With Oregon’s graduation requirements changing and students being asked to achieve at higher levels, the Oregon Department of Education is asking schools, students, and parents "Are you ready?"

There were 22 applications from across the entire state for the Strategic Network Grant opportunity.

The top technology priority expressed by ESD IT directors across Oregon is data. School Improvement leadership ranks data near the top as well. Specifically, in demand is the exploration and development of expanded support to districts and schools in the form of improved data quality, and tools and know-how for substantial and meaningful data analysis to improve teaching and learning.

With committments from ODE stakeholders, the Education Enterprise Steering Committee (EESC), ESD's, and school districts across the state, a Data Quality Work Group has been formed to develop a statewide program to meet the above demands.

True to the mission of the EESC, the work group comprises P-20 representation, across the agencies and geography of Oregon.

The first meeting was held today, January 22. The first charge for the work group is to collaborate on the rapid preparation of a federal grant application, due March 15, which could provide funding for the statewide program we will be simultaneously developing. Progress on the application, as well as on development of the full program, will be tracked on this site.

The Education Enterprise Partnership, through its Steering Committee and Technology Director, is working to improve communication across the K-20 enterprise on critical issues in education technology. In addition, priorities set by stakeholders across the state are helping to inform and direct Partnership efforts to set a vision and programmatic path to prepare our students with 21st Century skills.

Partnership coordination and collaboration between Technology and School Improvement is focusing on development of statewide, programmatic support to dramatically improve districts' ability to collect and analyze meaningful data in order to improve teaching and learning.