Strategic Data Project Convening 2026

Session Description: The promise of a data warehouse is realized when schools trust and rely on it to support students in real-time. Learn how continuous improvement and collaboration with educators led to a system used daily in schools across the district. Attendees will examine high impact reports, see how innovative data are transforming practice, and leave with strategies to increase adoption and improve reporting immediately in their own contexts. Ideal for data, school, and district teams.

Intended Audience: Districts, charters or other local education agencies; Data analysts or independent researchers; State education agencies; Service providers; Managers of data or technology teams; Senior leaders (including cabinet-level leaders and executive directors)

Session Description:

Education leaders often need to turn complex data into clear, usable tools for planning and decision-making. In this hands-on session, participants will use a teacher workforce planning example to learn how R Shiny apps are structured and how interactive features are built. The session will introduce the roles of global.R, ui.R, and server.R, then guide participants through simple edits that change the app layout, connect outputs to server logic, and add user controls that update what the app displays.

Participants will leave with a fully functional Shiny app template based on the Teacher Workforce Planning Tool being used at the Delaware Department of Education, available through GitHub: https://github.com/MatthewFaiello/twpt_shiny_app_toy

Intended Audience:
This session is designed for SEA, LEA, charter, and education nonprofit staff who work with data or decision-support tools, including analysts, program managers, data and technology leaders, and senior leaders who want a practical introduction to interactive data applications.

This session assumes participants have an understanding of R syntax and basic data manipulation and visualization skills.

Session Description: Education leaders often default to "additive bias," layering initiatives until systems become cluttered and ineffective. This interactive session reorients leaders toward achieving coherence through strategic subtraction. Drawing on Leidy Klotz’s research, participants will audit their agencies for "zombie programs" and redundant processes using a practical "Proving and Improving" laboratory. Attendees will leave with a roadmap to reduce initiative fatigue, reallocate resources, and create space for high-impact practices to flourish.

Intended Audience: Districts, charters or other local education agencies; State education agencies; Philanthropies and Foundations; Data analysts or independent researchers; Managers of data or technology teams; Senior leaders (including cabinet-level leaders and executive directors); Nonprofit organizations; Service providers

Session Description: Large public data systems are often built for accountability, then later expected to support urgent, human-centered decisions they were never designed for. This session examines what it actually takes to repurpose administrative data responsibly, using work from the California Community Colleges in response to the 2025 Los Angeles wildfires as a case study. Participants will explore why meaningful analytic insights often emerge after moments of crisis, and how putting processes in place ahead of time can make data more actionable, ethical, and useful when systems are under stress.

Intended Audience: Districts, charters or other local education agencies; State education agencies; Institutions of higher education; Data analysts or independent researchers; Senior leaders (including cabinet-level leaders and executive directors)

Session Description: Summer programs offer powerful opportunities to close learning gaps and expand access to enriching experiences, yet districts often struggle to align program goals, outcomes, and evaluation in ways that support improvement. This session shares how Boston Public Schools built a cross-department data partnership to use formative assessment data and comparison groups to understand summer program impact, equity, and implementation. District leaders, analysts, and program practitioners interested in continuous improvement are encouraged to attend.

Intended Audience: Districts, charters or other local education agencies; Data analysts or independent researchers; Nonprofit organizations

Session Description: What happens when Early Childhood Educators drive research and data analysis about the sector? This session explores a Participatory Action Research (PAR) and Policy model developed for Black and Latine women in ECE. Based on the report "Participatory Action Research and Policy Change" we will explore model design, impact on worker agency, and strategies for successful implementation. System and policy leaders will gain insights into how to implement PAR to improve listening, empathy, and trust.

Intended Audience: Senior leaders (including cabinet-level leaders and executive directors); Philanthropies and Foundations; Nonprofit organizations