Illuminations and Insights
We shine a light on our partners, the work we've done across the country, and insights from our team members.
What We’ve Learned Building AI on Top of Education Data: Early Lessons From Piloting Stadium AI
At EA, we strive to build standard data infrastructure that democratizes data access, so educators can gain insights and improve student outcomes. In the age of AI, we are expanding that goal to cover not just data infrastructure, but “AI infrastructure” as well. That means building a system for AI-friendly context and deploying tools that utilize LLMs to answer prompts, so educators or agency staff who otherwise don’t have the time or technical expertise can access the data insights they need. We have built Stadium AI to test the hypothesis that a natural language interface on top of a well-structured education data warehouse could let more people, not just analysts, ask questions about their data and get answers they can trust. We started with testing a beta version of Stadium AI with real analyst users at the South Carolina Department of Education (SCDE) to see how they would use it, and if that could inform how a broader audience may use the tool. What we didn't expect? What users would ask when given the tool. In this blog, Technical Lead Manager Rob Little and Senior Product Manager Molly Stewart share what we've learned throughout the process of building Stadium AI.
Day in the Life: Q&A with Director of Services Tracy Diel
In this blog, Tracy describes her previous experience working in research, accountability, and assessment at Denver Public Schools, how her role as Director enables her to create the conditions for her team to do their best work, and her favorite partner projects to work on at EA.
Day in the Life: Q&A with Data Engineer II Ryan Aguilar
Get to know Data Engineer II Ryan Aguilar in the latest installment of our “Day in the Life” series. In this blog, Ryan describes how working with CORE Districts at a previous job led him to discover Education Analytics (EA), what his day-to-day responsibilities look like on the Data Engineering team, and what changes he anticipates in the ed tech field in the next year.
Education Analytics’ Second Annual Staff Conference: Ideas in Action
In July 2026, we hosted our second annual EA Conference, which included a full day of sessions to share the work, ideas, and expertise that define how EA operates and evolves. Building on the energy of last year’s inaugural event, this year’s conference featured more than 25 sessions spanning five themes: Product, Partner, Platforms & Tools, AI, and Showcase. New this year was the Poster Showcase, a format that gave staff the chance to share projects in progress, spark conversations, and invite feedback in an informal, exploratory setting. In this blog, you'll learn more about this year's conference.
Day in the Life: Q&A with Implementation Delivery Lead Christian Faulkner
Get to know Implementation Delivery Lead Christian Faulkner in the latest installment of our "Day in the Life" blog series. In this blog, Christian describes what interested him in working at EA, why connecting technology to student outcomes is so rewarding, and how he anticipates the ed tech field will continue to focus on supporting the school-to-workforce transition in the coming years.
Building Shared Data Infrastructure for School-Based Nonprofits
When we talk with school-based nonprofit partners, we hear a consistent concern: the data they need to support students, learn across sites, and demonstrate impact often arrives too late, in too many formats, and with too much local interpretation required. City Year, a national education nonprofit whose AmeriCorps members serve as student success coaches in schools across 29 U.S. cities, describes this as a shared infrastructure problem rather than a single-organization challenge. In this blog, Vice President of Strategic Philanthropy and Innovation Dan Jarratt describes this shared infrastructure problem, uses City Year's work as a case study in strengthening data infrastructure, and highlights how Education Analytics (EA) is committed to building and stewarding that infrastructure.
