Strategic Data Project Convening 2026

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: Accessing and analyzing education finance data requires significant data wrangling expertise, creating barriers for researchers, advocates, and policymakers. In this hands-on workshop, participants will use edfinr – a free, open-source R package – to load clean school finance datasets, analyze funding patterns, and adjust for inflation, leaving with working code for their own contexts. Basic R experience recommended.

Intended Audience: Data analysts or independent researchers; Nonprofit organizations; State education agencies

Session Description: Instructional coherence is the emerging practice of aligning all aspects of learning to reduce “instructional code-switching” between varying procedures, approaches, and curriculum. In this session, we will share learnings from a district pilot and randomized control trail on implementing instructional coherence for early literacy. Those interested in supporting student literacy, innovative models for supporting student learning interventions, and advancing how to leverage formal and informal student data to meet student needs should attend this session.

Intended Audience: Districts, charters or other local education agencies; State education agencies; Service providers

Session Description: Many data practitioners serve as the sole data voice within functional departments or small organizations where they must navigate cultures unfamiliar with rigorous evidence. This session brings these lone strategists together to swap strategies for establishing trust, managing workflows, and avoiding duplicative silos. Data strategists in LEAs/SEAs in HR, Finance, Safety, Federal Programs, etc.—and anyone serving as a "team of one"—are encouraged to attend and find their people.

Intended Audience: Data analysts or independent researchers; Districts, charters or other local education agencies; Philanthropies and Foundations

Session Description:  This session is centered on aligning behavioral health metrics with key P–20W milestones (e.g., kindergarten readiness, 9th-grade transition, postsecondary persistence/completion, and early workforce outcomes). 

School mental health is often treated as a support function separate from academic outcomes measured in service counts and compliance checkboxes rather than in evidence that moves students forward. This session challenges that framing. Too often, state policy and frontline practice operate with different mental models of what "good" looks like. State agencies optimize for reportable metrics; school counselors and community health workers respond to what they see in the room. This session examines the confidence gap between those two realities and offers a framework for closing it.

Participants will leave with:

• A P–20W indicator alignment map connecting behavioral health measures to key educational milestones
• Practical guidance on reframing mental health data as "barriers to learning" and "bridges to the workforce" for different stakeholder audiences
• Lessons from the field on building data systems that are useful to both policymakers and practitioners — not just one or the other

This session is designed for data strategists, state agency leaders, and district decision-makers who are ready to move beyond counting services and toward using behavioral health data.