Brightbytes Named Best In Learning & Education Apps And Software In The 26th Annual Webby Awards

Brightbytes Named Best In Learning & Education Apps And Software In The 26th Annual Webby Awards

The BrightBytes Platform Tops the Shortlist for International Awards Honoring Best of Internet.

San Francisco, CA —  April 28, 2022 – BrightBytes announced today that it has been named the Best Learning & Education Apps and Software in the 26th Annual Webby Awards Internet Celebration. Hailed as the “Internet’s highest honor” by The New York Times, The Webby Awards, presented by the International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences (IADAS), is the leading international awards organization honoring excellence on the Internet. IADAS, which nominates and selects The Webby Award Winners, is comprised of Internet industry experts including Arlan Hamilton, Founder and Managing Partner, Backstage Capital; Ziwe Fumudoh, Comedian & Writer; Quinta Brunson, Writer, Director and Actor; Felecia Hatcher, CEO, Black Ambition, Sridhar Ramaswamy; Co-Founder & CEO, Neeva; David Droga; Founder and Chairman, Droga5, R/GA; Kerstin Emhoff, Co-Founder & CEO, PRETTYBIRD; Dan Pfeiffer, Co-Host, Pod Save America and Werner Vogels, VP & CTO Amazon.

“BrightBytes has set the standard for innovation and creativity on the Internet,” said Claire Graves, Executive Director of The Webby Awards. “This award is a testament to the skill, ingenuity, and vision of its creators.”

BrightBytes will be honored at the 26th Annual Webby Awards in New York City on May 16th. Visit Webbyawards.com to see BrightBytes’ hallmark 5-word acceptance speech and follow #Webbys on Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook, and experience the 26th Annual Webby Awards Internet Celebration on Monday, May 16, 2022.

About The Webby Awards:

Hailed as the “Internet’s highest honor” by The New York Times, The Webby Awards is the leading international awards organization honoring excellence on the Internet, including Websites and Mobile Sites, Video, Advertising, Media & PR, Apps and Software, Social, Podcasts, Games, and Virtual & Remotes. Established in 1996, this year’s Webby Awards received nearly 14,000 entries from all 50 states and 70 countries worldwide.

Follow BrightBytes:

Twitter: https://twitter.com/BrightBytes

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/brightbytes

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BrightBytes® DataSense™ Platform to Expand Data Integration for Educators as Part of Microsoft Education

Acquisition ensures wider reach and greater support for educators’ data integration needs

San Francisco, CA - February 4, 2019 - Leading education data analytics organization, BrightBytes, today, announced the sale of data integration platform, DataSense, to Microsoft. This will enable the DataSense platform, already the premier integration platform as a service (IPaaS) solution for both education solution providers and U.S. school districts, to improve data interoperability and integration across a global market.

DataSense has proven itself a best-in-class data integration platform, evident not only by multiple Microsoft Partner of the Year Awards, but also by the platform's robust capabilities. DataSense currently integrates secure data for millions of learners across hundreds of districts daily. Central to the fundamental success of the DataSense platform, Microsoft will also be welcoming the BrightBytes data management team to the global education team.

Leaders from both Microsoft and BrightBytes believe that adding DataSense to the Microsoft education product offering was the natural next phase in their ongoing work together. With this announcement, Microsoft can help scale to more people faster. General Manager of Education Strategy and Platforms at Microsoft, Steve Liffick, shares, “In the coming months, we’re excited to begin the process of integrating DataSense technology into our products for schools, providing a single, more secure, Microsoft-based service that will unlock the power of data analytics for schools. As we start this journey of integration, BrightBytes customers using DataSense can rest assured they will not experience any disruption.” In fact, educators can expect the exceptional support BrightBytes provided in the past, but from a larger team, focused entirely on the DataSense product.

BrightBytes’ vision to use data to improve the way the world learns can only be achieved when educators have access to high-quality, communicable data. Efficient, wide-spread data integration lies at the core of BrightBytes’ analytics work, and Microsoft can make this a reality for all schools much more quickly. BrightBytes CEO, Traci Burgess, explains, “We are excited about the global acceleration this sale provides to our mission. Schools around the world will benefit greatly from capabilities across data integration, interoperability, and provisioning."

BrightBytes will continue to grow their analytics organization, which currently provides research-based, predictive analytics across school improvement, digital learning, and student success, via their Clarity® platform, to over 25,000 schools globally. The BrightBytes team will also partner further with Microsoft, turning to the DataSense platform for integration needs.

About BrightBytes: BrightBytes®, the leading data analytics solution for education organizations, provides educators with the power to turn big data into big benefits for students. The organization’s decision-support platform, Clarity®, employs advanced analytics, including machine learning, psychometrics, and predictive analytics to organize and visualize actionable data across research-based frameworks to drive student learning.

Follow BrightBytes:

Twitter: https://twitter.com/BrightBytes

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/brightbytes

For press inquiries, please contact:

WE Communications, WE-MSMWLGEDU@we-worldwide.com

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Infinite Campus Selects DataSense™ as Digital Learning Partner

December 18, 2018 – Blaine, Minn. – Infinite Campus, the most trusted name in student information, is excited to announce that the BrightBytes® DataSense platform, a data integration and management solution, is now a Digital Learning Partner. A connection through DataSense integrates Infinite Campus student information system (SIS) with DataSense-supported systems.

DataSense enables supported systems to exchange real-time data with the Infinite Campus SIS, which provides teachers and students a valuable tool: assignment score passback. When teachers using a DataSense-supported learning management system (LMS) update their scores, those will be reflected in their Campus Grade Book.

At this time, the connection through DataSense will support the following systems: Blackboard Learn and Blackboard Classroom, and the Clarity Analytics Platform by BrightBytes.  

Both Infinite Campus and DataSense are IMS Global Certified and meet their OneRoster standard for securely sharing class rosters, assignment data and scores between systems.

“We’re excited to be working with DataSense and offer this powerful integration to customers,” said Charlie Kratsch, Infinite Campus CEO and Founder. “Campus was the first SIS to be OneRoster v1.1 Grading Services API certified, it’s important that we partner with other IMS Global certified vendors.”

“This partnership helps connect teachers with tools they frequently use, which will save them time and reduce errors,” said Dr. Barry Brahier, Chief Product Officer for Teaching and Learning at Infinite Campus. “By integrating with DataSense, we are ensuring that teachers spend more time teaching, which furthers our mission of Transforming K12 Education®.”

With better, faster access to data, educators will have more insight into how to improve learning and replicate best practices. “We want to ensure educators have the opportunity to achieve data interoperability, so they can access and leverage high-quality data to inform learning,” said Traci Burgess, CEO at BrightBytes. “By partnering with Infinite Campus, we are able to expand our DataSense product offering, reach more educators, and have more impact on students.”

