BrightBytes
Optimizing Big Data Benefits for Education

Although big data has made significant contributions to a variety of fields ranging from e-commerce and healthcare, to physics and biology, its application within education still remains incipient. As educators know, there is certainly no lack of data across each organization. In fact, educators have access to enormous amounts of data, but this data is often housed in a myriad of siloed systems, in countless formats. As more data is captured, educators must effectively integrate, manage, and analyze this ever-growing, complex data to inform decisions and drive learning. With a mission to help educators turn big data into big benefits for students, BrightBytes, a leading education data management organization, provides an end-to-end data solution, from data integration to advanced analytics.

The BrightBytes DataSense platform is an integration platform that allows education organizations and edtech partners to effectively capture, clean, and integrate disparate data into a centralized location and enables bi-directional flows between applications. “DataSense resolves the growing challenge of data integration by providing one central, online medium to unify all data, utilizing purposeful data from software applications and preparing it for state reporting,” states Tracy Burgess, CEO, BrightBytes. Complementing the DataSense platform is Clarity, a decision-support platform that analyzes complex data against research-based frameworks, and delivers results across intuitive, easy-to-understand dashboards and reports. Each of Clarity’s modules offer role-based insights to address educators’ challenges, such as financial visibility, technology learning, graduation rates, digital security and privacy, and more.

Together, these platforms constitute a first-of-a-kind solution that employs an intricate four step data management cycle–data integration, educative research, advanced analysis, and actionable insights. “Our end-to-end data solutions not only enable educators to manage and view data in an educative and engaging format, but also facilitate action-driven next steps to address education’s biggest challenges,” remarks Burgess.

As a result of this award-winning approach to data management, BrightBytes has earned a reputation as a leader in the industry. Currently one in five schools across 47 states, and with an international presence in 8 countries, millions of students have experienced the positive impact of BrightBytes. For example, since 2013, West Virginia has increased graduation rates by nearly 5 percent. Education leaders have attributed much of this improvement to the statewide adoption of the BrightBytes Early Warning module, which allows educators to utilize predictive analytics to identify at-risk students earlier and with greater accuracy than previous systems. BrightBytes was also a clear choice for the Colorado Department of Education (CDE) to fulfill legislative requirements to provide a public-facing financial transparency website. The BrightBytes Financial Transparency module translates complex data around the revenue and expenditures for school sites, districts, and multi-district educational services agencies into easy-to-understand data visualizations delivered across engaging dashboards. In fact, BrightBytes is currently having several advanced conversations with large districts and states across the U.S. about capturing performance, demographic, and financial data, and translating that complex data into easy-to-understand visualizations for local communities and the public.

The incredible success of the BrightBytes platforms can be largely attributed to its team of highly experienced individuals. Comprised of a diverse group of data analysts, researchers, education experts, designers, and system dynamics modelers, it is the team’s relentless conviction to development that allows BrightBytes to provide such powerful solutions. As BrightBytes moves ahead, it will continue to address the issues that arise in the K-12 educational arena and expand its product lines and sales teams across the U.S. and globally.