According to one expert, school districts should couple sound technical solutions with strong partnerships within the community in order to create the most successful data-sharing initiative.

Jeff Edmondson is managing director of StriveTogether. One of the organization's biggest endeavors is called Cradle to Career, which has over 60 collective partnerships that are "passionate about measurement, aiming to constantly learn and adapt across all programs and services working to improve educational outcomes," according to an article on Forbes.com.

Because data collection and measurement are proven to provide information that leads to change in regards to education, Edmondson insists that districts should dedicate time into creating a strong data-sharing initiative, but that they should do so by going beyond the mere technical aspect.

Edmondson suggests that "working to sustain meaningful and long-term data-sharing partnerships" is a critical and often over-looked step in the data-sharing process, and offers some tips for educators everywhere.

Some examples of his tips include having knowledge of different data collection systems, building responsible data use, carefully selecting what data to collect to avoid superfluous collection, and identifying a "trusted local data hub."

Edmondson says that results will be beneficial all around. "Real impact resulting from data-sharing, alignment of programs and continuous improvement make us confident that we can indeed move beyond good intentions in social impact work," he said, according to the article.

Read the full article here and comment below.

Article by Nicole Gorman, Education World Contributor

05/05/2015