So, who are these education entrepreneurs? Co-founder Chris Rose is a former high school math teacher who taught Algebra and Pre-Calculus and understands the challenges of the classroom. He has a passion for providing educators with good design, engineering, and development to help them help students. Chris is currently the SVP of Product & Technology at Abre, an all-in-one education management platform built for improving outcomes and unleashing the potential of everyone in the learning community.

Co-founder Zach Vander Veen has worn many hats in education, including History Teacher, Technology Coach, Administrator, and Director of Technology. He is an experienced educator and EdTech director with history both in the classroom and supporting other teachers. His goal at Abre is to use technology to enhance the experience for the whole learning community. This means not just simplifying day-to-day administrative tasks, but also creating smart systems to connect students, families, educators, and partners, reducing the burden on educators and supporting the whole child through holistic analysis and development of lifelong skills.

What separates Chris and Zach from the founders of most other education technology companies is the understanding that with enough information, an educator can move mountains. With that in mind, you would think that mountains are moved every moment of every day in American schools, because every moment, unbelievable quantities are data are collected in these schools. For example, when behaviors occur in the classroom, they are noted. When a student aces a test, the score is logged. When a child is absent, the date is recorded. Every day, schools collect mountains of data on each student that walks through their doors.

The truth in the majority of schools is, not much at all. Most schools file all that data away on different platforms, in separate folders, and binders of one category or another. The data stays (relatively) safe and sound in its own little section.

Although most districts are swimming in data, their students are dying of thirst. Like the forest and the trees, there is far too much data to be able to find and use what you need when you need it. Educators are the heart and soul of the district. And most administrative positions, from the building principal to the district superintendent, came up through the ranks. It is simply impractical for these folks to be both data experts and learning experts.

Placed together with data, an educator’s teaching experience, his or her intuition, judgement and instincts can be extremely valuable tools for decision-making.

However, when school leaders lack the tools they need to synthesize data across all facets of a child’s life, they may be forced to rely on just their gut feelings and instincts.

Every child is different, and every community is different, with different needs, demands, and preferences. Without a modern data solution, administrators are unable to make data-informed decisions and they struggle to defend their decisions to their communities, parents, and school boards.

Without a platform like Abre, tracking down and making sense of data requires an inordinate amount of manual effort and time. While staff and teachers spend up to 40 percent of their time combing through spreadsheets and juggling different siloed apps, they’re missing out on the chance to connect with students. While administrators piece together retrospective data, they’re missing out on the real-time information they need to make the best decisions for their districts.

As both a partner and a platform, Chris, Zach and the amazing Abre team take the data and drive actionable insights from it. Meanwhile, your K-12 team can maximize their time and get back to doing what they do best, using the information and data-driven insights to help drive student outcomes. You hand over your raw data and they take it from there. Teachers, staff, and families have access to everything they need with one login, where they can quickly and easily see insights to let them know where to focus their efforts.

Data gathered in the classroom might be relevant to a counselor. Behavioral data might help a parent see how to better set their child up for success; what you get is a one-stop shop where you can centralize data, resources, and communication to everyone in your learning community. Administrators, families, and teachers are all stakeholders in the outcome. Abre gives all stakeholders access to data that has the power to change a student’s life for the better.

Abre isn’t just another license or program for you to buy. It consolidates your technology into one platform and helps you save on unused apps and licenses. In short, you get less headache for your teachers and families, and less needless spending for your schools.

You can evaluate programs and see the ones that are growing students and building positive outcomes and those that aren’t. And most importantly, you’ll see growth areas, and areas of need you may not have noticed.

And as a partner working with you every step of the way, Abre helps you roll out the platform with a phased approach to easily manage change with your staff and learning communities.

Because the Abre team is made up of educators and school technology directors like Chris and Zach who saw the potential of data used well, they understand the struggle to make sense of the numbers while trying to focus on students, so they stepped into the gap. Abre saves you money and helps you reinvest in what matters most — your students. In a comprehensive technology stack assessment with more than 15 school districts, Abre has identified cost savings between $12 and $40 per student. In fact, it is not uncommon for a customer with 5000 students to save $100,000, said Chris Rose. That money can be reinvested in students and educators to drive better outcomes.