Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Edtech Data Platforms topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
Upper Darby committee advances pilot of Linkit student-data platform, staff say
Summary
Committee members heard a presentation on Linkit and agreed to forward a Feb. board vote for a districtwide pilot Feb–May; staff said the contract with Performance Matters is expiring and switching could raise annual costs by roughly $10,000–$15,000 plus upfront fees.
The Education and People Services Committee of Upper Darby SD heard a presentation Tuesday on a proposed pilot of Linkit, a student-data platform, and members agreed the item should be forwarded to the full board for a February vote.
Dr. Kelly, who led the presentation to the committee, said the district is seeking approval to run a pilot of Linkit from February through the end of May. "I'm seeking board's approval to pilot Linkit, an educational data platform to be utilized throughout the school district by central administrators, building administrators, and teachers," Dr. Kelly said. The pilot would let staff log in with district data to evaluate dashboards, assessments and MTSS tools before a potential full rollout.
The request is driven in part by the district's expiring contract with Performance Matters. Dr. Kelly told the committee that Linkit "was founded in 2010 and currently serves more than 2 million students across 700 school districts in 27 states," and described four product components: data warehousing, assessment tools, navigator analytics and an intervention manager to align MTSS tiers.
On costs, Dr. Kelly said the change would likely increase annual licensing costs modestly. "There is a small increase in this of about I want to say 10 to $15,000," he said, adding that a new implementation typically carries an upfront first-year cost and that staff are comparing costs across vendors.
Committee members asked technical and implementation questions. When a member asked whether Linkit could display attendance, Dr. Kelly said the platform is customizable and can integrate with the district's student information system so attendance and other fields can appear on dashboards. On training, he said Linkit provides a one-day training and "a few hours" of sessions; staff plan to complete the pilot by May so the committee can consider a recommendation during the budget process and, if approved, pursue full implementation for the 2026–27 school year.
Dr. Kelly also noted the district has been reviewing two other solutions; one offers a sandbox/demo, while Linkit can accept some district data for a pilot. He described the district's current data warehouse as coming to "end of life," which has made some data work more cumbersome and helped prompt the review of replacements.
Co-chair Britney Williams and other committee members indicated they were comfortable forwarding the pilot request and the associated policy items to the February board meeting for formal action. The committee adjourned after moving the business items forward.
Next steps: The committee will present the pilot request and three policy revisions to the full board in February; the transcript records committee agreement to move both items for board consideration but does not record a formal board vote on the pilot within this meeting.
