Author Archives: Matthew Rhoads, Ed.D.

Launching YouTube Channel

Purpose This project has been a long time coming but it was recently spurred by the effects of the Coronavirus on K-12 schools and at colleges/universities. For months I have been planning on developing a YouTube channel devoted to edtech tool “how-to’s” for all classrooms and data literacy tutorials to help build the capacity ofContinue reading “Launching YouTube Channel”

EQRC Conference Presentation: MAJOR THEMES FOUND IN CALIFORNIA REGARDING HOW DATA PRACTICES AND CULTURES ARE UTILIZED AND ESTABLISHED IN K-12 SCHOOLS AND DISTRICTS

Tomorrow, I am speaking at the Ethnographic and Qualitative Research Conference in Las Vegas. I am excited about the opportunity as I get to share my research with peers in the field of education as well as researchers in other fields. The results of this research is intended to inform educational leaders and policymakers regarding what is needed to help educational leaders like principals, assistant principals, superintendents, district coordinator, teacher leaders, and teachers to provide insight to how they can become more data literate. Ultimately, data literacy is needed in order to utilize various data practices (i.e., collecting, compiling/cleaning, and transforming data using statistics) to make data-driven decisions for instructional improvement. I am excited to share a quick summary of the research as well as the slideshow I am presenting at the conference tomorrow morning. 

Being “Data-Driven” is More Than Just Quantitative Data

This past weekend I attended the Association of California School Administrations Region 17 Annual Conference at my alum mater Concordia University, Irvine. During the conference, I got to listen to George Couros, a well-known educational leader who has made large contributions to the field of education and education technology. I am in agreement with almostContinue reading “Being “Data-Driven” is More Than Just Quantitative Data”

Recently Published on ACSA’s EdCal Editorial

This week I am very excited to announce I have been published in this week’s edition of EdCal, which is the Association of California Administrators online and print editorial. The article summarizes my research and outlines the need for educational leaders need to build their data literacy skills to improve their schools and districts inContinue reading “Recently Published on ACSA’s EdCal Editorial”

The Power of Analyzing Statewide Education Data: Self-Affirming Conclusions that Prompt Us to Dig Deeper Into the Data

Data is powerful, especially in the realm of education. At times, it may be self-affirming while on the other hand, it makes you question your current practices and policies because the data identifies further ramifications that make us have to dig deeper to determine what’s going on as well as devising solutions to the problems we face as educators. But, most importantly, it tells a story about the students we serve, which then we are called to do something about it as teachers and administrators. Over the last few days, I have been able to analyze several data sets that have been collected from the California Department of Education. The data sets I analyzed encompass all of the 2018 California K-12 School demographics, state testing scores, attendance rates, suspension rates, and funding mechanisms. My goal was to transform the data into several self-affirming stories of what the data is telling us as well as how we dig deeper into the stories the data is illustrating to determine new insights into we how to solve the problems we have identified.

Doctoral Research Update – Working Title and Progress on Chapters 1, 2, and 3.

Doctoral Research Update – Working Title and Progress on Chapters 1, 2, and 3: Chapter 1, 2, and 3 of my dissertation are coming along very well. While revision and editing are needed for each chapter, major progress has been made this summer!

Summer 2018 China Trip

This summer I was lucky enough to travel to China for my doctoral program. Our trip spanned 15 days and encompassed the cities of Shanghai, Beijing, and Xi’an. During our stay in China, we had meetings with K-12 and post-secondary educators, international education attorney’s, and officials from the Confucius Institute.  In this blog post, I will outline two focal points pertaining to K-12 education and higher education I was able to research and analyze over the course of the trip. In addition, I will discuss some fun sidenotes and tourist destinations we were able to visit during this trip. 

Evaluating California’s Tax System: Ranking the Tax System and Determining the Best Tax to Fund Education

California’s tax code is a complex system that has been reformed numerous times over the course of its history. Currently, California has some of the highest overall taxes in the United States. Politicians in California argue about taxes during every election cycle as well as when they determine the state’s budget. Democrats advocate for increasingContinue reading “Evaluating California’s Tax System: Ranking the Tax System and Determining the Best Tax to Fund Education”

New Book: Igniting Your Teaching with Educational Technology – A Resource for New Teachers

A New Book! I would like to announce the release of Igniting Your Teaching with Educational Technology: A Resource for New Teachers I helped write with my doctoral cohort. As a cohort, we worked extremely hard to complete this project over the course of the last quarter. I am proud of our accomplishment and I extremelyContinue reading “New Book: Igniting Your Teaching with Educational Technology – A Resource for New Teachers”