Supporting the educators responsible for the increasingly complex and high-stakes world of school and student data.
Who We Are
The School Data Leadership Association is a statewide nonprofit supporting educators who are responsible for the increasingly complex and high-stakes world of school and student data. Incorporated in 2017 as a 501(c)(3) California nonprofit corporation, SDLA serves as a trusted partner of educators—facilitating collaboration, systems integration, professional learning, and access to resources.
Our Mission
It is the mission of SDLA to promote the effective, efficient, and confidential use of data to improve teaching, learning, and school administration.
- Build district-wide data governance teams.
- Facilitate the professional learning and career development of our members.
- Strengthen connections between vendors and end users—for example, by improving data integration and overall product usefulness.
- Improve the overall quality, functionality, and ease of use of the systems needed to operate modern school and district offices.
- Make mandatory state and federal systems, including CALPADS and CRDC, easier to understand and more valuable to educators.
- Seek new approaches to challenges by leveraging modern collaboration tools, such as Slack and micro-communities.
- Champion even the smallest contributions to this space.
Our Core Beliefs
Unify
Bring together the resources needed to effectively run a California public school and ensure compliance with all those pesky (but important!) rules and regulations. We pull in CALPADS, ESSA, CNIPS, technology news, CAASPP, and other resources—anything we need to support the data needs of our schools.
Simplify
Turn confusing policies and regulations into easy-to-follow instructions and simple, actionable steps. Develop checklists, guides, and other support documents. Leverage modern web tools to simplify document management. Get help when you need it.
Multiply
Leverage the expertise of our members by tapping into assessment experts, vendors, teachers, parents, technology gurus, and others through our online community, our “leadership voices,” and our resource area. Build good resources once and share them.
Staff
Ellen Pelzel
Newsletter and Website
Liz Bautista
Digital Learning Specialist
We’re a Diverse Group of Educators
Our members serve schools and districts in many different roles. Here are just some of their titles:
- Accounting Technician
- Administrative Assistant
- Administrative Clerk
- Assessment Coordinator
- Assistant Principal
- Attendance Technician
- CALPADS Coordinator
- CALPADS Technician
- CALPADS/SIS Specialist
- Coordinator of Data and Analytics
- Coordinator, Student Information
- Counselor
- Curriculum Coordinator
- Data and Support Analyst
- Data Compliance Technician
- Data Coordinator
- Data Management Analyst
- Data Quality Technician
- Data Specialist
- Data Systems Analyst
- Data Systems Coordinator
- Data Systems Specialist
- Data Systems Support Specialist
- Data Technician
- Database Administrator
- Data Analysis
- Database Analyst
- Database Coordinator
- Database Programmer
- Database Specialist
- Director of Personnel Services
- Director of Site Operations
- Director of Technology
- District Data Coordinator
- District Data Technician
- Educational Data Analyst
- Head Registrar
- Information Services Supervisor
- Information Specialist
- Information Systems Administrator
- Information Systems Analyst
- Information Systems Data Specialist
- Information Systems Specialist
- Information Systems Technician
- Information Technology Specialist
- IT Analyst II
- IT Applications Analyst
- Manager, Computer Applications
- Network Specialist
- Principal
- Project Specialist
- Records Clerk/Media Clerk
- Registrar
- Research Assistant
- Secretary
- SIS Administrator
- SIS Coordinator
- Special Projects Secretary
- Sr. Programmer Analyst
- Student Assessment Data Specialist
- Student Data and Information Specialist
- Student Data Coordinator
- Student Data Support Analyst
- Student Data Systems Coordinator
- Student Information Specialist
- Student Information Systems Manager
- Student Information Technician
- Student Services Coordinator
- System Analyst
- Systems Support Specialist
- Teacher
- Tech Supervisor MIS
- Technical Support Specialist
- Technology Specialist
- Vice Principal
Topics We Welcome
We welcome articles, blog posts, questions, and comments on the following topics:
- Accountability
- Administration
- Artificial Intelligence
- Assessment
- Attendance Reporting
- Back-office Automation
- Benchmarks
- California
- CALPADS
- Career Development
- Charter Schools
- Civil Rights Data Collection (CRDC)
- CNIPS
- Cybersecurity
- Data Analysis
- ELPAC
- Ethnicity Reporting
- Formative Assessment
- Human Resources
- Information Technology
- Job Descriptions
- K–12 Enterprise Systems
- KPIs
- Networking
- Professional Development
- SBAC/CAASPP
- Small Districts
- Staff Assignments
- Staff Demographics
- Student Assessment Systems
- Student Information Systems
- Student Privacy
- Student Programs
- Summative Assessment
- Systems Integration
- Teacher Evaluation
- Teaching/Curriculum
- Technology Issues
Core Values
SDLA has adopted the “Intellectual Virtues” model. Intellectual virtues are the personal qualities of a good thinker, learner, or teacher.
- Curiosity: A disposition to wonder, ponder, and ask “why?” A thirst for understanding and a desire to explore. A general dissatisfaction with the status quo.
- Intellectual humility: A willingness to own up to one’s intellectual limitations and mistakes. Unconcerned with intellectual status or job titles.
- Intellectual autonomy: A capacity for active, self-directed thinking. An ability to think and reason for oneself, especially when it might run counter to existing groupthink.
- Attentiveness: A readiness to be personally present in any group collaborative process. Limits distractions. Strives to be engaged and engaging.
- Intellectual carefulness: A disposition to notice and avoid intellectual pitfalls and mistakes. Strives for accuracy.
- Intellectual thoroughness: A disposition to seek and provide explanations. Probes for deeper meaning and understanding.
- Open-mindedness: An ability to think outside the box. Gives a fair hearing to competing perspectives, especially when they challenge existing norms and procedures.
- Intellectual courage: A readiness to persist in thinking or communicating in the face of resistance, including fear of embarrassment, failure, or repudiation by one’s peers.
- Intellectual tenacity: A willingness to embrace intellectual challenge and struggle. Keeps its eyes on the prize and does not give up.