A4L Community Newsletter - December 2016 A4L Newsletter - December 2016

NEWSLETTER | Issue 34

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NEWSLETTER
December 2016
IT’S TIME TO FOCUS ON USING DATA TO IMPACT LEARNING…

Increased Ownership, Resources to Match?
by Larry Fruth II, PhD – Executive Director / CEO

I am not a betting man. I do love
watching people enjoy betting but
being a safe educator it was never
for me. I would have, however, bet
large sums about 4 years ago when
I began telling people that the shift
from federal to more state and
local oversight of education was
going to occur.
I have a small group of “think tank”
friends who I love to discuss various
education topics and the group
includes two ex-state education
chiefs. I have asked both of them,
who’s agencies staffing were down
up to 45%, if they would “ramp up”
staffing or “pass along” oversight to
Local Education Agencies (LEA).
They both loudly exclaimed pass it
on!
So with the passage of Every
Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) in the
US this is now a reality. As US
states develop their accountability
plans, LEAs who may have had little
input into those plans are going to
be leaned on to deliver education
system outcomes.
The
first
question I get from LEAs when we
have this conversation is “Will more

resources
come
our
way
then?” That I am not willing to bet
on... So that means we all need to
come together to help support the
LEAs in and around the A4L
Community. The North American
Management Board 2 years ago
determined that our core support
needs to focus on LEA pain points –
so we were already a bit ahead of
this curve.
I hope you see some of this support
in
this
newsletter.
Vinson
Consulting has been kind enough to
give A4L Members no charge access
to their newest publication The K12
CIO: Fall Issue. The Student Data
Privacy Consortium has privacy
contract wording, an application
registry tool and effective practice
sharing. All of these are designed
to give that specific LEA support.
Think of it as a holiday present to
our LEA brethren – Cheers!

IN THIS ISSUE

Global Community News
Keeping you informed of the global
Community activities, including: latest SIF
Infrastructure
Specification
release;
Certification News; Student Data Privacy
Consortium: Supporting ‘on the ground and
tactical’ work; investing in our Community;
and the A4LCommunity: Committed to
supporting ed tech standards…, no matter
where they originate!
Page
2

AU Community News
An overview of the recent AU Annual Meeting
& Community Day; update on NAPLAN; and
congratulations to the recently elected 20162017 Board Members!
Page
6

NA Community News
2017 Annual Meeting – register now!; update
on the Green Schools initiative and Energy
Management; nominations open for the NA
2017 Elections!; and it’s not too late to sign
up for one of our sponsorship opportunities.
Page
8

UK Community News
Update on the Department for Education
Data Exchange project.
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