Alaska ED Adopts Stakeholder Intelligence System
The Alaska Department of Education has implemented a cloud-based stakeholder intelligence system to help
gather insight into the opinions and priorities of a large number of
stakeholders across the state's vast geography, 54 school districts and
culturally diverse population.
Alaska adopted the system to get a head start on its implementation of the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA), which President Obama signed into law in December 2015. Under
the law, states are required to implement ESSA policies in the 2016-17
school year. In order to meet this deadline, Alaska needs to update its
policies, a process which requires input from stakeholders from across
the state. Alaska is coping with a state deficit of more than 4 billion
dollars, along with travel and hiring freezes, so the Department of
Education needed to find a virtual process for engaging its
geographically diverse stakeholders.
"We really wanted to hear
the voices of our stakeholders and have meaningful consultation," said
Bernie Sorenson, lead facilitator of Alaska's ESSA initiative, in a
news release. "Priority one for the Department of Education was to turn
control as much as possible surrounding implementation of ESSA to local
school districts."
The state implemented Powernoodle,
a cloud-based system that combines stakeholder intelligence with
traditional business intelligence to support organizations in the
decision-making process. "As a facilitator, the opportunity to be part
of developing the State of Alaska's ESSA strategy out of the gate is
exciting but also, quite daunting," added Sorenson. "Powernoodle is
giving us the ability to efficiently appreciate the perspective of key
stakeholders while diving deeply into insights and options."
The
Alaska State Board of Education will use the rest of the 2016 school
year to gather input from its stakeholders with the help of Powernoodle
before it begins the policy-drafting process. In its first five weeks
using the system, the board has experienced a 440 percent financial
return on investment, according to a news release from Powernoodle.
During that same time period, the board gathered more than 3,000 ESSA
ideas, insights and evaluations and saw a weekly participation rate of
up to 95 percent across its 40-person cross-state advisory council.
About the Author
Leila Meyer is a technology writer based in British Columbia. She can be reached at [email protected].