Infinite Campus and DataSense will be piloting the integration with select DataSense-supported districts during the spring of 2019 with release to all customer districts planned for 2019-20 school year. DataSense joins 10 other Infinite Campus Digital Learning Partners: eDoctrina, Illuminate Education, itslearning, Kiddom, Kimono, Microsoft, Naiku, Otus, Schoology and Turnitin.

For more information, please visit www.infinitecampus.com/campuslearning.

About Infinite Campus: As the most trusted name in student information, Infinite Campus manages 7.8 million students in 45 states. For 25 years, Infinite Campus has successfully implemented its solutions for customers of all sizes, from those with fewer than 100 students to those with more than 600,000 students. Infinite Campus customers include school districts, regional consortia, state departments of education and the federal government. www.infinitecampus.com

About BrightBytes: From complex integrations to actionable analysis, BrightBytes is the leading end-to-end data solution for education organizations. The BrightBytes platforms efficiently unify education data and combine top research and advanced analytics, delivered across easy-to-understand, intuitive dashboards, so educators can turn big data into big benefits for students. https://www.brightbytes.net/

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New BrightBytes Report Reveals Troubling Gaps in Ed Tech Usage

Insights from 392,603 students across 48 districts help address the question: “Is this app having a positive impact on student learning?”

San Francisco, CA - November 8, 2018 - Education data management and analytics platform, BrightBytes, today published its second annual Technology and Learning Insights Report which is authored by Dr. Ryan S. Baker, Director of the Penn Center for Learning Analytics, and examines the cost, usage, and impact of education apps, leveraging data captured by the firm’s Learning Outcomes module.

"BrightBytes’ Learning Outcomes module provides our school with critical, real-time data that informs our decisions when allocating resources, including our most precious resource: time. While surveys or staff meetings provide perceptions which may have some value, Learning Outcomes presents the objective reality of how software is actually being used," says Marcus R.W. Mead, Director of Administrative and Instructional Technology at Glen Lake Community Schools in Michigan.

The analysis, which utilized a dataset from 48 school districts serving more than 390,000 students and 1.48 million hours of usage nationwide, measured digital apps across three domains: investment (subscription cost, number of licenses, active/inactive users), engagement (student usage, session duration, frequency, and quality, as well as user perception), and impact (relationship between standardized test scores and student usage).

Key findings from the report include:

• Usage rates matter, sometimes. Many apps had no association with growth in student learning, regardless of student usage rates. However, several apps were positively associated with gains in student learning. In short, usage of high-quality apps matters to potential app impact on student achievement.

• Most purchased licenses don’t get used.  The degree to which licenses are used varies by app. The study found that a median of 30% of licenses are used by learners.

• The number of licenses purchased does not predict the number of intensive users. 97.6% of licenses in this study were never used intensively (a learner who used the program for at least 10 hours between assessments), and the number of licenses purchased did not predict the number of intensive users. This suggests that some apps were more effective at converting licenses purchased into intense usage than others. Important to note that school implementation of apps can vary widely with different intended phasing-in of usage.

• Many schools aren’t following the recommended “dosage” for apps to contribute to improved student outcomes. Many learners are not meeting the target number of instructional minutes recommended by ed tech app providers. The average usage was fairly low across schools and districts. It is likely that lower than expected usage may lead to less benefit for students than the apps are intended to produce.

• There is a wide range in app cost per user. The study found there to be large variation in cost; the cost per user varies from under a cent per user to $393 per user (when omitting apps used by under 100 users), with a median cost per user of $6.45. This variance is not a surprise given the range of expected use and impact for each app.

The study uncovered some encouraging trends concerning the correlation between improved student math scores and 21 apps. The study found that these 21 apps, when used intensively, were positively associated with gains in math test performance. While this positive correlation does not mean that these apps were found to have caused the improvement in student math performance, this is an encouraging finding nonetheless.

“School and district leaders are faced with an ever-increasing selection of education apps, and the lack of easily accessible data makes it difficult to invest in the ones that demonstrate the greatest potential for ROL (return on learning) for students,” says Traci Burgess, CEO of BrightBytes. “Through the Learning Outcomes module, we are partnering with districts to provide on-demand access to this kind of analysis to surface insights that can inform strategic decision-making.”

To access additional highlights from the report, please visit the report’s interactive landing page here.

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About BrightBytes: From complex integrations to actionable analysis, BrightBytes is the leading end-to-end data solution for education organizations. The BrightBytes platforms efficiently unify education data and combine top research and advanced analytics, delivered across easy-to-understand, intuitive dashboards, so educators can turn big data into big benefits for students.

Media Contact:
Tracy Kleine
P. 415.855.5000
Email: tracy@brightbytes.net

Follow BrightBytes
Twitter: https://twitter.com/BrightBytes
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/brightbytes
 

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Shelby County Schools Partners with BrightBytes® to Employ End-to-End Data Solution and Leverage Research-Based Predictive Analytics to Create Positive Student Trajectories

Tennessee’s Largest District will utilize BrightBytes’ DataSense™ integration platform to provision data and employ the Clarity® platform to evaluate student data across research-based frameworks, empowering educators to change student trajectories and inform teaching and learning  

Memphis -- October 2, 2018 -- Shelby County Schools (SCS) and BrightBytes, an education data solution organization, today, announced a three-year partnership to support the District’s efforts to leverage data to prepare all students for success in learning, leadership, and life. The partnership brings together the industry’s only end-to-end data management through analytics solution, and a large District with a vision to provide educators with high-quality actionable data to inform student learning and drive educator’s instructional and support decisions.  

The largest District in Tennessee, Shelby County Schools stands out for its commitment to improving the quality of public education for over 100,000 students. In 2015, the District launched their extensive Destination 2025 plan with ambitious goals to have 80% of seniors on track to learn in a postsecondary classroom or enter the workforce straight out of high school; 90% of students earn their high school diploma on time; and every student enroll in a postsecondary opportunity college or career-ready by 2025. In Spring 2018, SCS leaders looked to BrightBytes to provide a data-driven approach to ensure that all efforts and resources support the goals outlined in Destination 2025.

Shelby County Schools will employ the full BrightBytes product suite. The comprehensive adoption includes the organization’s data integration platform, DataSense, an IPaaS solution that will capture, clean, and translate all siloed, incommunicable data and house it within a secure centralized location for bidirectional flows for reporting and analysis. Chris Graves, the District’s Senior Manager for Decision Analytics and Information Management, believes that by providing accessible data in a single location, educators will be able to solve a number of previous data challenges, brought on by the number and complexity of the systems within the District. In the past, educators had to rely on data from multiple, disparate sources, and spent vast amounts of time compiling information rather than focusing on student learning. Centralized high-quality data will help educators track student data easily and ensure each student is on a continued path toward success. “The reason we’re attempting to integrate our data, make it easy for end-users to understand, and providing support on continuous improvement processes is so that every educator in our system is better meeting the needs of our students. Our hope is that by making these investments, our students are much more ready to compete for jobs and much better prepared to be active citizens in our republic,” said Bradley Leon, Shelby County Schools Chief of Strategy and Performance Management.

