Closing the Gap: Turning SIS/LMS Data into Action

Join the Closing the Gap: Turning Data Into Action Website  (www.turningdataintoaction.org). Gain access to educational resources that will help you strengthen instructional practices.  

The American Association of School Administrators (AASA) and the Consortium of School Networking (CoSN) have been awarded a grant by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to collaborate with Gartner, Inc. to initiate a project titled Closing the Gap: Turning SIS/LMS Data into Action (Closing the Gap). The Closing the Gap project is aimed at understanding how members of the K-12 education community can use the data available in Student Information Systems (SIS) and Learning Management Systems (LMS) to improve classroom instruction.

The project will:

• Provide school and district leaders with increased understanding of the current market, capabilities of available systems, and teachers’ classroom needs for meaningful data.
• Cultivate stronger teacher-student data linkages and leverage postsecondary outcomes data against richer information on the student experience.
• Establish an appropriate selection, procurement and implementation of SIS and LMS systems.
• Empower teachers and school system leaders to analyze their students’ experiences, and to collaborate and innovate to support and engage students.

AASA and CoSN have chosen 16 school districts to participate in the Closing the Gap Communities of Practice (CoP). These district cohorts work together face-to-face and online using the project resources, sharing results and learning from each other, while addressing two CoP themes. Their collaborative efforts will help to identify ways in which the project findings and tools can be used effectively to inform classroom instruction.

*Managed by AASA       ** Managed by CoSN

To find out more about the Closing the Gap project, contact Vera Turner at vturner@aasa.org .