Information Technology and Data Strategy Analytics
Contact Us
IT Service Desk
ServiceDesk@tulsaschools.org
For IT support, submit a request through the Service Desk Portal.
Hours of operation:
Monday - Friday, 7am - 5pm
Data Lab
918-746-NERD (6373)
Email data@tulsaschools.org for research request.
it team
Information Technology (IT) at Tulsa Public Schools provides technology solutions that drive our journey to excellence. By unleashing the power of of technology, we foster a culture of continuous improvement and embrace the idea that every individual is a learner, contributor, and designer. We strive to provide a variety of technological services to meet our diverse customer needs and create cutting-edge learning environments for our students and teachers.
Classroom experience
Our schools are filled with eager, energetic, and innovative 21st century learners. We recognize the importance of technology in the classroom when it comes to engaging young people in the learning process. The IT team supports our teachers and school leaders to use technology in a way that further enriches each child's learning experience. This includes leveraging both in person and virtual experiences as well as utilizing synchronous and asynchronous learning.
integrating Technology into schools and classrooms
We strive to provide technology that adds value to student learning experiences. Some recent classroom technology includes:
- Augmented and virtual reality labs
- Esports programs
- Maker Spaces
- Hybrid classrooms
- STEAM labs in all elementary schools
Extending the classroom experience
Technology helps to ensure that learning never stops. We are committed to using technology to close learning gaps and increase equity for our students
Through the T-Mobile 10 Million Program, many of our families will have access to mobile hotspots - providing them with high-speed internet access. In addition, any families needing access to low-cost Internet access, can reach out to Tulsa Responds for assistance. Also, our district implemented wireless Internet access on our activity buses so that students can continue their learning experiences on field trips and athletic events.
IT by the Numbers
We work to equip every student and school with great tools for learning. In the 2022-23 school year, students leverage a various of technologies in their classrooms and schools, including wireless Internet access, online learning management systems, new child nutrition point of sales systems. To access these tools, the district has deployed the following:
2,700 interactive displays
Every classroom in our district is equipped with interactive flat displays panels to support delivery of instruction.
40,000 devices
Every student in our district has access to devices, which include Chromebooks and tablets. Teachers and staff are equipped with laptops to support more flexible and adaptive learning and work environments.
data team
What We Do
Teachers, school leaders, and support staff throughout our district rely on data provided by our team as they work to support students and families. Through real-time data, we can help answer questions like:
- How many absences has Jeremy had during the last two months?
- How have these absences impacted Jeremy’s academic performance?
- What intervention strategies are colleagues implementing to better support Jeremy?
The data team loves looking at numbers and helping our extraordinary educators answer important questions like these in an efficient and simple way so that they can better serve our students. We’re relentlessly focused on serving our schools - whether that's through partnering directly with teachers, creating data dashboards, or analyzing information behind the scenes.
Ways we support schools
Our team supports teachers, schools, and other district team members by providing:
- Analytic reports: We do the deep dives and find the insights to help us find ways to improve
- Data tools: We create tools for teachers and school leaders that can help make their jobs just a little bit easier
- Dashboards: Our data dashboards feature student, class, and school-level data visualizations and statistics for TPS team members
- Data requests: We fulfill data requests for TPS team members and community partners to help us all understand needs and trends to better support our students
- Research: Through the use of evidence and theory, we provide information that gets put into practice
- Program Evaluation: We analyze program performance and impact to ensure that we stay on track with our strategic plan.
Who We Are
Sean Berkstresser
Executive Director of Information Technology
berksse@tulsaschools.org
Data Team
Jonathan Mcilroy
Director of Data Strategy
mcilrjo@tulsaschools.org
Darcie Hobbs
Data Strategist
hobbsda@tulsaschools.org
Chao Li
Data Strategist
lichao@tulsaschools.org
Jeremy White
Data Strategist
whiteje1@tulsaschools.org
Jennifer Santangelo
Manager of Data Policy & Practice
santaje@tulsaschools.org
Edward Chiu
Data Strategist
chiued@tulsaschools.org
Matthew Lugibihl
Associate Data Strategist
lugibma@tulsaschools.org
Amanda Barnard
Manager of Continuous Improvement
barnaam@tulsaschools.org
Tia Waldrop
Expanded Learning Data Manager
waldrti@tulsaschools.org
Team Culture
What do we expect in ourselves as individuals?
We are self-directed, eager to take on challenging work, and open to feedback. Data team members never settle in place and are constantly building their expertise. We seek professional development opportunities and support each other in our personal and professional goals.
What does diversity look like on the data team?
We take pride in attracting individuals from varied backgrounds and in particular love finding team members who have school-site experience.. Each data team member contributes a distinct set of strengths and provides feedback to others on the team to help us all grow and develop our skills.
How do we collaborate with each other?
Reflected by our open-space office, we encourage accessibility and collaboration. For any given project owned by a Data team member, you will likely find others close by as either contributors or support.
With a sense of common purpose, we are able to distribute our work within the team. When facing roadblocks, we do not shy away from speaking up and asking for help.
How do we work with other teams in the district?
We actively contribute to a variety of district projects and help teams get clear on what we’re measuring and why. Given the support nature of our role within the district, we actively engage many teams across many district projects.
What tools do we use?
Our team maintains our data dashboards with Ruby on Rails, and we determine what improvements to make and what new features to add based on feedback from our school sites!
The main tools we use for analytics are Stata, R, and Python. To manage our code in a collaborative setting, we host and maintain our work on GitHub repositories.
Data Dashboards
The Data Dashboards were developed based on guidance, feedback, and insights from our teachers and school leaders. The Dashboards provide tools and visual displays of district data to teachers, principals, and district leaders. We are always gathering feedback and suggestions to help refine these tools.
You can view a few features of the Dashboard below:
Attendance
Student Profiles
Students have individualized profile pages with tabs tracking metrics such as attendance, test scores, transcript, grades, discipline, and graduation track progress.
Attendance
Student attendance information since the 2015-2016 school year might look like this:
Testing
Student MAP Math scores since fall 2014 might look like this:
Timeline
Student academic progress over time might look like this:
Transcript
Student Letters
What our teachers are saying
- "You guys are doing a great job! Love the updates."
- "Love getting the weekly data report!"
- "OMG, the drill down abilities are so amazing! I love that it includes grades and days in membership! I wish I was a principal so I could use this data to work with specific students!"
- "This program is great! So many things we need all in one place - a teacher's dream! This is one of the best tools I've seen from TPS."
- "Love it - great visuals that are understandable for parents. Plus, it's good to have all information on one page."
Become a Research Partner
Tulsa Public Schools is committed to the success of all students, staff, and schools and is actively involved in conducting educational research toward this goal.
The partnerships that we are most interested in establishing would:
- Pursue research questions that support our strategic plan
- Provide timely, actionable findings that benefit programming at Tulsa Public Schools
- Conduct research activities outside the periods of district-wide student assessment or other planned activities such as approved surveys
- Have a sound theoretical foundation and follow rigorous, appropriate methodologies
- Produce publicly disseminated research reports, presentations or publications, coordinated with Tulsa Public Schools
Please note that we are always mindful of the risks of disrupting teaching and learning with data collection, violating the privacy or other rights of participants, or any other harmful consequences of research activities. In most cases, establishing a partnership will also involve approval by an Institutional Research Board (IRB) or determination that IRB is not required that the researchers have to secure prior to active data collection. Additionally, partners will need to sign a data sharing agreement with Tulsa Public Schools.
If you are interested in becoming a research partner, please contact data@tulsaschools.org and we will contact you to discuss your proposal.
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