Because the second largest district within the nation, it’s no small feat to investigate and perceive the wants of Los Angeles Unified College District’s broad spectrum of educators and college students to greatest serve their distinctive instructional necessities.
“In the course of the pandemic, we had been in search of methods to make sure worth on the apps we bought,” says David Kooper, Senior Director of Info Expertise at Los Angeles Unified College District. “We wished to verify the apps had been being carried out with constancy and whether or not our inside divisions ought to proceed to fund numerous apps primarily based on how usually they had been being utilized in the perfect curiosity of the district.”
For this and different efforts, Kooper, Senior Director of Info Expertise at LAUSD, was not too long ago acknowledged with the Modern Expertise Director Award on the Tech & Studying Regional Summit in Austin, a part of the Modern Chief Awards.
Betting On Massive Knowledge
A part of the duty of discovering new tech options is to find out the perfect bang for the funds buck. Validating the funding via evidence-based outcomes is right.
“Budgets are made by choices,” says Kooper. “Whereas a part of the funds includes mounted prices like staffing, the opposite facet is discretionary spending. When you put money into one space that gives you with the information that you simply want, it will doubtlessly prevent cash in one other. It is one factor to purchase a product, it is one other totally completely different factor to determine on the college stage and on the district stage whether or not or not these apps are being utilized.”
One other challenge in a district as massive and broad as LAUSD is connecting disparate faculties to gather usable info. Kooper broke down silos by equipping 400+ principals and district/college leaders with visibility into pupil system and app utilization, paired with focused skilled studying to make sure leaders might act on the information. This enabled principals to retire ineffective instruments, maximize investments, and ship extra constant digital studying throughout one of many nation’s largest college methods.
Having access to a device to find out true tech use worth throughout an enormous district utilizing information demonstrated the place cuts might be made with out affecting the scholar or educator expertise. For this, Kooper relied on perception offered by Lightspeed Methods, which proved invaluable.
“You simply have to take a look at it from a large lens to see what the impression is,” Kooper says. “What are you shedding by not investing on this, versus the amount of cash that you simply’re spending. It is smart for many districts. Districts additionally acquire the flexibility to barter or renegotiate contracts utilizing this utilization information. I do not know the way a college district might perform with out wanting on the operational and structural impression inside their information.”
For LAUSD, financial savings reaped via eradicating ineffective instruments and sensible steerage for future purchases greater than compensated for investing within the tech.
The best way to Use Knowledge Perception to Inform Skilled Growth Plans
Recommendation from Kooper to different districts seeking to replicate LAUSD’s success:
Have a look at the information. Analyze information on the app, college, and district stage to determine what coaching must happen.
Monitor implementation of not simply paid apps, however unpaid apps. Use perception from information as visibility of how usually rising applied sciences similar to AI or engineering-type apps are getting used at faculties.
Ask questions. Are there limitations to the expertise implementation? Is it resulting from a scarcity of coaching? Is it due to a scarcity of path? Is another issue limiting the publicity to a selected app or to a selected expertise?
Extrapolate which means from the information. Ask why would one college be using an app or expertise, whereas it’s being underrepresented at one other college. It offers perception which may result in observe up and focused PD on the college stage.
The Proper Tech Helps in Occasions of Want
Southern California faces added challenges resulting from excessive climate and pure disasters. When wildfires compelled college closures at Eaton and Palisades, Kooper created school-site teams to trace pupil engagement and entry in actual time.
“We measured utilization information among the many impacted college students to determine who was logging in and who doubtlessly was utilizing key apps we use in our college district for supply of instruction,” he says. “It instructed the story of the place folks had been and their skill to begin accessing studying instruments. It gave some perception by way of college students getting again to a way of normalcy primarily based on their skill to log in, entry the curriculum and get the help they wanted. It additionally gave us one further device to take a look at the impression that expertise performs on instruction.”
By surfacing variations in system and software use throughout campuses, Kooper ensured equitable digital studying continued regardless of the disruption — demonstrating how innovation via information use can instantly help college students in moments of disaster.
Larger Builds A Higher Product
Because the second largest district within the nation, LAUSD gives a broad and different alternative for focus teams. Kooper persistently drives Ok–12 innovation by piloting rising applied sciences and constructing partnerships that form the way forward for instructional expertise.
“We wish to assume we cope with companions, not simply distributors,” he says. “Every little thing we do is at scale, with all of the functionalities that make an implementation more difficult for a bigger college district. Corporations want to know beforehand how their methods are going to be impacted by the variety of customers now we have.”
That large array of consumer expertise is an asset. Kooper brings a collaborative strategy — guaranteeing principals, academics, and IT leaders are included in testing and suggestions. This inclusive course of has accelerated adoption, diminished resistance to vary, and given districts confidence that new instruments will translate to raised studying experiences for college students.
“We wish folks to have the ability to see working with LAUSD as a bonus,” he says. “They may have a canned product that works effectively for 60 or 70% of the folks. We will assist them create a product that might be utilized in methods they might not even be anticipating. The publicity is grander, with lots of customers, so we are inclined to see issues a little bit bit sooner than people.”
Past expertise pilots and roll-outs, Kooper’s packages in enterprise intelligence, system administration, software effectiveness, and community safety have offered nationwide fashions for secure, scalable, and impactful edtech adoption. Care is at all times put into new additions to this system.
“We’ve got to essentially assume out of the field and assume issues via 100% earlier than implementation to keep away from rolling the cube on impression for any consumer’s expertise,” he says.
In 2025, Kooper led LAUSD’s first districtwide display screen time evaluation, equipping leaders with information that instantly knowledgeable college board choices and dad or mum engagement. This mix of coverage management, disaster response, and neighborhood trust-building highlights how Kooper’s work extends past school rooms to form districtwide tradition.
By sharing clear, clear traits, Kooper strengthened belief between faculties, households, and the neighborhood, whereas setting a precedent for evidence-based coverage.
Procurement of Digital Options (PoDS)
PoDS is the system LAUSD makes use of to overview and approve all digital instruments, apps, and on-line companies earlier than they’re utilized in school rooms or workplaces.
Why is PoDS essential?
- Protects pupil and workers info. Many apps acquire private information. PoDS ensures distributors deal with this info safely and legally.
- Retains our community safe. One unsafe app might put a complete system in danger. PoDS prevents that.
- Ensures high quality and compliance. PoDS checks that instruments meet District requirements, align with educating targets, and work inside current methods.
- Applies to all merchandise. Free, paid, educational, or administrative. Whether it is digital, it goes via PoDS.
- Lightspeed Methods
- Mind Pop
- Discovery Schooling
- Dreambox
- EdPuzzle
- IXL
- Kami
- Labster
- Nearpod
- Newsela
- Studying Horizon
- Renaissance
- Rosetta Stone
- Seesaw
- Shmoop
- SmartMusic
- Soundtrap
- ST Math
- Zearn
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