Building a Unified Data Ecosystem in Highline Public Schools
For Highline Public Schools, a district serving 20,000 students, the rapid adoption of new classroom technologies created a significant obstacle to improving student outcomes: a deluge of disconnected data. With information siloed across dozens of different applications, the district's Chief Technology Officer faced a system that produced noise, not the "actionable" insights needed to support students. Before a district-wide strategy was implemented, staff wasted countless hours manually transferring files, troubleshooting corrupted data, and attempting to reconcile conflicting information. This scattershot approach made it impossible to get a holistic view of student needs. Recognizing that inconsistency was the core problem, the district's technology team took control, building their own centralized data system and requiring all technology vendors to adhere to their unified standard. This commitment to district-wide consistency was the foundational step in transforming fragmented data into a powerful tool for change.
By establishing a single, authoritative source of information, Highline unlocked the ability to see the interconnected factors that shape a student's educational journey. The district can now automatically generate nightly reports that compare reading performance among English language learners across different schools, or analyze behavioral and attendance data alongside academic progress. This integrated view allows leaders to ask—and answer—critical questions that were previously impossible to explore, such as, "Does the consistency of transportation pick-up times influence chronic absenteeism?" or "How can we identify and recruit more teachers who are most successful with middle school students whose first language is Vietnamese?" By enforcing a consistent interoperability framework, Highline demonstrated that when a district moves from a collection of disparate tools to a truly integrated ecosystem, it can finally leverage data to make strategic decisions that directly drive positive student outcomes.
This Story from the Field is a supplement to the 2025 Project Unicorn State of the Sector Report which analyzes K-12 school system capabilities and infrastructure for leveraging education data. Read the full report.
