CEDPA Conference Central
"Educating Ourselves For A Change"
The 37th Annual Conference
October 29-31, 1997
Radisson Hotel Sacramento · Sacramento, California
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Golf Tournament
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Keynote Speaker - Dr. Glynn D. Ligon

Dr. Glynn Ligon Glynn D. Ligon presents his views regarding 'Educating Ourselves for a Change' to cyberforms and data warehouses. His presentation, "Managing Education Information In The 00's Without Oh-Oh's," explores the challenges and impact of this change. As cyberforms replace paper documents and EDI reduces our reliance upon UPS, we face changes in both policy and practice. Educating ourselves for these changes requires awareness of best practice in education and business management. School districts, state education agencies, and even the Federal government offer successful models for identifying the issues and designing solutions. We can learn from each other's efforts how to move from networking to a working net. Successful strategies for education information systems will be defined and described in this address. By the year 2000, we might have not only solved the 00's but also avoided some of the "oh-oh's!"

Dr. Ligon is president of Evaluation Software Publishing, Incorporated (ESP). He was the executive director of management information for the Austin Independent School District (AISD) as well as head of their Office of Research and Evaluation. In AISD, he conducted studies in the areas of dropouts, mobility, program cost/effectiveness, classroom time use (through day-long observations), and assessment of achievement. His department was noted for its planning and organization as evidenced by the publication of an information systems architecture, a long-range plan for technology, and an annual agenda for research and evaluation.

He has participated in several activities of national importance: Steering Committee for the design of State by State Comparisons with the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), Steering Committee for the development of the Standards for Education Data Collection and Reporting (SEDCAR), Task Force for the development of SPEEDE/ExPRESS (American National Standards Institute ASC X12/EDI standards for the electronic exchange of student records), and creation of the handbook for education users of technology, "Technology @ Your Fingertips." With ESP, he has conducted studies for the National Center for Education Statistics, the National Forum for Education Statistics, and the U. S. Department of Education's Office for Policy and Planning. Dr. Ligon was a member of the National Center for Education Statistic's review team that constructed automation feasibility site visits to state education agencies. On his 12 site visits, information systems design, school effectiveness indicators, and state reporting systems were common areas of focus.

He has a Ph.D. from The University of Texas at Austin in Educational Psychology, an MA degree from Texas A and M at Kingsville (Teacher Corps program with migrant students), and a BA from Baylor University. He currently serves on the U.S. Department of Education's Evaluation Review Panel.

Featured Speakers

Sandra Tiffany
For over two decades, Sandra Tiffany has been a successful businesswoman, starting her own company and for more than the years was an executive for a Fortune 500 company. Now serving her third term as a Nevada State Assemblywoman representing the Green Valley area of Henderson (District 21), she is a member of the Government Affairs, Taxation and Infrastructure Committees and was elected Speaker ProTem and Chair of the Commerce Committee in the 68th Session of the Assembly. For the past five years she combined her business background and government affairs expertise as an associate if InfiData, a public affairs, political and market research company.

Her address for CEDPA, "A Legislator's Look Before Voting", will cover the various aspects which must be considered when we seek legislative support. Among the points to be covered are

  • The importance of staff's influence regarding the bill
  • How to approach a bill if it has a large fiscal note
  • Target an inside champion
  • Do your homework and be satisfied with a multi-year approach
  • Interim task force and their duties
  • What does the committee want to hear? And how do you answer?
  • Who should testify and what do they say
  • How should the bill be lobbied and can we lobby effectively?
  • What house do you introduce the bill in and why?
  • Tracking the complete and final passage of the bill until sine-die.

Ms. Tiffany represents portions of Clark County, the home of the fastest growing school district in the United States. Among her recent public achievements is her successful sponsorship of the SMART program for the 1997-99 Biennium. The purpose of SMART (Statewide Management of Automated Record Transfer) is to improve education in Nevada through educational accountability and informed data-driven decisions by providing electronic access to vital educational information. SMART becomes a resource to those individuals making policy and administrative decisions that effect education and to those who provide services to students. Assemblywoman Tiffany's legislation makes available $12.7 million in funding, mostly for local student information systems, networking infrastructure and workstations, plus implementation services. This second phase funding will allow statewide application of the pilot phase previously funded by an $1.8 million appropriation.

Other legislative accomplishments include having secured funding for a full service DMV office in Henderson, a five-fold increase in funding for the Community College, additional education funding for schools, funding for a study of the troubled Family Court System, and she was instrumental in the establishment of a mental health facility.

Business achievements include her 10 year executive career with Intergraph Corporation ( a Fortune 500 company), followed by her co-founding of Computer Methods, a manufacturer of nuclear medicine image processing systems. As an Associate of InfiData, she helped develop government affairs action plans for clients including Western State university, and has handled media relations, community services and special events. In charge of fund raising and candidate recruitment for the Assembly Republican Caucus, she is credited with having increased Republican representation from 13 in the 1993 Assembly to 21 in 1995. She is also a Senior Consultant with Sedgwick Noble Lowndes, in the employee benefits area.

A Washington state native, Ms. Tiffany attended UCLA and the Holy Family Hospital School of Radiology and Nuclear Medicine.

Kent Keel
Kent Keel is the Executive Director, Information Technology for the Kent (Washington) School District. Mr. Keel manages both educational and business technologies for the district, which has received favorable national attention from educators and business people alike. His discussion, "Change: New Tools With An Attitude," will focus on systems providing relevant, timely answers to questions from the perspectives of teachers, principals, program directors, district administrators, and parents. Each group benefits from developing tools to show where we're at, what s working well, and where we can next focus.

The Kent School District is the fourth largest in the Washington State and serves 26,000 students and has 3,000 employees. The district employs 130 staff to support the technology function district wide.

Kent has over 20 years' of experience in the technology field. He has worked in hospitals, utility companies, federal and city government, as well as education. Kent has a BS is computer science and a masters in technology management.

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CEDPA
Last Updated:
10/23/97