State Leadership for Interoperability: Leveraging Data for Academic Excellence

Presented by Maureen Wentworth, Manager, Strategic Partnerships, Ed-Fi Alliance; Dr. Dean R. Folkers, Chief Information Officer, Nebraska Department of Education; and Angela Baker, Digital Content Manager, Georgia Department of Education
Hosted by Tracy Weeks, Executive Director, SETDA
Hosted by SETDA

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In this edWebinar, learn how state leaders are tackling data interoperability in their states with the emergence of data standards for student information, assessment, digital content, and other educational applications. State education leaders share their goals for interoperability, the drivers for those goals, where they are in the process and what they are doing, as well as the challenges in the process.

Also learn what state and private sector leaders identified as the next steps necessary to continue the conversations within states, among states, and with private sector partners to develop cohesive data interoperability practices to achieve student learning goals. State and district K-12 instructional leaders, technology leaders, and companies working towards data interoperability will benefit from this recorded session.

About the Presenters

Maureen Wentworth joined the Ed-Fi Alliance team in June of 2017 as a manager for strategic partnerships. In this role, she is responsible for driving measurable and meaningful adoption of the Ed-Fi standard, leading outreach and support for the Ed-Fi Alliance community, and helping to guide the direction by proving the “voice of the field”. Maureen has a demonstrated commitment to education and has spent her career working to improve systems so that all students have a chance to succeed.

Prior to joining the Ed-Fi Alliance, Maureen served as the director of education data and information systems at the Council of Chief State School Officers. While at CCSSO Maureen established the CIO Network and worked with state education agency leadership to leverage a collective influence throughout the education IT community. In her early career Maureen worked at a number of national and international organizations including Fight Crime: Invest in Kids, Greenhill Centre for Conflict Resolution in Northern Ireland, Project Vote, the American Youth Policy Forum, Every Child Matters, and Mentoring International. Maureen’s passion for serving kids drives everything she does. Maureen graduated from American University with a B.A. in political science and received her M.B.A. from the Carey School of Business at Johns Hopkins University.

Dr. Dean R. Folkers currently oversees the Nebraska Department of Education’s Information, Technology, Data, and Digital Learning efforts. As the primary objectives of the state education agency evolve from a compliance orientation to one supporting quality access for every student, every day, Nebraska is working to implement transformational interoperable systems that ensure equity of access for schools and districts while providing valuable insights to inform policy and practice.

Prior to joining the Department, Dr. Folkers worked in a variety of capacities including in national nonprofit organizations in Career Technical Education, Agricultural Education, student leadership development and as an educator in both high school and adult agricultural education. Dr. Folkers received his bachelor’s and master’s degrees from the University of Nebraska- Lincoln and his Doctorate of Management in organizational leadership from the University of Phoenix.

Angela Baker is a digital content manager who works for the Georgia Department of Education to promote the use of OER content in classrooms by providing evaluated and aligned OER content through Georgia’s Statewide Longitudinal Data System or SLDS applications. Angela believes that providing educators with supplemental resources which have already been evaluated and aligned to standards is essential to assisting educators to provide more options for personalized learning and instruction. Angela has been an advocate for Open Resources since being an educator who needed additional content in order to provide a differentiated learning environment for all her students. She has collaborated with states and content providers to provide Georgia educators with more than 50,000 resources for all subjects and all grades. Angela holds a master’s degree in curriculum and technology integration as well as a specialist degree in educational leadership. In addition, Angela has more than 20 years of education experience which includes teaching students and educators.

About the Host

Dr. Tracy Weeks is the executive director for the State Education Technology Director’s Association (SETDA). Prior to joining the team at SETDA, she served as the chief academic and digital learning officer for the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction, the first senior state leadership position of its kind in the nation. In that role, Dr. Weeks oversaw the areas of K-12 curriculum and instruction, career and technical education, exceptional children, and the North Carolina Virtual Public School. She also served as the state agency lead on the development of the North Carolina Digital Learning Plan.

From 2008-2014, Dr. Weeks led the North Carolina Virtual Public School, the second largest state-led virtual school in the nation, as the chief academic officer and subsequently the executive director. She holds a bachelor’s degree in secondary math education from UNC-Chapel Hill, a Masters of Education in instructional technology with a statistics minor and a Doctor of Philosophy in curriculum and instruction from NC State University. She is a NC Teaching fellow, NC Education Policy fellow, and a member of Phi Kappa Phi.

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The State Educational Technology Directors Association (SETDA) is a 501(c)3 not-for-profit membership association launched by state education agency leaders in 2001 to serve, support and represent their emerging interests and needs with respect to the use of technology for teaching, learning, and school operations. Our current work is guided by a strategic plan, Leading, Inspiring and Empowering: The 2013-16 SETDA Strategic Plan, adopted by the SETDA Board of Directors in October 2012 after extensive consultation with the membership. The SETDA mission is to build and increase the capacity of state and national leaders to improve education through technology policy and practice.

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