Miami-Dade Implements GuideK12™, Geovisual Analytics

Oct. 24, 2012 - PRLog -- October 24, 2012 Eagan, MN – Miami-Dade County Public Schools (M-DCPS) has implemented GuideK12 geovisual analytics to build stronger communities and examine student needs. The state of the art technology allows the district to instantly geographically explore and analyze school district data to improve decision-making.

Miami-Dade County Public Schools (M-DCPS) turned to GuideK12 to geographically identify trends and patterns occurring in the district. GuideK12 aggregates disparate data sets and visualizes the information to allow analysis on a range of needs such as language, economic, academic, building capacity, or special services.  

“I see a lot of products and I am not easily impressed, but with GuideK12 the district has been presented with something very unique. GuideK12 provides us with such a shift by presenting a geo-dimension to our data, so we can draw conclusions in a different way. We can now visualize students linked to the household so patterns and groups emerge geographically that before would have been hidden in a spreadsheet or report,” states Debbie Karcher, Chief Information Officer Miami-Dade County Public Schools (M-DCPS). “The easy to use, web-based tool makes it simple to share results and logic so all stakeholders can see the need for change, can identify the direction of change needed, and can identify approaches offering promising solutions for the district. District staff is constantly coming up with more ideas on how GuideK12 can help us.  If they can think of it, we believe GuideK12 can make it happen.”

Karcher stated it was important to understand the composition of the families in their community and to analyze scenarios to develop effective programs. GuideK12 allows the district to identify patterns and offer new choices to parents.  Positive communication between the district and parents is vital to developing trust and fiscal support that fosters a shared understanding of the district initiatives and goals.

For districts across the nation, understanding the impact of school choice and the movement of students is a challenge to track. With a district of approximately 365,000 full-time and part-time students, like Miami Dade with a high transfer rate, it is an even bigger challenge.  Miami Dade is utilizing GuideK12 to understand the trends for students transferring in and around the district and to assess programs to meet their needs. Now the district can quickly adjust when there is a large influx of students from another country due to natural disaster or turmoil in their country and assess the needs and programs required for the new population.

Karcher continues, “Miami-Dade County Public Schools (M-DCPS) is proud to be a hub of the community. GuideK12 provides statistical characteristics of our human populations as well as descriptive information about the school community that would not have been possible before. GuideK12 can help us with so many issues; we couldn’t pull back now if we tried!”

“I have been given the gift of GuideK12, I can’t remember the last time I was this excited about a product!” stated Charlene Burks, Administrative Director Federal & State Compliance Office. “Our boundary process was cumbersome prior to using GuideK12.  The time required to do boundary scenarios was monumental.  Now we can do “what if” scenarios that are so easy to do and pull all the data in a fraction of the time. When the district stakeholders saw that we no longer have to go to multiple sources, that we can see our student demographics very clearly and that we can target progress they all agreed that this was a product for us. The product sold itself.”

“The team at Miami-Dade are thought leaders driving new analytics into the education market and delivering new value for the community.  It is an honor to work with a team that is so forward thinking.  They are finding a wide range of applications for GuideK12 within their district,” stated Chuck Amos, GuideK12 CEO.  “The Miami-Dade relationship began as part of an early launch, their input was invaluable for making this tool even more robust for our future customers.  By liberating the data, GuideK12 puts the information at the fingertips of those closest to the real decisions. ”

To learn more, download GuideK12’s newly released White Paper outlining the power of Geovisual Analytic technology along with customer success stories at www.guidek12.com

About Miami-Dade County Public Schools (M-DCPS):
Miami-Dade County Public Schools (M-DCPS), the fourth largest district in the United States with approximately 365,000 full-time and part-time students is among the most diverse with 62% of its students of Hispanic origin, 26% African American, 9% Non-Hispanic White, and 1% Asian or Pacific Islander and is organized in 5 regions.

About GuideK12:
Based in Eagan, MN, GuideK12LLC is a geovisual analytics software company, which enables education decision makers to instantly explore and analyze school district data by adding a geographic and visual dimension to their student and community information.   By visualizing information spatially, decisions on everything from boundary analysis, to policy changes to resource planning and forecasting enrollments can be more insightful and faster.  Named one of SIIA’s 2012 10 most innovative education technology products, GuideK12 serves large metro, suburban and rural school districts throughout the United Sates. It is owned by private investors and a private investment group based in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

For more information about GuideK12, click here

Press Contact:
Jacob Hanson
PR with Panache!
Jacob@prwithpanache.com