The District also has adopted the BrightBytes Clarity data analytics platform to translate complex data into fast actions that improve student learning. The widespread buy-in of both the BrightBytes’ 21st Century Learning suite and the Early Insights suite will allow educators to leverage advanced data analytics, such as predictive analytics, machine learning, and psychometrics, to support work around specific areas, like ensuring students graduate on time and are prepared for the rigors of postsecondary environments, and to inform technology initiatives that drive student learning safely. This analysis is delivered across easy-to-understand visualizations and intuitive dashboards so educators can take a proactive approach to creating a positive student trajectory. “This new platform will provide real-time data on the performance of our students allowing teachers, principals, and administrators to be more prescriptive at identifying the necessary supports. This will correlate directly to increased student achievement of every scholar in our care at SCS. This type of knowledge is a game changer for our entire community as we produce successful and responsible citizens to help Shelby County thrive in the future,” said Brian Stockton, Shelby County Schools Chief of Staff.  

Over the last several weeks, BrightBytes and SCS have been collaborating during training sessions, engagement activities, and professional learning opportunities to ensure implementation is seamless for the upcoming school year. The engagement approach is very interactive, and focuses on going into each school, and providing guidance to teachers and administrators to ensure they have critical information at their fingertips. To date, the training teams have delivered nearly 60 sessions to approximately 2,000 school personnel over the course of July and August, with many more scheduled in the coming months. Traci Burgess, CEO of BrightBytes, said, “It’s inspiring to see a district as large and diverse as Shelby County Schools have so much buy in across the entire organization, especially for such a wide product offering. We believe that by collaboratively addressing everything from data integration to analytics, SCS will be able to successfully use data to drive learning and leverage quantifiable metrics to support initiatives for improved student outcomes. The District is setting an incredible example for other large districts to follow.”

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About Shelby County Schools: Shelby County Schools (SCS) is the largest district in Tennessee and one of the 25 largest public school systems in America. We serve over 100,000 students across 160+ schools and are the second largest employer in the Memphis area with nearly 12,000 employees. We are committed to improving the quality of public education in our community and equipping our students to succeed in college and careers. By 2025, 80 percent of seniors will be on track to learn in a postsecondary classroom or enter the workforce straight out of high school; 90 percent of students will earn their high school diploma on time; and every student will enroll in a postsecondary opportunity college or career-ready.

About BrightBytes: BrightBytes, the leading end-to-end data management solution for education organizations, provides educators with the power to turn big data into big benefits for students. With the data integration platform, DataSense,™ BrightBytes enables educators to cleanse, integrate, and bi-directionally manage complex data from multiple systems. The decision support platform, Clarity®, then analyzes and organizes meaningful data across research-based frameworks to deliver visualized, actionable information that drives student learning.

Media Contact:

Please send media inquiries for Shelby County Schools to MediaRelations@scsk12.org.
Please send media inquiries for BrightBytes to Candace Lopes, candace@brightbytes.net

BrightBytes Named ISTE 2018 Best of Show Winner for Two Solutions

T & L Announces ISTE Best of Show Winners
 

For the fifth year, Tech & Learning is presenting its prestigious awards program that honors great products at ISTE 2018. The products below were selected by an anonymous panel of educator judges, who scoured the exhibit hall floor during the conference in Chicago.

The judges rated their impressions on a sliding scale, evaluating areas such as quality and effectiveness, ease of use and creative use of technology. They then met in person to decide which technologies will have the most impact in the classroom and deserved to be named Best of Show.

"Once again, the ISTE show floor was inundated with edtech—from the latest in makerspace gear to sophisticated upgrades of district-wide enterprise assessment software,” said Tech & Learning’s Managing Director of Content, Kevin Hogan. “And once again, our expert panel of judges kicked the tires. It's a yeoman's task and the winner's should know that the honors are legitimate."

BrightBytes' Early Insights suite and Learning Outcomes module were among the winners, and will be featured in the August issue of Tech & Learning. 

See the full list of winners here!

BrightBytes Recognized as Finalist for 2018 Microsoft Education Partner of the Year Award

BrightBytes Recognized as Finalist for 2018 Microsoft Education Partner of the Year Award

San Francisco, Calif. June 11, 2018 BrightBytes, today, announced it has been named a finalist in the 2018 Microsoft Education Partner of the Year Award. The company was honored among a global field of top Microsoft partners for demonstrating excellence in innovation and implementation of customer solutions based on Microsoft technology.  

“We are honored to be recognized as finalists for the Microsoft Education Partner of the Year Award. The BrightBytes DataSense integration platform provides an easy way for school systems to unify and utilize all purposeful data among software applications. With DataSense driving Azure Consumption, our aligned efforts drive a powerful solution that embeds our K-12 education expertise into Microsoft technologies, and creates innovative solutions that significantly impact the successful outcomes for students. For more than three years, Microsoft has been instrumental in many of our largest co-sell opportunities, and we look forward to continuing to work together to deliver effective solutions to improve the way the world learns.” Said Traci Burgess, CEO of BrightBytes.

Awards were presented in several categories, with winners chosen from a set of more than 2,600 entrants from 115 countries worldwide. BrightBytes was recognized for providing outstanding solutions and services in Education.

“Our ecosystem of partners is crucial to delivering transformative solutions, and this year’s winners have proven to be some of the finest among their peers,” said Gavriella Schuster corporate vice president, One Commercial Partner, Microsoft Corp. “We are pleased to recognize BrightBytes for being selected as Finalist of the 2018 Microsoft  Education Partner of the Year award.”

The Microsoft Partner of the Year Awards recognize Microsoft partners that have developed and delivered exceptional Microsoft-based solutions during the past year.

About BrightBytes: BrightBytes®, the leading end-to-end data management through analytics  solution for education organizations, provides educators with the power to turn big data into big benefits for students. With the data integration platform, DataSense™, BrightBytes enables educators to cleanse, integrate, and bi-directionally manage complex data from multiple systems. The decision support platform, Clarity®, then employs advanced analytics, including machine learning, psychometrics, and predictive analytics to organize and visualize actionable data across research-based frameworks to drive student learning.

For additional information:
BrightBytes Communications Contact: Adam Davy, 720.341.3938, adam@brightbytes.net
Learn more about winners and finalists: https://news.microsoft.com
 

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BrightBytes Named SIIA Education Technology CODiE Award Finalist for Best Enterprise Application Integration Solution

BrightBytes Named SIIA Education Technology CODiE Award Finalist for Best Enterprise Application Integration Solution
DataSense earns prestigious industry recognition

San Francisco, Calif. May 8, 2018 BrightBytes, a research-based, end-to-end data solution that provides education organizations with comprehensive data management, from integration to analysis, today announced that their integration platform, DataSense, was named a 2018 SIIA CODiE Award finalist in the Best Enterprise Application Integration Solution category. Finalists represent applications, products and services from developers of educational software, digital content, online learning services and related technologies across the PreK-20 sector.

