The RISE Data Hub: Expanding our Impact

Data is everywhere, including your car, your watch, your thermostat, and more. All of these tools can be valuable resources when you have the right information at the right time to guide your decisions and actions. Likewise, educators must have access to timely, user-friendly information about student learning and school experiences, including indicators like attendance, grades, credits, college applications, and FAFSA completion. Unfortunately, educators too often lack real-time and actionable data or need to toggle between multiple systems that each contain a fraction of the information they need.

That’s why RISE developed the Data Hub, which was released in 2022 in our nine Core Network schools. This latest evolution of RISE data tools collects information from multiple student data systems and transforms that information into a single application with nightly updates. This platform allows educators to sign into one system to see all of their students’ most important data, which saves educators time and allows them to more accurately address students’ needs.

Constance Coles, College and Career Coordinator at Bulkeley High School in Hartford, reflected on how the Data Hub has positively impacted her work. “I used to monitor data using Naviance, PowerSchool, and a spreadsheet tracking a few milestones,” she said. “On the Hub, all the data was in one place, making it much easier to find everything. I advocated for using the Hub for our postsecondary efforts as I saw its value and wanted to use it in conversations with students.”

RISE was able to integrate schools outside of the Core Network into the Data Hub for the first time this past year, and Bulkeley was one of these first new Hub partners. Bulkeley, as well as Weaver High School in Hartford, expanded the use of the RISE Data Hub from Grade 9 on-track data to now include all available postsecondary data sources and functionality to advance college and career planning efforts thanks to grant support from the H.A. Vance Foundation and an expanded partnership with Hartford Public Schools.

Following this broadened use of the Data Hub, the percentage of seniors at Bulkeley with post-high school plans in place increased from 63 percent, as of February 1, to 97 percent, by the end of the school year.

Coles said the Data Hub is a game-changer in her work, both in collaboration with colleagues and in helping students along their postsecondary pathways. “I used the Hub to put together charts that I brought to student check-ins so they could react to something tangible,” she said. “For example, I used the Hub to help students who had nearly met the academic and attendance thresholds for Hartford Promise support, so they could see exactly where they stood and what they needed to do.”

Over the last year, we have more than doubled our reach by expanding to 19 schools, with over 24,400 students now being supported by the Data Hub. We are eager to connect with more schools interested in bringing this resource online for their educators and students.