BrightBytes
Delivering Better Outcomes in Education

As educators know, there is certainly no lack of data across each organization. In fact, educators have access to enormous amounts of data, but this data is often housed in a myriad of siloed systems, in countless formats. As more data is captured, educators must effectively integrate, manage, and analyze this ever-growing, complex data to inform decisions and drive learning. Driven by a mission to help educators turn big data into big benefits for students, BrightBytes provides an end-to-end data solution, from data integration to advanced analytics. BrightBytes efficiently unifies education data and combines top research and advanced analytics, delivered across easy-to-understand, intuitive dashboards, so educators can turn big data into big benefits for students. In an industry overwhelmed by DRIP conditions, BrightBytes provides educators across schools, districts, and at the state level, data interoperability and research-driven analysis.

BrightBytes’ value is a result of the two unique, yet complementary data platforms, DataSense™ for data integration, and Clarity® for data analytics. Together, these platforms constitute a first-of-a-kind solution that employs an intricate four step data management cycle that includes effective data integration, advanced research-based analysis, engaging user experience, and actionable insights. The DataSense platform allows education organizations to effectively capture, clean, and integrate disparate data into a centralized location and enables bi-directional flows between applications. Alongside DataSense, the decision support platform, Clarity, allows educators to better understand data and improve student learning outcomes. The platform employs advanced analytics, including machine learning, psychometrics, and predictive analytics to organize and visualize actionable data across research-based frameworks to drive student learning. Each of Clarity’s modules offers insights to address common education challenges, such as integrating technology effectively, graduation and postsecondary enrollment readiness, digital security and privacy, financial transparency, and more.

As a result of this award-winning approach to data management, BrightBytes has earned a reputation as a leader in the industry. Currently in 1 in 5 schools across 47 states, millions of students have experienced the positive impact of BrightBytes. For example, since 2013, West Virginia has improved graduation rates by nearly 5%. Education leaders have attributed much of this improvement to the statewide adoption of the BrightBytes Student Success module, which allows educators to utilize predictive analytics to identify at-risk students earlier and with greater accuracy than previous systems.

BrightBytes was also an obvious choice for the Colorado Department of Education (CDE) to fulfill legislative requirements to provide a public-facing financial transparency website. The Financial Transparency module translates complex data around the revenue and expenditures for school sites, districts, and multi-district educational services agencies into easy-to-understand data visualizations delivered across engaging dashboards.

In an industry overwhelmed by DRIP conditions, BrightBytes provides educators across schools, districts, and at the state level, data interoperability and research-driven analysis

Recently, BrightBytes has expanded their product offering to include the Learning Outcomes module within the 21st Century Learning suite. As students engage with technology, it is critical that educators invest in the programs that have the greatest impact on learning. To ensure students benefit from technology integration, the Learning Outcomes module captures millions of data points from any digital device usage, and triangulates it with district investment data and student achievement data. The module goes beyond tracking app usage, and uses advanced data analytics to help educators discover which programs have the most impact. Although a newer module, data from the robust solution informed the BrightBytes’ annual report, The 2018 Technology & Learning Insights Report: Towards Understanding App Effectiveness and Cost. The report, written by one of the organization’s research partners, Dr. Ryan S. Baker, director of the Penn Center for Learning Analytics, used data from the module to examine which apps have a positive impact on student learning. After analyzing a dataset including 1.4M hours of usage data from 392,603 students within 48 districts, researchers found surprising results about the range of cost per license for purchased apps, the degree purchased apps are being used, and the level of app effectiveness for math, science, and ELA.