Analytics has become a major buzzword. Everyone wants analytics for their organization and many companies say they offer it. But analytics can be a loosely defined concept that doesn’t mean very much without additional detail and context. As a leader in the education technology space, Macro Connect has assessed hundreds of softwares and vendors on behalf of our schools and districts. It’s part of our job to find and recommend the best solutions, and that includes companies that offer analytics tools that allow our clients to better leverage their data in a meaningful way.

As part of our Partner Profile series, this post will focus on a fellow Michigan-based data analytics firm called Eidex. The Macro Connect team came across Eidex in 2019. After spending time diving into their products and meeting the people who stand behind it, we are excited to share the power of Eidex with all of you. Let’s dive in!

Analytics for Educators by Educators

Eidex is a software company built by educators. They have lived and experienced the same challenges that you and your teachers face every day: the demands for increased accountability; the strains of limited resources; and the growing requirements for reporting to district, ISD, and State administrators. Together, their team and product are built around the same singular passion, to improve learning, with an exclusive focus on K-12 education.

Visualizing Success

The challenge with data is that, at its core, it’s just a lot of numbers. Hundreds or thousands of rows and columns filled with numbers. For most of us, that’s overwhelming and isn’t very helpful. In fact, it can be downright unhelpful because trying to sort through it all can cost us a lot of valuable time. Understanding this challenge, Eidex knows to process all that data into something usable and then displays the data and findings in a way that’s helpful.

Suddenly, those endless rows and columns of numbers sort themselves into patterns that you can see clearly in a chart. With flowing line graphs or cluster charts, your eyes are drawn to dips, peaks, or gaps that highlight the things that are working well and those that need improvement.

Eidex FOCUS: A One-Stop Solution

As an education administrator, you have a wide range of responsibilities. One day it’s academic performance. The next day it’s financial health. And last week you had to help review the staffing plans. The Eidex FOCUS solution filters data for everything into one, easy-to-use platform.

• Financial Data: Funding is a constant limitation in education, so you need to make sure every dollar is spent wisely. Data visualization from Eidex helps you compare your spending vs. outcomes, your Return on Investment, and helps you compare your results to those of other schools or districts with similar demographics. In short, they help you allocate resources better by allowing you to make faster, more informed decisions.
• Peer Comparison: Comparative financial data is just one example of the way Eidex helps you benchmark against other schools and districts. Peer Comparison is an essential element of the FOCUS tool. It especially includes the ability to compare performance between schools within your own district. Comparing results is a powerful way to assess your performance and simultaneously gives you an example of how to improve. When you know who is outperforming you, you can more easily learn why and how you can get there, too. We’re all in this together, after all.

Eidex PRISM: Examine Every Angle

If you need to dive deeper into the data and glean insights at a student-by-student level, Eidex also offers their PRISM solution. This enhanced platform provides a 360-degree view of your student data with everything from robust student profiles, attendance and behavioral information, and academic assessments. With such a comprehensive and detailed resource, you can better meet the needs of each and every student.

• Focus On Each Student: The PRISM tool lets you dive deep into each student’s individual metrics to see how they fit into the larger picture. And it helps you sort that data in different ways to provide a variety of different perspectives. It even shows you historical trends so that you can monitor progress over time.
• Granularity & Flexibility: PRISM doesn’t just show you individual student data. It also helps you aggregate and sort students into relevant groups. Some of those groups might include grade level, subject, demographic, teacher, classroom, or building. The power comes from the fact that you’re in control and can sift and separate based on the insights you need.
• Seamless Integration: One of the most useful features is that you don’t need to change your SIS to accommodate PRISM. The team of Eidex engineers and developers work hard to ensure interoperability and secure, efficient data transfer between your school’s system and their analytics platform.

There are infinite ways to use PRISM to benefit student performance and the effectiveness of your administrative team. You can analyze student-level data to find insights that will help you modify and improve your instruction. You can identify low-performing, high-performing, and “bubble students” to provide the right type of academic support. And with their unique visualization capabilities, you can easily communicate these insights to your stakeholders to help make decisions and progress. Check out this video for a concrete example of how actionable insights can help your students.

Connect with Eidex

If you want to learn more about Eidex, you can check out their website, follow them on social media, or register for one of their workshops, or find them at an education conference.

• Website
• Eidex Events
• Facebook
• Twitter
• YouTube

*We understand that for the Spring of 2020, in-person events and workshops will be postponed or cancelled. Once the immediate threat of Coronavirus has subsided and life begins to return to normal, Eidex will update their workshop and conference lists.*

Eidex is cooking up a series of webinars to introduce their new release of PRISM, which includes various added functionalities. These webinars will also show how educators can best leverage data as a tool to help prepare students for reentry once they return to school. It will be updated on the website once details are finalized.

If you are interested about implementing or learning more about Eidex at your school, our team can help! Reach out to us below. We can’t wait for you to start discovering powerful insights that will benefit your student body.