With ever growing access and availability to data, it can be challenging to effectively integrate, store, and manage data easily. The BrightBytes data integration platform, DataSense, provides education organizations with one central, online platform to unify all data. With DataSense, organizations can achieve data interoperability in days instead of months.

The SIIA CODiE Awards are the premier awards for the software and information industries and have been recognizing product excellence for over 30 years. The awards offer 91 categories that are organized by industry focus of education technology and business technology. DataSense was honored as one of 152 finalists across the 39 education technology categories.

“I am impressed by the level of innovation and creativity demonstrated by the 2018 CODiE award finalists. These products are opening doors for learners of all ages by developing and utilizing new technologies to respond to student and educator needs.” said Ken Wasch, President of SIIA. “We know that education data is often disparate and very complex. We also know that if data isn’t integrated effectively, it can’t be leveraged to inform decisions. DataSense makes interoperability across hundreds of systems seamless and safe, so educators can easily access and provision powerful data to drive learning.”  said Traci Burgess, CEO of BrightBytes.

The SIIA CODiE Awards are the industry's only peer-reviewed awards program. Educators and administrators serve as judges and conduct the first-round review of all education nominees. Their scores determine the SIIA CODiE Award finalists, and SIIA members then vote on the finalist products. The scores from both rounds are tabulated to select the winners.

Winners will be announced during a CODiE Award Celebration at the SIIA Annual Conference & CODiE Awards in San Francisco on June 13.

Details about each finalist are listed at http://www.siia.net/codie/Finalists

About the SIIA CODiE™ Awards: The SIIA CODiE Awards is the only peer-reviewed program to showcase business and education technology’s finest products and services. Since 1986, thousands of products, services and solutions have been recognized for achieving excellence.  For more information, visit siia.net/CODiE.

BrightBytes Communications Contact: Adam Davy, 720.341.3938, adam@brightbytes.net

SIIA Communications Contact: Benjamin Price, 703.909.4034, bprice@siia.net

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BrightBytes Announces New Partnership for Expanded Dropout Prevention Solution

BrightBytes®, with American Institutes for Research®  (AIR® ), expands their predictive analytics solution for dropout prevention to now provide insight into postsecondary readiness 

San Francisco, Calif., February 15, 2018 --BrightBytes, the leading end-to-end data management solution for education organizations, today, announced the rollout of the Student Success module, an expanded offering of their award-winning Early Warning module. 

The BrightBytes predictive analytics solution (formerly known as the Early Warning module), which uses historical data and predictive analytics to individualize graduation risk analysis for students as early as first grade, will now provide insight into students’ readiness along the entire K-20 continuum in a new offering, the Student Success module. Developed in partnership with American Institutes for Research, one of the nation's largest behavioral and social science research and evaluation organizations, this robust solution will utilize two predictive models: one which identifies students at risk of not graduating from high school, and one that predicts students at risk of being unprepared for the challenges of postsecondary education. 

Traci Burgess, CEO of BrightBytes, explains, “Each student’s education journey begins before Kindergarten, and continues beyond graduation. The Student Success module not only identifies at-risk students as early as first grade in their academic career, but it also provides educators with the necessary tools to impact student trajectories in their postsecondary career as well. By preparing students to achieve after graduation, educators are developing a generation of individuals able to participate in a global economy and achieve greater equity in attainment gaps between socio-economic groups.” 

AIR conducts and applies the best behavioral and social science research and evaluation towards improving people's lives, with a special emphasis on the disadvantaged. As the Student Success module was built, AIR provided valuable technical guidance in indicator definitions for the module’s expanded framework, and the team has worked closely to review the predictive models developed by analysts and researchers at BrightBytes. This partnership is instrumental to support BrightBytes’ mission to use research-based analysis to turn big data into big benefits for students. 

“In order to help all students be college and career ready, educators and administrators need accurate, timely information that they can use to guide their decision making and instruction," said Susan Therriault, Managing Researcher at AIR. "We are excited about this partnership, which will allow us to scale the work we have done to help educators across the country prepare students for postsecondary success.”

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About BrightBytes: BrightBytes, the leading end-to-end data management solution for education organizations, provides educators with the power to turn big data into big benefits for students. With the data integration platform, DataSense™, BrightBytes enables educators to cleanse, integrate, and bi-directionally manage complex data from multiple systems. The decision support platform, Clarity®, then analyzes and organizes meaningful data across research-based frameworks to deliver visualized, actionable information that drives student learning.

About AIR: Established in 1946, American Institutes for Research (AIR) is an independent, nonpartisan, not-for-profit organization that conducts behavioral and social science research on important social issues and delivers technical assistance, both domestically and internationally, in the areas of education, health, and workforce productivity.

Media Contact: Ken Goldstein 303-548-2136 ken@brightbytes.net
 

About BrightBytes
BrightBytes, the leading end-to-end data management solution for education organizations, provides educators with the power to turn big data into big benefits for students. With the data integration platform, DataSense,™ BrightBytes enables educators to cleanse, integrate, and bi-directionally manage complex data from multiple systems. The decision support platform, Clarity®, then analyzes and organizes meaningful data across research-based frameworks to deliver visualized, actionable information that drives student learning.

Henry County Board of Education Taps Research and Analytics Platform in Shift Toward Personalized Learning; Emphasizing Student Agency Through School Redesign Project

Georgia’s Ninth Largest District will utilize BrightBytes’ Clarity Platform to evaluate and quantify outcomes of personalized learning investments, empowering educators with actionable insights to inform teaching and learning

ATLANTA -- February 8, 2018 -- Henry County Board of Education (HCBOE) and K-12 analytics platform BrightBytes, today, announced the expansion of a multi-year partnership in support of the district’s efforts to scale high-quality, personalized learning through an eight-year initiative that will utilize 36,000 devices to create a 1:1 computing environment across grades 3-12.  

BrightBytes’ expanded collaboration with the Henry County Board of Education builds on a successful partnership, first launched in 2015, to measure progress toward school redesign goals using the BrightBytes Technology & Learning module. The district also utilizes BrightBytes’ Early Warning solution to identify -- and address -- dropout risk factors by applying research-based practices and resources.

“The BrightBytes platform plays a critical role in supporting our educators as they implement new pedagogies and approaches,” explained HCBOE Chief Technology Officer Brian Blanton. “The unique analytics capabilities from BrightBytes enable us to understand the outcomes associated with new initiatives, and to understand and prioritize resource allocations across the district -- pinpointing the impact of targeted, timely student interventions.”

Although HBCOE, located just south of Atlanta, has embraced the role of technology in a transformation designed to better prepare an increasingly diverse student body, the district’s personalized learning plans are rooted in the application of research-based insights to enable great teaching -- and an intense commitment to student agency. BrightBytes’ platform was selected, in part, due to its ability to measure and report on dimensions of student growth and success that extend beyond traditional academic factors.    

