay, or should I tell them they have to request it and learn? And I'm like, no. No. You gotta request it and learn.

So the people who are processing the POs, right, also know that they have to check and learn to make sure that it's approved. And so that was kind of one of our loopholes. Right? And that was really pitting our curriculum and our technology teams against each other in a lot of cases or our schools against each other because people people were purchasing things. They were allowed to purchase things that hadn't been vetted, and either it wasn't approved, it wouldn't work on our network, it wouldn't work on our Chromebooks, or it wasn't aligned to our standards, and it didn't back up the direction, say, the science of reading. Right? There's a lot of products out there.

And if it doesn't align to the way that we are teaching literacy, then we don't want our students and our teachers to be u utilizing that product. And so that really cut down on a lot of our aggravation, when talking about EdTech products is that that that stop, that common ground is that finance person. And if you can work that into your checks and balances, I promise you, finance people see it in black and white, and it's either approved or it's not approved. It's either move forward or don't move forward. And so, that has been an an amazing help in kind of the fidelity and of this implementation and making sure that that nobody's kind of getting around it.

One of the other things that, has been said to help kind of some of the workarounds is our PTOs are not allowed to buy products or subscriptions, PTA funding. Right? So you can't do outside subscriptions. It used to be. We we definitely have some PTOs and PTAs that say, we have funds. We wanna support you schools.

What do you need? And sometimes the school says, I need a subscription to this video service, or I need something to and and it used to be that PTOs and PTAs could go ahead and just buy that for the school. But we we nixed that process as well because when the PTO purchases it, it doesn't always go through our finance department for that check. So we've kinda built that in as well. So just kinda thinking through some of to add on to what Manassas had had kinda said about seeing change. Now our teachers know that learn platform is a place to go, not only if you're looking for the approved list, right, but you're looking to get something approved or you're, like, shopping.

Right? And so we use different tags to show this is what's been approved. This is what's district purchased. Right? And we've shifted into some putting some things in our public library so that our community, if our parents are like, hey. I'm really interested in what my fifth grader can do over the summer. So now they can go to the public library.

We have selected specific things to show up, and they can search in science or math or reading, and they can even choose grade levels if they want. And whatever they're tagged, they'll come up, and now they can see their resources, and they can see how to access them. So that's been really helpful kinda to to round out that whole to make it more of an ecosystem, right, with lots of folks working in in all of those areas. The next thing that I wanna talk about is the rapid cycle evaluation process that we've been using. So, one thing that I I wanna kind of just touch base on first is we just like you you just heard Hillary share, like, that iceberg, that top of the iceberg is just usage data.

Right? And for years, many of us are just making decisions based on usage data. Sometimes we're not. Sometimes, I found when I started, with this process and kind of owning this in my role in the district several years ago, I found that a lot of times, maybe bookkeeper was the one that was getting the usage reports because that's who submitted the information for the order. And so so just asking for usage data sometimes where people were like, well, I I are we supposed to know what that is? How are we supposed to find that? Right? And that was kind of the the the entry point into analyzing some of this data. But not only do we ask to review usage data, we've added before RCE, we added the teacher feedback process.

And so we ask our teachers, how do you use this product? It? With which subgroups do you use it? And they give us feedback through learn platform. So I like to tell people we make decisions on products based on products based on three things. Right? Usage data is one of them. Teacher feedback is another, and then the rapid cycle evaluation and that data, the impact data that it gives us. And so we try and use that for, but during budget season.

Right? We like to have all of that information ready to go so that when we are ready to make recommendations for what we're gonna continue and what we're gonna discontinue, we utilize all that information. But even more, right, because I I definitely have, some influence and some responsibility to pull all that data together to make really good informed decisions. But, also, I work with professional development and growing teachers. And so I wanna look at rapid cycle evaluation because I wanna know which schools are getting more bang for your buck, right, and which schools are are are seeing an increase in student achievement and and correlate that with the usage data. And that's really what RCE does for us, right, is they take that that usage data and they take this the the test the assessment data, and they say students use the product this much or students who don't use the product.

Right? This is how they perform, and they correlate that data. I I would venture to say that most people in this call are probably lifelong educators. You've been an educator your whole career. I was a social studies teacher. So when it comes to talking about data and correlation of data, I'm kind of in an area that I feel a little bit uncomfortable in.

And so and learn platform and and the folks at Instructure have been so good about helping me to understand what that data means and the science and and things but, like, really heavy data science, they have a research team that helps us with that. Right? They have data analysts that help us with that, and they help us kind of pick apart that rapid cycle evaluation data to be able to make informed decisions about how we're moving forward. This really quick little story about how, I partnered with Learn Platform, and we have been piloting, a math product in our middle schools for two years. And we have four schools that are what I'll call middle of the road schools. Right? They're like we have a huge cross section in our county, and the four middle of the road schools were using this this pilot platform.

