Our team is a recognized market leader in supporting our clients through the entire data lifecycle process—from data definition and governance all the way through collection, review, and use. The support we have provided our clients at the U.S. Department of Education (ED) has resulted in high-quality education data usable at the due date to inform enhanced decision-making.

We leverage our existing data management SOPs, templates, checklists, and workbooks to standardize activities across all stages of the data management lifecycle. These repeatable processes and tools are used by ED, stakeholders, and our team to significantly increase workflow efficiency for data submitters and data users while reducing project risk. This proven approach enables rigorous and well-substantiated data governance, data definition, and data collection processes as the mechanisms and controls for improvements in data quality and data use.

We lead the operations and management team that collects the ED’s largest data collection, EDFacts, and the two largest K12 administrative records collection, Common Core of Data and Civil Rights Data Collection. We also deliver specialized expertise on data definition, collection, processing, creation, information systems management, and statistics/data analysis to numerous other ED projects and offices.

In this work, we support the collection of more than 70 data files from each state, including federal program mandates relating to special education, homelessness, and migrant students. Data are reported at the state, district, and school levels, including approximately 100,000 schools, and range from basic information about types of schools to data on accountability, dropouts, chronic absence, discipline incidents, assessment participation and proficiency, federal program participation, and similar topics.

We work with every state and territory on several different ED projects such as the Common Education Data Standards, Privacy Technical Assistance Center, Statewide Longitudinal Data Systems Grant Program, and the National Forum on Education Statistics. In each, we support the development of data management best practice resources that support education stakeholders at all levels.

Our team has performed complex technical work for multiple federal agencies as well as commercial and non-profit clients for more than 30 years. We have demonstrated our ability to scale rapidly and provide forward-leaning technical solutions. We have IT staff with experience developing numerous IT systems and websites following industry-standard best practices, including CMMI Level 3 Development. Our staff has in-depth experience with IT development, rapid cloud-based project management, ATO renewals, and other data calls. We offer comprehensive IT services based on our work with large and complex systems (consisting of a mix of commercial off-the-shelf software, custom applications, multiple operating systems, programming languages, and databases).

Our core competencies in IT include Windows Server, SQL database, web applications, cyber security, virtual private cloud, data collection applications, and IT project management. Since 2012, we have provided cloud hosting and support services to ED’s Institute for Education Sciences. Our highly trained staff’s certifications include AWS Cloud Practitioner, AWS Solutions Architect, AWS Developer, AWS Security, Microsoft Certified Solutions Associate, Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer, Microsoft Certified Professional, Network+, Ethical Hacker, Hacking Forensic Investigator, Information Security Manager, Red Hat System Administrator, and CompTIA Linux+. We also support performance monitoring, backups, security analysis, developer support, production support, and change management for approximately 435 databases in both production and development environments. Our high quality of customer service ensures that applications continue to run properly and securely while meeting all system standards and guidelines.

We maintain CMMI Level 3 appraisal for System Development and Services and ISO industry standards, demonstrating our commitment to delivering high-quality business processes. Our integrated Data Privacy and Cyber Security teams also maintain expertise in federal Risk Management Framework security practices for civilian and defense agencies. They have led 11 successful ED ATOs in the last 3 years.

Targeted technical assistance increases our partners’ skills and capacity to manage projects, collect and analyze data, and meet their unique programmatic and operational goals. We dramatically reduce project risks with experienced experts, established processes, and innovative tools that we continually refine to exceed program objectives. Our TA experts, established processes, and 20+ templates enable our teams to conduct differentiated needs assessments, develop actionable TA plans, and regularly evaluate all TA delivery and recipient needs to improve our TA services and products. Our teams collaborate with stakeholders to deliver effective online communities of practice, workshops, webinars, publications, and in-person meetings and conferences.

As the technical assistance arm of ED’s Statewide Longitudinal Data Systems (SLDS) Grant Program, we provide grant management, supporting the coordination between grantees and ED, including technical assistance advisory services for all 56 states and territories. Our advisory experts deliver effective and efficient assistance using a variety of delivery channels (in-person, virtual, and hybrid) and have successfully conducted 11 best practices conferences, 52 regional conferences, and 51 workgroup meetings.

Our team developed a grant management and collaboration web platform that has since been adopted by 12 ED programs. The platform includes project plans, budgets, notes, logic models, TA tracking, discussion boards, communities of practice, resource database, and an annual survey containing data used to pre-populate grantee Annual Performance Reports. We provided data collection, integration, and dashboarding to enable federal program staff and grantees to access and conduct joint discussions on the data related to grant timelines, major themes, budget expenditures, TA plans and activities, shared resources, and peer interaction and messaging capabilities.

We identify and develop resources that promote best practices related to managing education data systems and using data to inform instruction and policy. We are responsible for planning, writing, editing, formatting, and releasing all the resources supporting grantees of the SLDS Grant Program. All resources are tailored for their intended audience, made Section 508 compliant, and released on the technical assistance website.