By Aaron Reedy, Cofounder and the CEO at DataClassroom

A Partnership Rooted in Need

One of the most rewarding success stories for us at DataClassroom came from our longstanding partnership with Loudoun County Public Schools, a large suburban school district in Virginia that was working to bring authentic data analysis into their middle and high school science programs. Their science supervisors told us that teachers were confident in delivering lab content but hesitant when it came to guiding students through the more quantitative side of inquiry. As a result, students often collected rich experimental data but were not engaging as fully as they could with the NGSS practices.

Piloting DataClassroom: Lowering Barriers to Data Skills

We worked directly with the district’s science leaders to pilot DataClassroom in a handful of science classrooms at first. The initial challenge was twofold: teachers needed a tool that lowered the barrier to teaching data skills, and leaders needed evidence that students could handle more rigorous analysis aligned with the NGSS practices of “Analyzing and Interpreting Data” and “Using Mathematics and Computational Thinking.”

From Eyeballing to Statistical Thinking

Now, five years later, with incredible support from those district science leaders, students who had previously relied on “eyeballing” results are running t-tests and chi-square analyses with confidence, guided by DataClassroom’s scaffolds. In classrooms that conduct many labs, students are now spending more time than ever discussing the story behind their lab data and much less time simply making graphs.

Throughout our partnership, Loudoun County has expanded its use of our tools across all of their secondary schools. For us, this success story illustrates what happens when science education leaders are empowered with the right tools: teachers gain confidence, students gain agency, and districts move closer to their vision of inquiry-driven science learning where students do real science.

Supporting Leaders Through Professional Development

The most effective support we have provided to science education leaders lies in the ways we help them support their teachers. This almost always begins and ends with professional development for their educators. Tools alone do not transform classrooms; teachers do. That’s why we have built our partnerships around sustained, practical PD that gives educators the confidence and skills to integrate authentic data practices into their teaching.

Our professional development workshops—delivered both in person and virtually—focus on the “how” of teaching with data. Leaders tell us that what resonates most is the way we model classroom-ready strategies, from designing experiments with messy, real-world data to using our platform to scaffold NGSS-aligned practices.

Measuring Leadership Success

We define the success of science education leadership by looking at how effectively leaders create the conditions for both teachers and students to thrive in data-driven science learning. To us, strong leadership is measured not just by technology adoption, but by the ripple effect it has on classroom practice and student outcomes.

We measure that success in three key ways:

• Teacher Confidence and Capacity – When teachers report that they feel more capable of guiding students through authentic data collection, graphing, and analysis, we see leadership success. This often appears in post-PD feedback where educators say things like, “I can actually teach this tomorrow.”
  

• Student Engagement with Data Practices – Success is evident when more students move beyond “eyeballing results” to engaging in the NGSS practices of Analyzing and Interpreting Data and Using Mathematics and Computational Thinking. The leaders who champion these practices create classrooms where data literacy is not reserved for a few advanced students but is accessible to all.
  

• Systemic, Sustainable Change – Finally, we see leadership success when districts embed data practices across grade levels and subjects, rather than in isolated classrooms.
  

In short, we define and measure the success of leadership by the growth of teacher confidence, the depth of student engagement, and the sustainability of systemic change that leaders make possible.

Innovation Rooted in the Classroom

We believe that most of our innovation stems from the fact that our company’s DNA is rooted in the experience of teaching science. I was a high school science teacher in the Chicago Public Schools before I started working on the first prototype of DataClassroom. Nearly everything we do is designed to improve that moment when students are fully engaged in a lab activity and then hit a wall when it comes time to graph, analyze, and interpret data. I often referred to that moment as the time when all the fun got sucked out of my classroom. That moment is exactly where we are always trying to make things better for the science classroom.

Empowering Leaders for Equity and Access

We aim to empower science leaders to help their schools at that exact moment. In particular, we want to help those leaders make deeper analysis and statistics accessible to all students. This sounds like an obvious goal, but given the realities and challenges in schools, it can be more difficult than it sounds. We have built animated, interactive hypothesis tests and graphing tools that allow students to run t-tests, chi-square analyses, and regressions without needing advanced math software or coding. This shifts the focus from “Can my students do the math?” to “Can my students make sense of the science?” Leaders have told us this change is crucial for equity and access.

Another way we empower leaders is by helping them view DataClassroom not as an add-on, but as an extension of the NGSS Science and Engineering Practices, especially Analyzing and Interpreting Data and Using Mathematics and Computational Thinking. This ensures that leaders can directly connect the classroom use of DataClassroom to district science goals and accountability frameworks.

Learning and Growing with NSELA

Overall, I think our biggest innovation is not in flashy features, but in helping science leadership recognize the 21st-century need to make authentic data work possible for every student. Through NSELA, we have had the opportunity to share not only our tools, but also our professional development strategies that give teachers the confidence to bring authentic data into their classrooms. NSELA has provided us with a platform to highlight success stories, learn from the challenges leaders are facing across the country, and ensure our solutions are aligned with their priorities. This two-way exchange has helped us refine our work and tailor our resources to meet the real needs of science leaders and the schools they serve.

Advice for Science Education Leaders

My advice is simple: invest in your teachers first, and the rest will follow. Science education leadership is not just about adopting new standards or choosing the right tools—it is about creating the conditions where teachers feel confident, supported, and inspired to take risks in their classrooms. If districts and states do more to support their teachers, then science leaders will be able to achieve more with their schools and departments.

Second, I encourage supervisors to make data literacy a priority across grade levels and subject areas. Authentic data analysis is not just for AP Biology or advanced labs. When middle school students learn to graph and interpret real data, they are building the foundation for scientific thinking that will carry them through high school, into college, and beyond. Leaders who set the expectation that “every student is a data student” help make equity in science education a reality.

Finally, stay connected with your peers. Organizations like NSELA give science leaders the chance to learn from one another, share what is working, and collectively move the field forward. Leadership is not about having all the answers, but about creating networks of support where innovation and good ideas can spread.

In short, my advice is this: empower your teachers, prioritize data literacy for all students, and lean on your professional community. That combination builds leadership that lasts.