“BrightBytes helps us to be able to measure the things we value -- metrics that matter -- that aren’t measured well anywhere else,” says Aaryn Schmuhl, HBCOE Assistant Superintendent for Learning and Leadership Services. “The data is clean and clear, the insights are helpful, and it is all in one place.”

To date, 32 of the district’s 50 schools have begun implementation of personalized learning initiatives as part of the eight-year school redesign project. The district expects to complete implementation and evaluation of personalized learning programs in all of its schools by 2020.  

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About Henry County Board of Education
Henry County Board of Education is located on the southern tip of Metro Atlanta. As the ninth largest school system in the state, HCBOE serves over 42,000 students and employs 5,000 employees. Superintendent Mary Elizabeth Davis works with staff, students, and families to uphold the mission of ensuring success for each student. The district has a vision of building a culture of personalized learning for all of its students, believing that all learners will excel in an environment centered on rigor, relevance, and relationships. 

About BrightBytes
BrightBytes, the leading end-to-end data management solution for education organizations, provides educators with the power to turn big data into big benefits for students. With the data integration platform, DataSense,™ BrightBytes enables educators to cleanse, integrate, and bi-directionally manage complex data from multiple systems. The decision support platform, Clarity®, then analyzes and organizes meaningful data across research-based frameworks to deliver visualized, actionable information that drives student learning.

Media Contact:
Hannah Leedle, 615.294.3448, hannah@whiteboardadvisors.com
 

New Data Suggests Rural Schools Outpace Peers on Classroom Tech Access; BYOD Policies May Improve Access within Suburban Classrooms

BrightBytes analysis of over 180 million data points offers new insight into access and equity gaps, teacher perspectives on preparation for and use of education technology

San Francisco -- November 14, 2017 -- Data management and learning analytics firm BrightBytes, today, published an analysis of over 180 million data points, collected using a national survey designed to gauge educational technology access, utilization, and effectiveness across 8,558 schools throughout the United States. 

The data suggest that students in rural schools, while facing difficulty obtaining devices and internet connectivity at home, actually outscore their urban and suburban peers in access at school. By comparing the characteristics of the top 5% of schools and bottom 5% of schools, evaluated on a unique technology framework, the BrightBytes Insights Report explores the factors that affect technology access and utilization.

“The Report provides district and school leaders with insights into what works to improve student outcomes,” said Teela Watson, Director of Digital Learning at Education Service Center Region 11 in Fort Worth, Texas. “The information we are able to get from our work with BrightBytes has allowed us, for the first time, to accurately and clearly communicate the effectiveness of our technology initiatives.” 

According to BrightBytes’ analysis, rural schools are outpacing urban and suburban schools in providing technology to their students and teachers. Rural schools were disproportionately represented among schools scoring in the top 5% for access at school, while suburban schools were disproportionately represented in the bottom 5%. Conversely, suburban schools were disproportionately represented in the top 5% of schools for access at home, suggesting that suburban students, who are more likely to have devices of their own, could benefit from policies that allow them to bring their devices to school. 

“Drawing on millions of data points from schools around the country, this report provides critical insights into the relationship between school characteristics, such as geographical setting, and successful implementation of technology. It provides a way forward for schools – whether they are rural, urban, or suburban – to adopt the technologies necessary for building a stronger future for their students,” said former North Carolina Governor Bev Perdue, who authored the foreword to the new report.

Using the CASE™ framework, which evaluates technology implementations across four domains (Classroom, Access, Skills, and Environment) in order to help school and district leaders develop a more holistic perspective on technology, the BrightBytes Insights Report considered:

• Classroom use of technology, including teacher and student integration of technology for communication, collaboration, critical thinking, and creativity

• Support for technology implementation around areas for professional learning, and the extent to which the school policies, practices, and procedures (3Ps) support the use of technology

• Student and teacher access to technology at home and at school

• Student and teacher perception about technology use in the classroom

Interestingly, schools with high rates of students receiving free or reduced price lunch scored lower across all domains analyzed except professional learning, indicating that teachers have the freedom to influence their own professional development regardless of their school characteristics. However, the data, which show low scores for the 3Ps in populations with high FRPL rates, suggest that teachers are having difficulty transferring new skills and strategies to the classroom due to the impact of administrative decisions on technology integration. 
“The aggregate data from our research confirms that there are a number of characteristics that hinder or enable the success of high-performing and low-performing schools,” said Genevieve Hartman, Ph.D, Vice President of Research at BrightBytes. “Looking across factors such as access at home and at school, policies, procedures, practices, and professional development needs, we have been able to uncover insights that can equip educators and policymakers with specific, data-driven recommendations on how to tailor ed tech plans to the needs of individual schools.” 

 A summary of the report can be found here http://www.brightbytes.net/techlearninginsights 

About BrightBytes: BrightBytes provides the leading end-to-end data management solution for education organizations. Our platforms integrate, analyze, and organize complex data from multiple systems across research-based frameworks to deliver educative, engaging, and actionable visualized results that drive student learning.

Follow BrightBytes
Twitter: https://twitter.com/BrightBytes
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/brightbytes
 
Media Contact:
Hannah Leedle, 615-294-3448, hannah@whiteboardadvisors.com

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BrightBytes and ISTE Announce New Tool to Help Schools and Districts Address Digital Readiness

Collaboration between BrightBytes and the International Society for Technology in Education will equip state, district, and school leaders with actionable insights to improve teaching and learning with technology

SAN FRANCISCO -- November 2, 2017 -- The International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE) and BrightBytes, a leading K-12 learning analytics platform, today announced a new collaboration aimed at helping school and district leaders better understand and monitor progress around putting the ISTE Standards into practice.

Designed as a framework for rethinking education and empowering students to be digital learners, development of the ISTE Standards combined research-based, field-tested concepts, expert input, and feedback from 5,000 educators around the world. States, including Connecticut, Wisconsin, Vermont, and Michigan, and dozens of districts, are adopting the standards to guide their digital learning initiatives.

Through the collaboration, a new ISTE Standards Lens will be integrated into BrightBytes’ Clarity® analytics platform, allowing schools, districts, and states to view their data through the framework set forth in the ISTE Standards. The BrightBytes platform is currently used in 1 in 5 schools nationwide.

“ISTE is focused on supporting educators to accelerate good practice and innovate teaching and learning through technology,” says ISTE Chief Learning Officer Joseph South. “At the heart of our mission is ensuring the ISTE Standards are being used by all educators, schools, and districts to guide this transformation. This collaboration will help educators identify best practices and make informed decisions about professional learning and innovative approaches that positively impact students.”

Starting in January, BrightBytes Clarity users will have access to the ISTE Standards Lens, a unique analytics tool that can be used by state, district, and school leaders to measure the implementation of the ISTE Standards and benchmark progress against other schools and districts across the U.S. The platform enables educators to understand current strengths and gaps in order to drive next steps. The ability to now capture and monitor data around progress and performance on the ISTE Standards helps educators and leaders to ensure the effective use of instructional technology and innovative approaches to learning.