The But when we got to the end of the first year and again at the end of the second year, right, we're like, well, we have a couple higher schools, higher performing schools using a different product, a competitor, and our two lower schools are also using a competitor. Right? So I can't really look at the test scores of my highest and lowest middle schools compared to my middle of the road middle schools because there's a lot there's a lot of factors there. Right? And so I was sharing actually, Megan was my CSM at the time, and I was sharing this struggle with Megan and some other folks at platform. And she's like, let me talk to the research team and see what we can do to help you. And so it's really hard to compare, the specific assessment data from one platform to another platform because they kinda measure on different things, and they use different scores and scale scores and things like that.

But what what I was able to do is ask for which one is more a more valid predictor of performance on the state end of grade test. Right? And so they're like, sure. Give us the data. And so I worked with them. I gave them the data.

We we they they massaged the data, and the research team came back and gave me some pretty good reports. And come to find out, this is so anticlimactic. But, basically, the correlation efficient coefficient, right, is basically the same for both of them. So what it's saying is both products were really good predictors of EOG. We call it North Carolina end of grade scores.

Both products were really good predictors of EOG, like, very close. But we use that information to help us make a decision and other items, right, to help us make a decision about which one we're gonna move forward district wide in middle school next year. And so rapid cycle evaluation helps us to make purchasing decisions. It also helps me to see, like, hey. This school is getting more growth out of its students when using this product than this school.

And so then I can go talk to the other school and be like, hey. Tell us more about your implementation and how you're doing it because we wanna take those best practices, and we wanna replicate them in another school. So it's not always about do we keep it or do we cut it. Right? Sometimes it's about how do we replicate the practices that are working really well in one school and spread them to another school because we know that the product is good. And so that helps us to kind of make our decisions moving forward.

Awesome. Casey, that was incredibly helpful. And you ended on a note that really leads to bringing in those teams together as well. From a curriculum and instruction perspective, we're looking at, okay, how can we replicate these really great results in addition to the tech team looking at, is this tool something that we want to continue to support and maintain? Is it being used within our districts? So bringing both of those teams again together. Thank you, Casey.

If you all have questions, please put them in the q and a, and Casey and I and Meaghan are happy to address those, especially from some of those amazing takeaways and experience that Casey's had herself. Three key takeaways here is, one, to build an effective EdTech ecosystem. It's gonna start with understanding what is being used. You have that free inventory dashboard link to help you right now figure out what tools are being accessed. This works through a browser extension or an iOS app.

App. You can request that through the getting started button. Then two, supporting an effective EdTech ecosystem requires consistency and transparency. Create those vetting standards. Make sure you communicate across all of your stakeholders, all of your teams, your teachers, your parents, what tools are being used, why they're being used, why they're approved, how they can be helpful, and make that process repeatable so that it is the same thing every time for those teacher requests in a one stop shop.

Then lastly, being able to sustain an effective EdTech ecosystem includes continuous evaluation and improvement. So looking at your workflows to continue to evaluate the tools that you've approved, making sure you're looking at that usage over time. You're renewing your contracts, your data privacy agreements, your accessibility agreements, and also looking for those areas of improvement. Look at the tools that are being used. Make sure they're being implemented to full fidelity, that they are cost effective, and that they are truly helping and benefiting students to see that all students are able to learn and grow, replicating those results across the district by using not just the usage data, but also the assessment data and your student demographics.

As we're wrapping up here, I do want to know and would love to see you all respond in the chat of what your first takeaway item is going to be, your first action item. Is it to start looking at usage? Is it to define what your vetting standards are going to to be? Is it pulling in other teams for support? Is it going now to that next step of looking at how effective are the tools that we as the district have already approved? Send us a chat. Let us know. And last but not least here, we have a resource for you all. So that vetting checklist that I showed earlier, the teal and gray boxes that have sample questions for different teams as well as a sample process is available.

You can scan this QR code or click on the link here that's been uploaded. That's a resource we'd love for you all to take away. You can also reach out to anyone, from your Instructure team to help you learn a little bit more about learn platform and these processes. We're looking, at the q and a now to see if there's any final questions from you all. Please let us know.

And a few housekeeping items here right at the end. Let me make sure I have all of them. Okay. If you'd like to watch today's presentation, an on demand archive will be available through edweek dot org or today's link within the next twenty four hours. You can also visit ed week dot org to find the articles to explore today's topic.

We want to thank Casey so much for participating as well as Megan in bringing that feedback in from Patty Gillum at Manassas Park City Schools. No final questions here. But perfect. Thank you all so much for your help. I'm seeing, we need a little help on the link. Other than that, stick around, ask some questions in the chat, but thank you all so much for your time today. We really appreciate it.