We asked the nine pilot districts to identify a data warehouse champion within their district — we call them KIDS ambassadors — and asked each of them to start building out district teams that will be responsible for training and supporting their district staff with KIDS. Roger Sanchez is the ambassador for the Kern High School District.
Sanchez: With over 40,000 students in our district, we have dedicated directors who focus on different aspects of the education world.
We gathered a team of those experts in the room, and as this process has been rolling out — because we’re really in its infancy right now — we’ve been getting their input as to how we’re going to proceed into the future.
We don’t want to do another initiative just for its own sake. We want to make sure that this has some teeth in it and longevity in it.
EDTECH: How did you make decisions about who would be in the pilot?
Shannon: Since the pilot project allows us to assess our internal structure of support and Hoonuit’s ability to meet the unique needs of the districts we serve, we wanted to ensure the pilot districts represented the diversity of size, demographics, metropolitan and rural characteristics that are representative of districts throughout our county.
We are learning important lessons inside the pilot that will prove valuable as we endeavor on board the additional 38 districts countywide.
EDTECH: What technology did you need to make this a reality?
Davis: When we were evaluating potential data warehouse solution providers, we focused on hosting the solution onsite, or using a cloud provider. We looked at cost and supporting the system, and we analyzed security and access.
We decided to host it in a KCSOS-owned Azure environment, and we’ve contracted with Hoonuit to build and maintain the servers as well as install all of their analytics tools and software.