Data can support teachers, improve learning experiences, and inform education policy. But, when data is siloed, complicated, or out-of-date, it creates headaches.
From his days as a teacher to his current role as Director of the Office of Research & Data Analysis at the South Carolina Department of Education, Dan Ralyea has experienced data’s power — and its drawbacks when mismanaged. That’s why he became a champion for open-data ecosystems in education and helped form the South Carolina District Data Governance Group (SCDDGG) — an organization supporting data management and technical resources for student success.
We sat down with Dan to learn more about his perspectives on scaling open-data ecosystems and why sharing data and resources across districts helps everyone — especially students.
How did your early experience as an educator and leader shape how you approach data for classrooms and schools?
Data has been part of my career in all its different incarnations — whether it was published sheets, floppy disks, or online reporting — but the nature and timeliness of data have changed dramatically.
When I taught in New York, I graded the end-of-course tests, bundled up the papers, and a second evaluator would look at the tests — that’s how you got feedback. Eventually, they took it out of teachers’ hands and did test evaluations off-campus, introducing a gap in the feedback. For example, in South Carolina, educators gave the state summative assessment in May but did not receive teacher feedback until September or October. That is an incredibly long cycle for high-stakes data.
What do you consider successful use of data in the classroom? Can you share examples of when data usage boosts student outcomes?
There’s data-as-a-service (DaaS), where we take some administrative burden off teachers — for example, taking online attendance, compiling data, and flagging a student who’s starting to have a pattern of excessive absenteeism.
The range of information is incredible. It can be overwhelming unless you filter it or present it in ways that people can easily consume and quickly process what’s happening in their classroom. As you get more data, it gets more complicated and creates more work for teachers, so making it easier for them is a primary goal.
What are your priorities for educational data in 2024?
We’ve introduced a data standard and technology stack for collecting the data. We’re functioning on two levels — district and state — and our primary focus is fine-tuning, delivering data back more rapidly, and ensuring it’s accurate and high-quality.
When you’re talking about people’s funding streams, they tend to get sensitive about the data, and rightfully so. But we’ve partnered with vendors to take some of that burden off districts. At the state level, we can do rostering for an assessment, rostering for a program that makes phone calls to unhoused students who haven’t shown up for class and rostering for the individualized education plan (IEP) system.
Can you share your vision for how South Carolina schools will use data? What roles will the state, school districts, and other organizations play in enabling data use?
When you’re in a large district of over 60,000 people, you can have research specialists produce visualizations that are easy to consume in the classroom, but a district of less than 2,000 people doesn’t have the same resources.
By adopting a data standard and tight data governance, we can share reports across districts. Creating an environment where these resources are shared freely raises the floor for everyone.
Why do you feel it is important to give districts a voice in procuring tech services and challenging state initiatives?
If the state collects data from you, your incentive to ensure accuracy is compliance-driven. But when people have agency, a voice, and access to their data, they feel a sense of ownership. Then, they’re not just doing it for the state, but for their students and the opportunity to have meaningful information in the classroom.
One of the core tenants of shared governance is that the people closest to the work are best able to determine the process and define the results that you need. You may have a policy that states the goal you want to accomplish, but if you want real change, ownership, and a sense of how to accomplish it, you need to empower the people doing the work. In creating the SCDDGG, we decided all these voices are important.
If you outline the goal without dictating the method and allow people close to the work to have input, you will achieve better outcomes.
You’ve been a champion of open data ecosystems for a while. In your experience, what makes for a successful collaboration between states, school districts, and educators?
Respect everyone’s point of view and realize that all stakeholders bring needs to the table. I don’t know any school superintendent who says, “Give me bad data, please let me make decisions based on flawed information,” or a legislature that says, “Make my data three years old, so I’m responding to a problem that doesn’t exist anymore.” We all have very similar needs, and when we take time to build around that shared vision, it’s very powerful.
What advice do you have for other members of the Ed-Fi Alliance community when it comes to staying motivated in the pursuit of expanding what data can achieve?
When I was in the classroom, I could make a meaningful difference for 180 kids a year. When you move up to the district level, you have a smaller impact on 17,000 kids. At the state level, you can impact 800,000 children.
Keep reminding yourself that you’re creating a better school environment for children. Whether through access to better digital materials or better information to guide policymakers, you’re doing it for the kids.
Dan Ralyea is currently Director of the Office of Research & Data Analysis at the South Carolina Department of Education in Columbia, SC. Previously, he was a teacher and research specialist at Rock Hill School District and Chief Operating Officer at KW Textiles in Buffalo, New York.
