DMPS’ New Office of Innovation Recognized

Gene Denny, Kimberly Martorano, and Margi Neve at Tableau Conference 2015.

When we say Des Moines Public Schools employees are among the best in their fields, we mean it. Our new Office of Innovation staff members are a good case in point.

This month, they were recognized as national leaders in K-12 education data analytics at the International Tableau Conference 2015 in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Team members Gene Denny, Kimberly Martorano, and Margi Neve presented at the conference on the use of data dashboards by DMPS.

Tableau is a leading data analysis tool utilized by DMPS to display data in meaningful ways that inform decision-making.

The DMPS Office of Innovation has developed numerous dashboards used by administrators, teachers, and data teams to drive instructional decisions. These dashboards provide DMPS staff members access to real-time data, allowing them to monitor student progress through visualizations that tap staff members’ natural ability to see patterns, identify trends, and discover visual insights in seconds.

This is one way that the Office of Innovation is providing quality data to enable strategic decision-making that allows students and staff to reach their full potentials.

The department’s conference presentation featured data dashboards related to student achievement, standards referenced grading, disproportionality, demographics, behavior, longitudinal assessments, student health, and school boundaries. Tableau Conference 2015 is the largest conference in the field of data analytics, with over 11,000 people registered to attend.