The platform enables schools to understand where additional resources can support educators, determine how technology is being used, and identify if teachers and students are applying digital resources to prepare for success in postsecondary education and an increasingly dynamic workforce.

“As conversations around education technology shift from a focus on access to efficacy, the ISTE Standards provide a valuable guide for districts,” said BrightBytes CEO Traci Burgess. “We’re excited to team up with ISTE to help schools leverage the Clarity platform to use data to help identify and spread effective practices, target professional learning opportunities, and implement initiatives that have the highest instructional impact.”

About ISTE The International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE) is a nonprofit organization that works with the global education community to accelerate the use of technology to solve tough problems and inspire innovation. Our worldwide network believes in the potential technology holds to transform teaching and learning. ISTE sets a bold vision for education transformation through the ISTE Standards, a framework for students, educators, administrators, coaches, and computer science educators to rethink education and create innovative learning environments. ISTE hosts the annual ISTE Conference & Expo, one of the world’s most influential edtech events. The organization’s professional learning offerings include online courses, professional networks, year-round academies, peer-reviewed journals, and other publications. ISTE is also the leading publisher of books focused on technology in education. For more information or to become an ISTE member, visit iste.org. Subscribe to ISTE’s YouTube channel and connect with ISTE on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn.

About BrightBytes BrightBytes, the leading end-to-end data management solution for education organizations, provides educators with the power to turn big data into big benefits for students. With the data integration platform, DataSense,™ BrightBytes enables educators to cleanse, integrate, and bi-directionally manage complex data from multiple systems. The decision support platform, Clarity, then analyzes and organizes meaningful data across research-based frameworks to deliver visualized, actionable information that drives student learning.
Follow BrightBytes:
Twitter: https://twitter.com/BrightBytes
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/brightbytes

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Media Contacts:
Jenna Talbot, 202.851.3607, jenna@whiteboardadvisors.com
Stacey Finkel, 703.304.1377, media@iste.org

BrightBytes and ESC Region 10 Expand Partnership to Improve Digital Learning

BrightBytes and ESC Region 10 Expand Partnership to Improve Digital Learning

ESC Region 10 empowers ISDs to make informed data-driven decisions to measure the impact of technology and return on learning

Richardson, TX, September 12, 2017 — BrightBytes, a leading K-12 end-to-end data management and learning analytics company, announces its expanded partnership with the Richardson, Texas-based Region 10 Education Service Center. BrightBytes currently provides over 500 schools throughout Region 10 with the Technology & Learning module, a solution that gives educators insight to the climate of technology in educational organizations, and supports the Center with the 21st Century Service Agency module, a tool that helps educational leaders understand agency levels of technology readiness. 

Now, BrightBytes will offer an additional solution, the Learning Outcomes module, to allow ESC Region 10 to provide member districts the ability to evaluate the impact of technology usage on student learning. Together, the Technology & Learning module and the Learning Outcomes module will provide Region 10 with a complete 360 degree view of 21st century learning across the organization.

“Our work with ESC Region 10 has always been a highly valued collaboration,” says BrightBytes CEO Traci Burgess. “As we have seen during this partnership, Region 10 demonstrates deep commitment to serving its member districts and providing data-driven insights and information to educators. BrightBytes is thrilled to be selected as an exclusive partner as we continue to drive these goals with the support of the Learning Outcomes module. This is great opportunity to empower educators throughout Texas to analyze the true impact digital devices have on student learning.”

With BrightBytes already partnering with several education service centers, including ESC Region 10, Region 11, Region 12, Region 16, Region 18, and Region 20, along with more than 700 direct and indirect districts in Texas, the company is considered a thought leader across the state thanks to its positive impact on more than 3 million students. This exciting opportunity to improve learning throughout Texas with Learning Outcomes will empower educators to triangulate ed-tech program usage, engagement, and perception data against investment and student achievement data to measure the impact of each program. With this module, educators can explore the conditions in which ed-tech programs have the most impact, and adjust or replicate those programs accordingly.

"We are excited to expand our partnership with BrightBytes, one that we trust will allow us to better serve our partner districts," said Region 10 Executive Director Gordon Taylor, EdD. "Region 10 values innovative resources that support districts with the integration of 21st century learning. The new BrightBytes Learning Outcomes module aligns with Region 10’s commitment to helping districts make data-driven decisions that improve student achievement at a reasonable cost.”

"When we began this process, we were seeking a product that could inform districts of what technology applications their teachers and students are utilizing and the level of usage,” says Region 10 Director of Digital Learning Craig Gray. “With Learning Outcomes, we found a more robust solution that measures the impact of technology programs on ROI, student engagement, and student achievement. Furthermore, with the BrightBytes 21st Century Product Suite, available to all Region 10 districts with regional volume discount pricing, we can ensure districts have a complete solution to measure the impact of and inform their technology initiatives." 

About Region 10:  It is one of 20 regional service centers established by the Texas State Legislature in 1967 for the purpose of providing services to the schools within a defined geographic region. The ESC is non-regulatory, has no taxing authority, and provides services for which local school participation is voluntary. Located in Richardson, Region 10 provides services that impact more than 810,000 students on 1,220 campuses. Among the 99,000 staffers supported by R10 services are 53,000 teachers in over 120 ISDs, charters and private schools across eight north Texas counties and portions of two others. For more information about ESC Regions 10, visit https://www.region10.org/

About BrightBytes: BrightBytes, the leading end-to-end data management solution for education organizations, provides educators with the power to turn big data into big benefits for students. With the data integration platform, DataSense, BrightBytes enables educators to cleanse, integrate, and bi-directionally manage complex data from multiple systems. The decision support platform, Clarity, then analyzes and organizes meaningful data across research-based frameworks to deliver visualized, actionable information that drives student learning.

BrightBytes Partners with San Bernardino County Superintendent of Schools

New partnership will enable improved data sharing and analysis for San Bernardino County schools  

For Immediate Release: San Francisco, Calif. – August 24, 2017 – BrightBytes,® an end-to-end data integration and analysis platform, announced, today, a strategic partnership with San Bernardino County Superintendent of Schools (SBCSS), to guide the development of areas on the San Bernardino Countywide Education Open Data Platform. This public platform provides stakeholders across the county an opportunity to explore, visualize, and analyze data in multiple ways to build awareness and engagement, inform decision making, and improve educational outcomes for all students. Amidst the rising tide of accountability, this strategic partnership creates greater transparency by incorporating qualitative and quantitative data to ensure a comprehensive approach for success for every student.  Together, BrightBytes and SBCSS will drive the County Schools’ vision and Cradle to Career (C2C)  Roadmap through a collective impact approach for college and career readiness.

