Education leaders key in state data interoperability projects, says SETDA director
Instructional leaders are becoming more involved in state-level discussions of data interoperability, the executive director of the State Educational Technology Directors Association tells EdScoop in a recent video interview.
SETDA Executive Director Tracy Weeks says her organization regularly surveys the priorities of her organization’s members and has found data integration to be among the top concerns of educational leaders, alongside the search for high-quality instructional materials and changes in procurement.
“If we are working towards building systems that will actually talk to one another and share data, what could that mean for teaching and learning and how can we not create that vision without the instructional leaders?” Weeks says.
Traditionally, data interoperability — the ability of computer systems to share data and be compatible with one another — has been the providence of state technology and data officials, but that’s changing, she says.
“We don’t want to have an instance of ‘If you built it, did they actually come?'” she says. “We want to have those instructional leaders a key part of that.”