ViKiwi

ViKiwi helps CAO decide whether to kill a disappointing product or try again

The newly appointed CAO of this Ohio district had inherited an instructional management system that had been a disappointment since its purchase nearly 3 years earlier.  He wondered whether he should try to resuscitate the system or simply walk away and find something better. 

ViKiwi’s analysis showed that, as is so often the case with technology, the system failed to meet expectations primarily because of poor implementation, rather than the quality of the product itself.   Given that the licenses for the product had been purchased outright rather than by annual subscription, ViKiwi showed that it was in the district’s financial interests to re-launch the system.  ViKiwi detailed out an implementation plan that included making the system part of the district’s comprehensive initiative to raise student achievement, improving the stability of the network, providing a complete set of formative assessments at every grade, and strong project management to make sure all the moving parts hung together. 

Subsequent to ViKiwi’s final report, the district decided to give the product “another chance”.      

ViKiwi helps New Jersey district make some intelligent technology choices to establish a data culture

The Director of Accountability at an urban New Jersey district was trying to decide what technologies would help teachers use data to drive instruction.  He wondered whether it might be appropriate for the district to implement a “data warehouse” but did not know what were his other options.       

Vikiwi helped educate the members of the task force the superintendent had formed to help the district with the decision. They described the features of a data warehouse, a “student data mart”, an “instructional management system”, and other on-line products that claimed to facilitate “data-driven decision-making”, and showed how each fit into a comprehensive data architecture. They pointed out that there was no “one size that fit all” and how the superintendent would likely need a different tool from teachers. And they provided budget costs and expected timelines, and explained what the district could do to greatly increase the chances of a successful implementation. 

Considering the specific circumstances of the district, the task force recommended a three-phased approach over several years: first a data analysis and reporting tool; second an assessment and curriculum management tool; and third a data warehouse. Vikiwi wrote the RFP for phases one and two, and helped the district evaluate responses and select the winning vendor. 

ViKiwi helps Technology and Curriculum & Instruction set agenda together

The Executive Director of Technology of this North Carolina district felt he had developed a good strategy to build out the data management infrastructure, including a data warehouse, and tools that teachers could use to analyze and report student data.  But he lacked the buy-in of Curriculum & Instruction; he knew the projects would not be successful without their support.

ViKiwi helped charter a cross-functional team comprising key staff from Technology, Curriculum & Instruction, and the schools.  ViKiwi facilitated initial meetings, and introduced a decision-making and project management framework that helped the team reach consensus on project phasing and determine implementation details.  And most important, ViKiwi helped shift ownership of these projects from the Technology Department to this committee of both builders and users, establishing the precedent for future technology projects. 

ViKiwi helps restructure district administration to lay the foundations for an accountability culture

The results of the high stakes tests for this district in Northern California had been disappointing for several years. To turn the district around, the leadership determined there needed to be a stronger culture of accountability, but they did not know how to make things change. 

ViKiwi recommended restructuring the Technology, Accountability and Assessment functions to create an organization that was focused on using data to make decisions, and they helped hire a new cabinet level leader for Accountability and Technology.  Recognizing that accountability starts at the top, ViKiwi mentored cabinet level staff to “walk the talk”: to use management tools including charter documents, written operational plans, and monthly status reports that let colleagues know whether they had done what they said they were going to do.  And to help the new technology director stay on task, ViKiwi also developed a technology strategic plan that described where and how technology could strengthen accountability and help raise student achievement.   

Strong project management helps district score a technology success after recent disappointments

Many districts have come to realize that technology projects disappoint more often because of poor implementation, rather that the quality of the product itself.  However, these same districts often do not have the capacity to provide the disciplined project management that is needed for success.

ViKiwi is often called in to fill the gap.

After having its share of technology disappointments, a district in California engaged ViKiwi to manage the implementation of an assessment tool to enable teachers to administer short cycle tests.  ViKiwi developed a project plan for the implementation to an initial group of17 schools, made sure there was active participation by everyone who needed to be involved, and identified and fixed key issues as they arose.   Vikiwi kept the project moving along until everyone felt good about the initial group of schools.  Then ViKiwi helped the district successfully move the application into the 30 or so remaining schools in the district. 

ViKiwi finds irrational data infrastructure is the root cause of many of the district’s data issues

The leaders of an urban Ohio school district were planning to implement an assessment and reporting system to enable teachers to gather student performance data more frequently.  But horrible data quality had led to a general mistrust of any data coming out of the district; the CIO worried that superimposing the new system over the existing data infrastructure would only make things worse, killing the new system before it even went live.

 

Poor data quality usually is caused both by humans and by technology. The district engaged ViKiwi to help get the technology fixed.  ViKiwi found that the infrastructure consisted of several ageing standalone silos that had been built piecemeal over time, often without integration with the existing systems, and without regard for future needs.  Most of the data errors were caused by operator error, but many likely would not have occurred had the systems been more user friendly.  Furthermore, the complexity of the infrastructure increased maintenance costs.

 

ViKiwi followed up the analysis with a roadmap for the district to convert the infrastructure to a simpler, more scalable configuration that utilized more up-to-date technologies.