Central to San Bernardino County Schools’ mission to transform lives through education, this partnership will help the organization better support all 33 districts to improve academic, career, and personal and social readiness for all students from cradle to career and to provide transparency to community stakeholders across highly engaging dashboards. “We are excited about our new partnership with BrightBytes, which will allow County Schools to leverage BrightBytes’ expertise in sharing data with our stakeholders with the goal of helping to spur academic achievement,” County Superintendent Ted Alejandre said. With an aim to make information easy to understand, actionable, and research driven, BrightBytes was selected to help guide SBCSS with these efforts. 

Already in use in one of five U.S. schools, BrightBytes has proven its merit in the K-12 data analytics space. Clarity®, its award-winning decision support platform, provides education organizations with seamless integration, research-driven analysis, and engaging data readability. The BrightBytes Early Insights system will be instrumental across the organization and provide valuable data to the Open Data Platform. The system uses a predictive analytics model that draws upon both the research-based indicators related to dropping out, college readiness, and County Schools’ historical data regarding at-risk students. The advanced algorithm can identify at-risk students as early as first grade, with better than 90 percent accuracy. BrightBytes’ solutions and partnership will help drive the Cradle to Career Roadmap to identify key success indicators related to a child's academic career and social readiness and depicts the collaborative continuum approach, in which families, educators, government, business, labor, faith and community-based organizations collectively act as pillars of support for students from cradle to career. This will better enable the sharing of data with internal departments, school districts, public/private agencies and other community stakeholders. The dashboard will combine data sources in support of the C2C roadmap so that educational institutions can be integrated into economic and job-creation efforts. Additionally, the dashboard will help Inform the allocation of resources and support to ensure the opportunity gap is closed for all students. 

Traci Burgess, CEO for BrightBytes, said, “BrightBytes’ deep experience in K-12 education data will be a critical component to County Schools’ three-year plan to build out the platform to focus on state and local priorities that describes goals, actions, services and expenditures to support student achievement. Providing contextual information around this plan is key to engage the community. As the organizations collaborate through the next phase of the San Bernardino Countywide Education Open Data Platform, it will provide transparency of and access to education data with the goal of engaging and informing public members and stakeholders and providing a continuum of services to improve conditions for youth countywide.” 

About San Bernardino County Superintendent Schools: With close to 2,000 employees, County Schools works in concert with the county’s 33 school districts, which are home to more than 406,000 K-12 students in more than 540 schools. SBCSS provides leadership and advocacy for public education, as well as an array of services supporting student achievement and accountability, including fiscal oversight; human resources/credentialing; information technology; and direct student instruction in preschool, alternative and special education classes.
 
About BrightBytes: BrightBytes provides the leading end-to-end data management solution for education organizations. Our platforms integrate, analyze, and organize complex data from multiple systems across research-based frameworks to deliver educative, engaging, and actionable visualized results that drive student learning. 
 

Authentica Solutions, a BrightBytes Company, Recognized by SIIA as Best Enterprise Application Integration Solution

Authentica Solutions, a BrightBytes Company, Recognized by SIIA as Best Enterprise Application Integration Solution

DataSense™ Cloud Solutions Earns Prestigious Industry Recognition

For Immediate Release: SAN FRANCISCO, CA (August 1, 2017) - Last week DataSense, powered by  Authentica Solutions, a BrightBytes company, was named the best Enterprise Application Integration Solution of 2017 as part of the annual SIIA CODiE Awards. CODiE Award recipients are the companies producing the most innovative Business and Education technology products across the country and around the world.

Russell Long, GM for DataSense, said, “We are honored to win the 2017 SIIA CODiE Award for Best Enterprise Application Integration Solution. By bridging the gaps between multiple sources of dispersed data, we can help maximize learning through innovative cloud technologies, processes, and expertise. Now that Authentica has joined the BrightBytes family, we can provide the best in class, end-to-end data management solution to the edtech community, removing all obstacles to unifying and utilizing data to drive the decision-making process.”

Authentica Solutions has been widely recognized for excellence, including a finalist for the 2017 Microsoft Public Sector Education Partner of the Year Award, a 2016 CODiE award finalist, and winner of the EdTech Digest 2017 Cool Tool Awards For Best District Data Solution. The awarded product, DataSense, a leading IPaaS (integration platform as a service) solution allows education organizations and edtech providers to easily connect and integrate data. "SIIA’s 2017 Education Technology CODiE Award winners were an amazing group this year, and demonstrated how these technologies are making an impact for students, faculty and administration.” Said Bridget Foster, senior vice president and managing director of the Education Technology Industry Network (ETIN) of SIIA. “Each honoree deserves accolades and we are pleased to add our congratulations to all of this year’s CODiE Award winners."

The winner announcement was made by the Software & Information Industry Association (SIIA), the principal trade association for the software and digital content industries, during the annual Education Impact Symposium in San Francisco. 35 awards were given for products and services deployed specifically for education and learning professionals.

An SIIA CODiE Award win is a prestigious honor as each award winner was reviewed by educators and administrators, whose evaluations determined the finalists. SIIA members then reviewed the finalists and their votes were combined with the scores from the industry experts to select this year’s CODiE Awards winners.

More information about the Awards is available at http://www.siia.net/codie

Details about the winning products can be found at http://www.siia.net/codie/2017-Winners

About the CODiE Awards: The SIIA CODiE Awards is the only peer-reviewed program to showcase business and education technology’s finest products and services. Since 1986, thousands of products, services and solutions have been recognized for achieving excellence. For more information, visit siia.net/CODiE.
 

About Authentica: Authentica Solutions supports K-12 organizations no matter where they are on the data exchange spectrum. Their unique approach toward implementing, handling, and storing data from disparate systems provides school districts the freedom to select the software solutions that work best for them. With direct experience integrating their products with over 30 of the leading enterprise solutions in the edtech space, no other team has the hands-on experience to help all customers meet their data management requirements.

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Authentica Solutions and SchoolCity Announce Partnership

Atlanta, GA, July 17, 2017– Authentica Solutions™, a data integration and data management platform leader, announced that it has signed a channel partner agreement with SchoolCity.  SchoolCity Inc. is a premier product provider of revolutionary 21st Century curriculum, instruction, assessment, and intervention solutions to school districts. 

SchoolCity will be utilizing Authentica’s DataSense™ Cloud Solutions to manage bi-directional data flow between their Assessment platform and other enterprise applications for their school district customers.  

Russell Long, General Manager of Authentica Solutions, said “SchoolCity is a great company that provides valuable solutions to K12 schools. We are very impressed with their culture, software solutions and EdTech market savvy. Our Education Cloud Solutions build, deploy, manage and monitor enterprise application development, integrations, and identity for school districts and universities. We are pleased to be partnering with SchoolCity to deliver data management solutions to their school districts.”

Authentica’s award winning IPaaS (Integration Platform as a Service) solution, DataSense, provides one central administrative web UI for building, deploying, managing, and monitoring all data integration processes across multiple applications. As the 2017 winner of the EdTech Digest Cool Tool Award for Best District Data Solution, DataSense is a proven solution for educational institutions to easily share all their purposeful data between their software applications.   

