Blog
Learning never stops.
The UPD team is constantly looking for ways to learn more about our industry and, by extension, improve the results we achieve for our clients. Our blog is where we share our latest thinking.
Building Affordable Housing to Stabilize Schools
This past January UPD kicked off a project in partnership with the Baltimore Department of Housing and Community Development (DHCD) funded through a Fannie Mae Innovation Challenge Grant. (See a video of our CEO Doug...
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Modernization through Innovation: Increasing Capability through Systems, Processes, and People
Why do we do what we do? Is it the best way to achieve our desired outcomes? How do we know? Innovation drives improvement. It begins with good fundamentals that are affirmed through a process…
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Juneteenth: Let’s Band(wagon) Together
It’s nice to see mainstream white America coming to grips, however slowly, with the importance of acknowledging past wrongs and scraping away some of the historical whitewash used to alleviate (or maybe avoid) the white...
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No Justice? No Shit.
Black people suffering at the hands of white people happens so frequently that it’s hard not to become numb to it. Niecy Nash’s YouTube video is funny because it’s so true. But the deadly reality...
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The Big Reveal: Teacher Preparation Dashboards
This is a continuation of our series about lessons and successes from the Teacher Preparation Data Project. The Ed-Fi Teacher Preparation Data Model (TPDM) is a significant step to bring together previously disconnected data into...
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Tiger Teams: Added Capacity to Reinvent for Next School Year
Today’s mission critical task in education is reinvention. The problem is that transformation requires creativity, time and capacity—all in short supply after COVID-19 has left our education systems exhausted. Yet to address learning gaps and...
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Data Challenges in the Times of COVID-19: Data Governance is Essential
This post was written in partnership with Cali Stringer. Data governance is the decision-making glue that connects data technicians, data analysts, data users, and education leaders together. And during a time of rapid changes caused…
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Don’t Leave Data Use Behind During the COVID-19 Crisis
Last week, I presented on a virtual panel as part of the Carnegie Foundation Improvement Science in Education Summit using UPD’s Data Life-Cycle Framework. During the session, we heard from participants that there is a…
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Keeping it Reel
If a picture is worth a thousand words, picture this snapshot of the company culture at UPD. We work hard, and we spend a lot of time together on project teams. But “all work and…
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Data Governance Guidance & Tools
Thoughtful design and execution of a data governance practice can greatly streamline your organization’s data processes, improve alignment between technical and program staff, enhance data quality, and most importantly, reduce the frustration that comes from…
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