When a teacher is planning a lesson, he must consider the goals and objectives, the methodology to be implemented, materials needed, and the metric used to determine if the objective has been met. This lesson must also fit within the context of a larger unit plan, and subsequently support future learning. On a much larger scale, but with very similar structure, data standards govern how a subject or set of curricula are to be delivered. They represent evidence of a school, district, state or federal department having means to 1) meet specific goal; 2) access necessary tools; 3) know if funds are improving learning; and 4) provide aggregate information to the public. (Who Uses..., 2014). "Essential to realizing the target state, Data Architecture describes how data is processed, stored, and utilized in an information system." (Wikipedia, p.1). What system you run the information through, the constraints under which the data is digested affects the integrity of any conclusions reached or inferences drawn. Space enough to store the data is imperative, and the format in which it exists must be communicative with similar data. If data cannot be read and combined, interpretation is hampered. Lastly, how the information is used affects the ultimate goal: improving learning. As a result, considering the data architecture must take place in the planning phase. “CEDS is designed to bridge the communication gap that can exist between education stakeholders.” (CEDS, 2016). If a common language of accepted terminology was not voluntarily adopted, then understanding between stakeholders: teachers, administrators, parents and even students, would be inefficient and wasteful of both time and precious taxpayer dollars. The standards attempt to meet that need so that both written and oral communication can serve the learning needs of the students across the grades and as they move from one year to the next. While observing the need to respect privacy, big data needs to be well dealt with in a carefully planned architecture. Resource: (2016) CEDS Introduction. YouTube. Retrieved September 20, 2016, from https://youtu.be/A2wb72vqI-Q (2011). Data architecture - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Retrieved September 20, 2016, from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Data_architecture. (2014). Who Uses Student Data? - YouTube. Retrieved September 20, 2016, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v1uj0JkCpgM
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When I consider the business architecture of my school, I am shaken to see the price being paid being a one campus, K - 8 district. With real estate capital assets exceeding $50 million, and $10 million annual budgets, Rowe School is big business. When you build a home, the per square foot price of construction is highest in the kitchen and bathrooms, whereas the covered patios and garages are least. Developers know that the biggest ROI happens on the square footage BEYOND the kitchen and bathrooms. In a one campus district, you still need a superintendent, and arguably a principal for each school (in our case one for 250 middle schoolers, and one for 440 elementary schoolers). This makes our administrative salaries a much higher percent of our overall budget than larger, multi-school districts. One way to get the percentages back in line, once they become part of the overall salary to budget ratio, is by cutting down on the salaries and benefits of teachers.
As it regards technology, having the total number of iPads and Chromebooks exceed the number of students is embarrassing. It reflects the price the board was willing to pay to be a “cutting-edge” school, seemingly to act out of ego and fear of being left behind, without completely considering what to do with the technology once acquired. When the state of California made a commitment to “class size reduction” they insisted that districts receiving monies conduct professional development trainings to best take advantage of the new situations. Arguably, Rowe School didn’t invest enough into empowering the teachers to use the technology to its potential. I believe this (and of course Chromebooks better complementing SBAC testing) contributed to the circumstance we have now with more rapidly obsolescing tablet devices than students. Our business architecture can be improved by not only looking more holistically at how our $10,000,000 annually is being spent, but also for how long we can commit to the technology purchased. The more I read about Education Enterprise Architecture, the less I know. I feel like I am learning a new concept that while critical to my success as an educational leader, is being taught to me in a new language. An important part of trust is competence; how can I trust myself with the responsibility of running a school, and ask others to follow me, if I don’t have the capability of creating and executing sound business strategies? It is with this urgency that this KWL chart emerges: An enterprise architecture applies a mission and set of values to existing business strategies, and examines the efficacy of information technologies and other support systems already in place. It can be used as an analytical or a management tool, guiding decision-making. “An enterprise architecture framework can describe the underlying infrastructure, thus providing the groundwork for the hardware, software, and networks to work together.” (Urbaczewski, L., 2010, p.1). Of the five Enterprise Architecture Frameworks (EAF) looked at: Zachman Framework (1987), Department of Defense Architecture Framework, Federal Enterprise Architecture Framework, Treasure Enterprise Architecture Framework (2000), and The Open Group Architectural Framework (1995), the latter, TOGAF is the most applicable to education. (Urbaczewski, L., 2010, p.2). “TOGAF helps by documenting the EA discipline, process and work products. An organization can develop an EA that is consistent, reflects the needs of stakeholders, employs best practice, considers current requirements and future needs of [the] business. (TOGAF Distilled, 2014). Essentially, with the preliminary phase defined, eight phases follow and communicate information to the central phase of the architecture development cycle, the requirements management phase. This phase “is a Continuing Ongoing Process to ensure changes to requirements are Well Governed, and Reflected in All Other Phases.” (Key points…, 2014) TOGAF is a flexible methodology designed to fit individual enterprises. Resources: Urbaczewski, L. (2010). A COMPARISON OF ENTERPRISE ARCHITECTURE FRAMEWORKS. Retrieved from http://ggatz.com/images/SOA_COMPARE.pdf. (2014). TOGAF Distilled - YouTube. Retrieved September 11, 2016, from https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLrAWWpbaj-7KM0uNkxKAf2t4Kzyqr_pYy. (2014) Key points of the architecture development method - YouTube. Retrieved September 11, 2016, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2OUKGBmCE64&list=PLrAWWpbaj-7KM0uNkxKAf2t4Kzyqr_pYy&index=8 Enterprise architecture, lofty as it sounds, simply refers to how the guts of an entity work together. As its name implies, education enterprise architecture plays the structure, function, and purpose of an educational institution against its reality. Purpose: do the school stated values serve its mission statement? Function: is the interplay of teacher, student, parent and administrator resulting in a student body that is growing in preparation for becoming fulfilled, global citizens? Structure: is there a clearly defined and respected power structure? For example, if a parent has a problem with how a teacher grades, or does not grade homework, do they speak with the principal BEFORE the teacher, and the principal fails to redirect them? Do the building spaces adequately serve the needs of the student body? For example, if you are at a Title I school receiving funds for free breakfast and lunch programs, do you have kitchen facilities that can get food services delivered well in a timely enough manner to resume classes on schedule?
“For an EA approach to be considered to be complete, … six core elements … must be present and work synergistically together.” (Bernard, 2012, Kindle Locations 560-561). Formally, they are: governance, methodology, framework, artifacts, standards, and best practices. In an indirect way, enterprise architecture has recently become relevant in my school with the arrival of a new superintendent. At a beginning-of-the-year professional development session, he wanted to know if and how a program being taught to teachers affected instructional decisions. Was using the technology impactful when it came to learning? Without being asked, he volunteered that with budget decisions to make, he needed to gather as much good information as possible. In that light, without formalizing his approach, the superintendent was taking a holistic view of the school. In an effort to make sure that prior decisions made by the IT department served the interest of the educational enterprise, he was communicating with important, related, and intersecting subsets of the school. It may be that he may more rigorously examine how this and other decisions fit in with the overall architecture of the school, but until then, that’s where we are. My introduction to the concept of educational enterprise architecture has given me a greater appreciation for paying attention to how all the moving parts in a school affect one another. Resources: Bernard, Scott A. (2012-08-13). An Introduction to Enterprise Architecture: Third Edition. AuthorHouse. Kindle Edition. |
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