Illuminations and Insights

We shine a light on our partners, the work we've done across the country, and insights from our team members.

Day in the Life: Q&A with IT Manager Mark Stokosa

Get to know IT Manager Mark Stokosa in the latest blog for our day in the life series. In this blog, Mark discusses his role on the Information Technology team, his experience in overseeing and maintaining EA's IT Helpdesk, his involvement in developing a Knowledge Base for the IT team and EA staff, and more!

Future-Ready Governance: Aligning Policies with Modernized Data Systems

Governance structures at the state, district, and federal levels have significantly influenced how educators, administrators, students, and parents engage with and understand data. These spheres have evolved over several decades, due to technological advancements, streamlined data management systems, and most notably, the influx of additional funding in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. In this blog, we sat down with the Vice President of Interoperability Solutions Rosh Dhanawade to gain a clearer understanding of how these spheres interact and influence educators, parents, and students.

Making Interoperability a Reality with Assessment Data

Assessment data plays a pivotal role in tracking student progress, and as Data Engineer Manager Julianna Alvord highlights in this blog, integrating this data remains a significant challenge. Variations in formats, standards, and structures across vendors, states, and educational levels often create barriers to effective data use. Julianna details how EA has addressed these challenges by developing tools like Earthmover and Lightbeam. These innovative solutions enable seamless integration of assessment data into the Ed-Fi data model, transforming diverse datasets into standardized formats for meaningful analysis. By converting and mapping data from multiple sources, these tools empower educators to make data-driven decisions; however, the complexity of assessment data—ranging from differing score types and definitions to varying assessment hierarchies—necessitates robust and ongoing governance. This ensures data consistency, clarity, and usability across systems, ultimately supporting more effective educational outcomes. Through our collaboration with the South Carolina Department of Education (SCDE), EA has refined governance practices for assessment data integration, focusing on defining clear assessment structures, handling score variability, and addressing historical data challenges.

A Year in Review: 2024 Conferences

 Each year, we have the opportunity to attend and present at several conferences nationwide, showcasing our work and our Ed-Fi-enabled product stack. These events provide opportunities to engage with educators, administrators, district leaders, and fellow Ed Tech organizations, fostering collaboration and sharing insights. In 2024, we participated in the 20+ conferences, including SXSW EDU, AeriesCon, Ed-Fi Alliance’s Technical Congress, the Knowledge Alliance’s Fall Forum, Ed-Fi Summit, South Carolina Ed Tech, and the Florida Educational Research Association’s annual meeting. In this blog, we recap our key takeaways and lessons learned from the conferences we attended this year.

The Art of Office Comfort: Inspiring Spaces for Ed Tech Teams

Since she joined EA in 2022, Office Manager Anna Geisthardt has made significant improvements to our office space to make it feel more comfortable and welcoming for our staff, external partners, and board members. Whether she is coordinating an office reorganization, planning a staff-wide event, or curating the office to better fit with EA’s brand, Anna remains a creative and dedicated influence at EA, and we are grateful for her endless contributions to our staff and our space. To better understand the full scope of what office and administrative management looks like at EA, we talked with Anna about her work on the Administrative Services team and her experiences at EA.

2024 Day in the Life Series Recap

Our “Day in the Life” blog series, launched in early 2024, shines a spotlight on the people who make Education Analytics (EA) a great place to work. During the past year, we've had the privilege of featuring team members from numerous departments, including Analyst, Brand & Communications, Engineering, Finance & Accounting, Partner Strategy, Product & Development Operations, and Program Operations teams. This series celebrates their unique contributions and the meaningful work they do every day to drive our mission forward. To wrap up 2024, we wanted to do a short recap of the year in “Day in the Life” blogs!