Braintree schools roll out Open Architects to centralize student data; committee presses for privacy safeguards

The Braintree School Committee on Jan. 13 heard a detailed presentation on Open Architects, a data‑analytics platform the district is adopting to centralize student assessment, attendance and intervention records across grades.

District staff and classroom specialists described how the platform aggregates MCAS, STAR and DIBELS scores and provides teachers and interventionists with tools — such as a “student explorer,” filterable performance widgets and intervention progress logs — to identify students who need supports and to track interventions over time. “It puts everything in one place,” one presenter said, explaining that the platform follows the district’s MTSS (multi‑tiered system of supports) approach and helps staff see longitudinal growth from kindergarten through middle school.

Teachers showed examples of the platform in use during the committee meeting, explaining that OA’s widgets let them filter by performance band to form targeted intervention groups and attach progress logs or scanned documents to show evidence of student work. An interventionist said the system allows tagging of interventionists, listing targeted focus areas and maintaining a progress log so teams can track both attendance and intervention outcomes.

Committee members focused their questions on parental access, data privacy and recordkeeping. One member raised a privacy concern about behavioral or observational notes following students over time; presenters said access is role‑based and limited (teachers see only their current roster) and that parents can request standardized reports through teachers or interventionists. On audit trails, district staff said edits and deletions are possible and that the platform is web‑based, but they did not demonstrate a user‑visible version history during the meeting. When asked whether deleted entries could be recovered, presenters said the platform is editable and deletable from the user side, and that the district would consult the vendor about version history and audit capabilities.

Presenters also emphasized the need to walk parents through test and screener data rather than sending raw reports. “You don’t just give that to someone,” a presenter said, noting that staff should explain what each metric means during conferences.

What’s next: committee members requested clearer written guidance on what staff should record in OA, a demonstration of any audit‑trail features, and explicit district rules for parent access to data. The district said it will follow up with the vendor and return with more detailed privacy and implementation procedures.

Provenance: The presentation and the subsequent questions and answers on parental access, data entry practices, and audit trails were presented and discussed in the meeting segments covering the administrative update and OA demonstration (see meeting transcripts beginning with the OA introduction and the teacher demonstrations).