The DataSense IPaaS solution is built with flexibility in mind. It utilizes and conforms to many open standards. DataSense integrations have been implemented in hundreds of educational institutions across the country, creating bi-directional flows of data between enterprise applications used in school districts and universities.

Vaseem Anjum, CEO at SchoolCity, commented that “At SchoolCity, we are always looking for ways to provide the best possible solutions for our customers. Authentica Solutions is providing a great service in the K-12 market. All school districts have a need to share data between applications and it is becoming more important for districts to take action on this data.  Authentica Solutions and their DataSense Cloud Solutions, has provided us a way to confidently serve our customers.”   

About SchoolCity: SchoolCity Inc. is a premier provider of revolutionary 21st Century curriculum, instruction, assessment, and intervention solutions to school districts. Based in the heart of California's Silicon Valley for more than 15 years, the SchoolCity educational technology experts work with schools nationwide to measure and increase student achievement. In response to the new rigor and expectations of the College and Career Ready Standards, SchoolCity launched the brand-new SchoolCity SUITE™ which takes all the best of our flagship assessment platform and delivers a fully integrated instructional system that provides curriculum and instructional tools, assesses performance, reports progress and recommends valuable next steps, allowing teachers to enact change where it matters most: the classroom.

About Authentica Solutions: Authentica Solutions is an education data management company providing data driven software solutions with a core focus on:

• K-12 Data Integration
• Centralized Data Management
• Education Data Visualization
• EdTech Cloud Engineering

Authentica Solutions was established in 2013 after our many years in K-12 to serve school districts, departments of education, and Ed Tech software companies seeking to design, develop and implement highly technical, enterprise software and interoperability solutions. Authentica was recently acquired by BrightBytes, a learning analytics organization that translates complex analysis and educational research into fast actions that drive student learning. The addition of Authentica to the BrightBytes family will provide education leaders and end-to-end solution for data integration through analysis, improve the quality of data collection, and free education institutions to use their data for the intended purpose of student achievement and success.

BrightBytes Acquires Trusted IPaaS Provider Authentica Solutions

BrightBytes Acquires Trusted IPaaS Provider Authentica Solutions

BrightBytes adds Authentica to brand portfolio, providing educators with end-to-end data management to improve the way the world learns

SAN FRANCISCO, Calif. — June 29, 2017 — BrightBytes,® a learning analytics organization currently impacting one in five schools in the United States, today announced the acquisition of Authentica Solutions, developer of DataSense, an education data Integration Platform as a Service (IPaaS). Authentica, a 2017 Microsoft Education Partner of the Year Finalist, currently partners with top enterprise solutions in edtech to help educators at every organizational level meet data management requirements. It is this deep experience in data integration within the K-12 space and the shared dedication to use data to drive learning that makes the combination of BrightBytes and Authentica an unstoppable force.

As big data informs more and more learning decisions, this groundbreaking acquisition marks a major milestone for the industry. Bringing the two companies together will provide educators with fast, easy, and secure data integration, research-based analysis, and actionable recommendations. Big data has caused an undeniable shift across every industry, but many educators have struggled to participate in the data revolution due to widespread data disarray or extreme DRIP (data rich, information poor) conditions. Collection methods, variables, and captured information differ greatly within data sets and produce disparate results for limited analysis. Authentica’s IPaaS solution, DataSense, solves many of these integration challenges by providing a single, unified approach to managing all data integration, transformation, and migration processes between all of an education organizations’ critical applications, including SIS to APP, APP to APP, and APP to EDW. The solution quickly streamlines quality data flow and removes laborious data collection, rostering, and scrubbing on the user’s end.

The widespread availability of accurate and usable data has the potential to unlock a universe of information for educators. However, without the most insightful lens to understand data, the right research to provide meaning, and the clearest methods to communicate results, data is simply a scatter of numbers. The BrightBytes Clarity® platform, the world’s leading decision support platform for K-12 educators, provides research-based analysis and organizes and delivers data across engaging, easy-to-understand dashboards and reports. To date, BrightBytes has impacted 9.2 million students by helping schools use data analysis to address common education challenges. Across the platform’s core modules, educators can easily gain access to actionable data to evaluate technology efficacy, improve graduation rates, ensure organization-wide data privacy and security, and develop effective leaders. Clarity connects each organization’s data to relevant research proven to drive outcomes.

“Educators have always had a lot of data, the challenge is integrating data from multiple sources, analyzing that data against research, communicating the results in an engaging and educative way, and understanding what specific levers need to be pulled to drive effective change. Bringing these two companies together will, for the first time, give educators an end-to-end solution for data-driven decision making,” said BrightBytes’ Chief Executive Officer, Traci Burgess.

The addition of Authentica to the BrightBytes family will help education leaders cost effectively manage data integration and analysis, improve the quality of data collection, and free education institutions to use their data for the intended purpose of student achievement and success.

About BrightBytes
BrightBytes is a learning analytics organization that translates complex analysis and educational research into fast actions that drive student learning. Their flagship platform, Clarity, measures modern learning outcomes and provides visualized results that are educative, engaging, and actionable, allowing organizations to make evidence-based decisions that improve instruction and advance student achievement.

About Authentica
Authentica Solutions supports K-12 organizations no matter where they are on the data exchange spectrum. Their unique approach toward implementing, handling, and storing data from disparate systems provides school districts the freedom to select the software solutions that work best for them. With direct experience integrating their products with over 30 of the leading enterprise solutions in the edtech space, no other team has the hands-on experience to help all customers meet their data management requirements.

Follow BrightBytes
Twitter: https://twitter.com/BrightBytes
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/brightbytes

Media Contact for BrightBytes
Kristal Ayres, 239.398.1770, kristal@brightbytes.net

Digital Privacy, Safety & Security Module Named Winner in EdTech Digest’s 2017 Cool Tool Awards

Original post from EdTech Digest

EdTech Digest Awards Program 2017: Shaping Our Future
Any education company is, by the era in which we now live, an edtech company. And today, any educator, learner, or leader is at least a nascent technologist. Billions of dollars have been invested in this future, and we will no doubt invest billions more. Whatever the immediate figures, because of the integral nature of education to humanity’s ultimate survival, the long-term trend will only be up. In honoring cool tools, inspiring leaders, and innovative trendsetters in education, we do so with a sense of excitement, but also a sense of responsibility. Dream-to-reality makers are awesome to behold. But the stakes are high because these honorees are shaping our future. Perhaps more so than in any other sector, in education there are mission-driven companies and there are purpose-driven people. For what mission, and for what purposes committed individuals or dedicated groups of people help advance the rest of us, is what we honor and celebrate here. And with that, here’s to the innovators, leaders, and trendsetters shining bright in one of the greatest fields of human endeavor.

BrightBytes is thrilled to be a Cool Tool Award Winner in the Security/Privacy category for the Digital Privacy, Safety & Security module!