UPD Consulting

Performance Management seems to be one of the new buzz words in the market place.  A lot of this has been driven by the US Department of Education leveraging “Performance Management” as a means for…
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Over the past three years, UPD has helped two state education agencies  (SEAs) develop and implement their Local Education Agency’s (LEA) performance management processes to support effective implementation of their Race to the Top initiatives….
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Student Learning Objectives (also known as SLOs, Student Growth Targets, and other aliases) are gaining momentum nationally as one measure being implemented by states and districts within their new educator evaluation systems. Briefly, SLOs are…
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Last month I joined a team of UPD-ers and traveled around the state of Oklahoma training district-level trainers on Value-Added.  During one of the sessions, a participant raised his hand and asked our team how...
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Over the last several years, school districts across the country have been rolling out more rigorous and detailed evaluation rubrics along with systems to help administrators and teachers collaborate, collect evidence, and share performance ratings....
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As I sat down to write this entry, my day was interrupted most unusually.  Doug texted me the picture to the left.  The caption said simply, “Say hello to 26th street and the railroad track.”…
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There are a lot of good signs to be seen in recent news about security and privacy in the education technology sector. Some of the key questions being asked by educators and administrators are “how...
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Literary Lots, Kauser Razvi’s community revitalization project funded through Kickstarter, is a program that helps urban neighborhoods whip vacant lots into shape by transforming vacant lots into summer program spots for children. In Cleveland, several lots…
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For years, many cities have undertaken the task of developing a citywide plan, agenda, goals, etc. around children and youth development and success.  In most cases, this work is a collaboration between multiple organizations, including…
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Over the past few years, states and school districts across the country have devoted significant resources to the design and roll-out of new teacher evaluation systems.  Driven at least in part by requirements attached to…
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