FUSION 2010 Executive Program
Desire2Learn opened FUSION 2010: Architects of Education with the timely and highly successful Executive Program: Building a Data-Driven Culture and Organization. Following a tradition of working with educators to improve education for all, the third annual Executive program focused on promotion of networking, sharing of expertise, and expanding knowledge and developing outcomes among senior leadership and experts in the field.
In the backdrop of budget constraints, limited resources and increased competition, attendees of the day-long program considered how their institutions must rely on accurate and up-to-date information to determine the best path forward. The importance of developing systems, processes and a culture that provides access to data and the insight it provides along with creating a nimble organization and accompanying culture that is able to adapt, change and grow, were stressed.
Building a Data-Driven Culture and Organization was facilitated by Maggie Jesse, Instructional Services Manager, University of Iowa, and featured renowned speakers Dr. Stuart Brown, Founder and President, National Institute of Play, Roberts Jones, President and Founder, Education and Workforce Policy, LLP, and Chris Lohse, Strategic Initiative Director of Information Systems and Research, Council of Chief School Officers.
The keynote speakers impressed upon attendees that what was needed was performance management combined with education reform and that education needs tools that provide actionable evidence of student success. It was also stressed that continuous improvement to the existing systems had to happen while preparing for a transformed system in the future. A key to using analytics was to create student success systems which include predictive modeling, identification of master data which is tied to governance and a simplified technology architecture. Key takeaways included such things as an understanding of how important it is for K-12 and higher education to work together, the importance of data and the level of interest in analytics.
FUSION 2010 Executive Program Speakers
Roberts T. Jones
President
Education & Workforce Policy
www.educationworkforcepolicy.com
"Tomorrows Demands of Education: A Data Driven Agenda"
Abstract: The forces of change, the increasing rate of change, the impact on education content, quality, and outcomes, and the demands for a data driven management system.
Bob Jones is the President of Education & Workforce Policy, a policy firm whose singular focus is the advancement of education, training, and workforce policy. He also serves as the President of the MTC Institute, the policy and research arm of the Management and Training Corporation.
Bob has served as the President and CEO of the National Alliance of Business, the Assistant Secretary of Labor under President Reagan and again under President Bush, senior positions in two major U.S. corporations and as Chief of Staff to two US Congressman. Having held senior leadership positions in the legislative, the executive branch, and extensive experience in the private sector, he has been personally engaged in every major piece of education and workforce legislation for the past 40 years.
He is the co-author of the recent book, THE JOBS REVOLUTION: CHANGING HOW AMERICA WORKS. He initiated the landmark research project, WORKFORCE 2000: WORK AND WORKERS FOR THE 21st CENTURY and was responsible for the Dept of Labor's SCANS Commission, which spelled out the skills necessary for success in the workplace.
Bob serves on the Board of the ACT (American College Testing), the Business Higher Education Forum (BHEF), the National Center for Education Accountability (NCEA), the AAC&U National Leadership Council for Liberal Education and America's Promise (LEAP), CHEA 10th Anniversary Commission, and the UAW-LETC Board. He is a Commissioner on the Senior College Accreditation Commission of the Western Association of Colleges and Universities (WASC).
Bob also serves on the board of the Management and Training Corp (MTC) and of Jones International University (JIU).
His leadership and vision have often been recognized, including being a recipient of the Presidential Distinguished Executive Award by President Reagan.
Mr. Jones received his B.S. Degree in Psychology from the University of Redlands and performed graduate work at American University in Washington D.C. He also served four years as an officer in the US Air Force.
Christopher Lohse
Strategic Initiative Director of Information Systems and Research
Council of Chief State School Officers
www.ccsso.org
"As Best We Can Tell: Thinking through Education Reform in an Era of Innovation"
Christopher Lohse is the Strategic Initiative Director of Information Systems and Research for the Council, where he works to create and implement an innovative vision for the role and use of data in the education space. Part of that vision involves enabling well-architected, interconnected, vertically and horizontally-aligned data systems with elegantly designed user-interfaces to benchmark education results nationally and internationally. Moreover, Chris and the large team of competent information technologists, education specialists, and researchers he leads, works to help states create data systems that enable researchers to isolate the effects of particular policies and programs. He in turn manages the Council's efforts to use information intelligently to shape policy and practice.
Before joining CCSSO, Chris was the internal research director for Teach For America, an adviser to the Montana state school chief (Director of Policy Research and Federal Liaison), a research director for the Native Caucus of the National Conference of State Legislatures, and a research analyst focusing on science and education policy for the Montana Legislature's Office of Research and Policy Analysis. He serves on a number of technical review and research panels, and presents often at major education conferences. He is also a mentor teacher in the Harvard Graduate School of Education's Teacher Education Program, working with master's candidates in science and mathematics program. Chris is also a former classroom teacher, having taught for five years in South Central Los Angeles as an advanced placement chemistry teacher, initially under the Teach For America program. He holds Master's degrees in Education and Policy from Harvard University, and a biochemistry degree from Willamette University.
Stuart Brown MD
Founder and President
The National Institute for Play
www.nifplay.org
"What Nature Wants You to Know About Play"
What is it that triggers our emotional engagement with the world throughout a lifetime? What holds our attention, helps to craft our uniquely human social brain, and when developmentally attuned to the individual fosters progressive mastery?
A close look at the evolution, neurobiology and characteristics of play behaviors, their embedment in the brain's survival circuitry, and the growing data on the relationship of play to performance, innovation and creativity, emotional regulation, and overall well-being will be presented. The consequences of play deprivation to individual life and culture will likewise be reviewed.
