The Sampson County Board of Education delayed a vote this month on a proposed contract with Panorama, an educational data platform district leaders say could help teachers and principals better identify students who may be struggling by bringing multiple forms of student information together in one place.
The proposal stemmed from conversations among school principals who have expressed concerns about not having the right data readily available to accurately and effectively assist students who are struggling in school. After needs assessments were completed, nine principals met with district staff to discuss possible solutions.
One of the ideas that emerged from those discussions was implementing a platform where all student data could be housed in one place.
At the school board meeting last week, Superintendent Dr. Jamie King introduced a representative from Panorama to present the platform to board members.
King clarified that he was not in the meeting with the principals and district staff, but said this platform would “hopefully” help teachers “to pull that data together to then know what to do” with students.
A representative from Panorama, Liz Crayton, spoke to the school board about how Panorama could support staff and students and said she would be happy to answer any questions the board might have.
Crayton presented statistics showing how Panorama has helped principals and teachers, but did not clarify details behind those statistics.
Although Crayton declined to answer questions about Panorama, its website, panoramaed.com says the company offers “thousands of districts” a way to “connect student data and AI with action across MTSS, pathways, surveys, and instruction.”
From its “About” information on the site, it reads:At Panorama Education, we believe improving education starts with understanding every student. Since 2012, we’ve partnered with districts to give educators a “panoramic” view of every student and the tools to act on it.
King and the Panorama representative encouraged the board to approve the contract during the meeting so the platform could be integrated as efficiently as possible.
However, board members Sonya Powell and Kimberly Schmidlin questioned whether they had enough information to make a decision that evening. The meeting also marked the final regular board meeting for both Powell and Schmidlin.
Schmidlin remarked that “it would be nice to hear from the district on it, you know, from people who this is going to impact…what we need for it, and how easy it’s gonna be to integrate it, or how challenging.”
Following discussion, the board voted to delay action on the Panorama contract until its July meeting.
After the meeting, King referred The Sampson Independent to Dr. Wendy Cabral, the system’s executive director of personnel services and federal programs, and Dr. James Parker IV, executive director of middle schools, for additional information about the platform.
Cabral said Panorama provides educators with a centralized location for student information.
“Attendance data, discipline data, any academic and testing data, and so you have it all in one place,” Cabral explained.
Cabral said the district is trying to identify students who may be at risk.
“Panorama offers that,” she said. “It’s just a platform with all of the data in one place.”
Cabral said Parker met with Panorama staff several times to review the product, how it functions and how other school districts are using it.
“It’s just a platform, it’s not a program,” Cabral emphasized. “It’s just all the data’s dumped in there, real-time data, and so it just gives them a real holistic picture of the students.
“They can see maybe a slip in a grade,” or if the platform shows a student’s “data seems to be a little lower than average, they can go, ‘Oh, well, the student was out of school for two weeks because maybe they were sick.’ So, it just gives you data in one place,” Cabral summarized.
Cabral said Parker could provide additional insight into the Panorama platform.
“He sat through and communicated with Liz, our Panorama representative,” she said.
Parker was contacted for comment but was unavailable before press time.
Crayton was unwilling to give any comment after the presentation and unwilling to even spell her name for The Sampson Independent, saying she was not allowed to speak to the newspaper about herself or any information regarding the Panorama data platform.
During her presentation, she never once mentioned the AI aspect though it’s clearly stated on the company’s website.