Data is powerful. It shows us patterns, reveals gaps in our understanding, and clarifies steps we need to take to solve problems. Except when it doesn’t. The fact is, there are serious limits to quantitative…
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Analyzing equity benchmarks across a wide range of topics (i.e., education, health care, housing and economics) is much more feasible and important than ever before. The wealth of open data has placed public sector organizations…
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Over the course of the last decade, public sector organizations’ collection, analysis and communication of data through an equity lens has significantly expanded.   We’ve had the opportunity to leverage some of these best practices…
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As public sector organizations grapple with changing operational models to meet the demands of a significantly evolved world—especially around systemic equity—analysts can gain a lot of perspective from a boxer’s approach to maintaining and improving…
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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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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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We’ll begin this story in June of 2016, which marked the official start of the Teacher Preparation Data Project. Though even to get to this point, there were many early sources of inspiration, sketches on…
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While Harvard Business Review’s latest article “Companies are Failing in Their Efforts to Become Data-Driven” focuses on investments in big data and artificial intelligence made by large corporations, we see the same issues at play…
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UPD is pleased to announce that Ana Quintana, Account Executive and seven-year veteran with the firm, has recently become a shareholder in the company. She leads UPD’s Ed-Fi and data system implementation practice which she…
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We believe that UPD was put on this Earth to help states, districts, and schools perform at fundamentally higher levels. Kids and parents deserve it, and our ever-globalizing economy needs it. As I reflect on our…
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