KiDS Corner

It has been said that educators are data rich and information poor. In 2014, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation commissioned a survey of 4,600 teachers asking them about their beliefs, challenges and needs in relation to using data to inform their instructional decisions. The obstacles to effective data use mentioned by teachers mostly centered around ease of access and useability, specifically the data they have access to:

• does not speak to the whole child

• is often stale by the time it reaches the teacher

• does not allow teachers to track trends over time

• is inflexible and difficult to aggregate and disaggregate as needed

• is often stored in databases to which teachers do not have access

The report, Teachers Know Best, also analyzed teacher usage of data and found that while the majority of teachers are comfortable with assessing and analyzing data, the use of data to pivot their instructional practice based on their analysis of the data is an area for growth.

The KiDS data warehouse addresses these barriers allowing educators to turn data into actionable solutions for their students’ academic, behavioral, and social-emotional needs.

The KiDS platform is...

✅ Comprehensive - bringing together large data sets from disparate systems into one platform

✅ Real Time - updating nightly with the most current information about students

✅ Longitudinal - integrating at least 5 years of data, increasing each year the district is in KiDS

✅ Actionable - allowing administrators, teachers and staff to easily filter data in order to monitor and support specific student groups

✅ Accessible - using permission groups, KiDS data can be shared with any staff member who has access to students in the district SIS.

The Professional Learning Team is available to support our districts in the important work of meeting student need through the purposeful and intentional use of data.

Pilot 1

The KiDS support team is currently reaching out to QSS districts to schedule their Map and Gap session for Module 4, HCM and Operations. Over the next few months, our goal is to have all district fiscal and HR data visualized on easy to use dashboards in KiDS. Due to the sensitivity of this information, onboarding will occur with the Superintendent, CBO and HR director, not the usual onboarding team. Districts who are not in QSS will be contacted shortly to begin the mapping process for your individual Fiscal and HR platforms.

Pilot 2

KCSOS Alternative Education and Fruitvale School District are now fully onboarded in the Essentials Module. Both districts are now working on validation of the Early Warning Module and Alt Ed is starting Student Success mapping. We commend both districts for their continued dedication to the onboarding process while also managing all of the work associated with the pandemic, school closures, distance learning and reopening plans.

Cohort 1

We are excited to welcome 19 new districts to KiDS! In order to effectively support onboarding of all 19 districts this year, we have begun a rolling onboarding process starting in October with four districts; Maple, Lamont, Lakeside and Taft High. We look forward to the next four in early January then adding four new districts every 3 weeks there after. Districts who would like to get started ASAP should reach out to Greg West, grwest@kern.org to schedule a start date.

Over the last few months, the team has been working on upgrades to the Early Warning and Student Success Modules. We are excited to share with you some new, impactful features that will help districts identify “at-promise” students as well as those who could be slipping through the cracks.

Early Warning System Upgrades

• Early Warning predictive analytics updated to account for school closures
• Additional features added to identify students' specific area of need for targeted support
• Imputed factors and cut scores now available within the platform for easy comparisons

Student Success Upgrades

• Adjustments made to account for multiple districts in one platform
• Added flexibility to adjust graduation requirements based on diploma type

Please reach out to your Professional Learning Coach, Jennifer or Kimberly, today to schedule training with staff members. We recommend this training for MTSS Coordinators, Interventionists, Academic Coaches, High School Counselors and School Administration.

As students return to campus, the importance of supporting the transition to in-person learning is made easier through the use of the KiDS Student Profile. Educators have access to in-depth information about the students they support, information that will allow educators to identify attendance and behavior trends, academic information, and enrollment and program history. Having access to the Student Profile feature in KiDS helps users quickly research their students and takes much of the guesswork out of how to prepare for a student’s return. The Student Profile is also a great resource to assist teachers in parent conferences, as historical data can be shown to support a proposed course of action.

We wanted to let you know about an exciting development regarding the Kern Integrated Data System (KiDS) and its data management solution, which is powered by Hoonuit.

Hoonuit has been recently acquired by PowerSchool, the leading provider of K-12 education technology solutions. Hoonuit’s advanced analytics and data management tools, combined with PowerSchool's suite of K-12 technology solutions creates the most comprehensive K-12 education technology portfolio.

While this acquisition will mean an even more robust platform, please know this will not impact the implementation of KiDS and our relationship with Kern County School Districts and institutes of higher education.

The Hoonuit team will be joining PowerSchool, and customers can expect very little change to the individuals they have been used to working with. For our Kern County Districts, you will continue to work with the local KiDS support team and will see no change in your contact for onboarding and support.

For more information or questions, please reach out to KiDS Director Greg West at 661.636.4171