Success Stories

Crete-Monee 201-U’s Standards-Based Journey

Otus Team — Mon, 05 Jan 2026 16:55:47 GMT

For years, Crete-Monee School District 201-U lived in two grading worlds: K–2 used standards-based report cards while grades 3–5 relied on traditional letter grades. On top of that, educators were using a growing mix of separate tools for assessments, grades, and data. Coming out of COVID, report cards needed cleanup, expectations around grading were shifting, and an IB review at the middle school level pushed the district to think differently about standards altogether.

Two Schools Share What Actually Helped to Achieve Better Grading

Otus Team — Tue, 23 Dec 2025 16:02:15 GMT

At our latest regional workshop, two Wisconsin districts—Wilmot Union High School and Monroe School District—shared the kind of stories that educators remember. Not the glossy “after” picture, but the honest middle: the experiments, the missteps, the aha moments, and the decisions that actually moved learned forward.

Westmont’s Five-Year Journey Toward Meaningful Growth

Otus Team — Wed, 19 Nov 2025 15:50:31 GMT

In 2019, Westmont CUSD 201 (IL) set out to make grading more meaningful. The district was preparing to transition to standards-based grading, but finding a way to connect instruction, feedback, and student data in one place proved to be a bit of a challenge.

How Wayne County Schools Has Streamlined Data and Assessment

david.specht@otus.com (David Specht) — Thu, 27 Feb 2025 19:12:34 GMT

Wayne County Schools in southeast Georgia has taken a fresh look at the way it approaches common assessments and data management. Leading the charge are Erin Franks, K-5 Instructional Technology Specialist, and LaRae Thornton, Instructional Technology Specialist for grades 6–12. Together, they’ve helped the district move from a frustrating, piecemeal process to a comprehensive, time-saving solution.

Three Perspectives Fueling Change in Bulloch County

david.specht@otus.com (David Specht) — Thu, 27 Feb 2025 16:36:20 GMT

If you ask almost any school or district leader about their biggest challenges, the answer often sounds the same: important data lives in too many places. From assessment scores to attendance records, teachers and administrators find themselves juggling multiple platforms and spreadsheets, struggling to spot trends, target interventions, or even have productive team meetings. Everyone knows the data is crucial, but getting it in one place can feel impossible.

How One District Uses Otus and Discovery Education

david.specht@otus.com (David Specht) — Tue, 18 Feb 2025 14:32:07 GMT

At Salem School District, ensuring every student thrives isn’t just a goal—it’s a guiding principle. Nestled in the town of Salem, Wisconsin, this close-knit district of nearly 1,000 students takes a proactive approach to fostering growth. From implementing innovative tools to creating systems that empower both educators and learners, Salem is dedicated to cultivating lifelong learners who reach their full potential.

To streamline data management and enhance student outcomes, Salem relies on Otus and Discovery Education. Together, these tools provide educators with a centralized platform to simplify their workflows and maximize the impact of their efforts. With everything from state and national assessment results to DreamBox Math data unified in one place, Salem’s educators have drastically improved how they approach instruction, collaboration, and student support.

How a Data-Driven Culture Propelled Hamilton County

david.specht@otus.com (David Specht) — Fri, 14 Feb 2025 20:11:27 GMT

Hamilton County Schools, a Title 1 district in Jasper, Florida, has achieved something remarkable: a nearly full letter grade improvement on its state accountability report. At the heart of this success is a cultural shift toward data-driven decision-making, led by Superintendent Lee Wetherington-Zamora and Chris Combass, the district’s Director of Teaching and Learning.

How Weld County School District Re-3J Uses Data to Support Every Learner

kristine.leblanc@otus.com (Kristine LeBlanc) — Mon, 09 Dec 2024 16:41:21 GMT

At Weld County School District Re-3J in Hudson, Colorado, Executive Director of Assessment and Innovation Becky Langlois, Ed. D. is reshaping how educators access and use data to support students’ academic, social, and future-readiness goals. With a student-focused approach and a commitment to practical solutions, Becky and her team have created a more cohesive and supportive learning environment. Below are three ways Re-3J’s approach to data is helping students and teachers thrive.

Three Ways Weld Re-3J Supports Student Success with Data

Creating a Central Hub for Student Data and Progress

Before the district adopted Otus, student information was spread across various platforms, creating challenges for teachers, and making it difficult to follow each student’s journey. Since adopting a central hub for all student data, teachers can now access historical and current information in one place.

This cohesive setup makes it easier to add to existing progress plans each year, which helps teachers focus more on planning meaningful instruction and less on administrative tasks.

“Our previous platform was antiquated and far from intuitive. When we moved away from it, we tried to use our Student Information System to create student plans, but that alone wasn’t enough. We ended up relying on Google Drive and manually pulling third-party data from various websites to piece together data snapshots. It was very much a hodgepodge. This was a huge driver for us in adopting Otus—we needed a solution that could produce reports and capture all that data in one place.”

Becky Langlois

Executive Director of Assessment and Innovation
,
Weld County School District Re-3J

Tailoring Tools to Fit the District’s Goals

Through close collaboration with Otus, Re-3J has developed tools that align with its unique goals, including a graduate profile rubric and CO-READ plans. The district’s CO-READ plans, which support early literacy development in alignment with the Colorado READ Act, were previously housed in a separate system that wasn’t user-friendly for staff or families. Transitioning these plans into Otus has made them significantly easier to access, update, and share, ensuring students get the consistent, tailored support they need.

By centralizing these tools alongside other key data points, Weld Re-3J empowers educators to better track student progress and make informed instructional decisions. These flexible, customizable tools support the district’s broader goals of college and career readiness, as well as day-to-day classroom success.

"I go to our Client Experience Partner, Michelle, with these crazy ideas, and she's always like, 'Let me put something together and give you a prototype, and then let's build from there.' For our CO-READ plan, she worked very closely with our Assistant Superintendent, who has been really impressed with the ease of use of these plans."

Becky Langlois

Executive Director of Assessment and Innovation
,
Weld County School District Re-3J

Rolling Out Changes Gradually to Build Confidence and Engagement

Adopting new systems district-wide can feel overwhelming, but Re-3J’s gradual rollout of Otus has allowed teachers to explore the system over time. This “go slow to go fast” approach has fostered greater confidence, with educators now seeking additional ways to use data to enhance their instruction and support students. By pacing the implementation, the district has created a culture where staff feel engaged and eager to maximize the platform’s benefits.

"I would highly recommend Otus for so many reasons. Like I said, the customer service has been unparalleled for us. The support we've gotten from Otus and everyone that we've worked with has been phenomenal. They're all former educators, so they get it. It's not like they don't understand the constraints and the guardrails that we have to work within."

Becky Langlois

Executive Director of Assessment and Innovation
,
Weld County School District Re-3J

Supporting Every Student’s Journey with Otus

Otus equips districts like Weld County School District Re-3J with the tools to create a connected, data-informed approach to education. By consolidating all student data—from assessments to progress plans—into one accessible platform, Otus enables educators to monitor growth, personalize support, and make decisions that support each student’s unique path to success.
Watch the video below to see how Otus empowers educators and supports schools like Re-3J.

Discover How Otus Supports Student Success

Kendell Hunter

Becky, would you mind just starting off with a little introduction? If you could share your name, your role, the district you support, and then anything else about your background and education that you think the audience would like to know.

Becky Langlois

Sure. I'm Becky Langlois. I'm the Executive Director of Assessment and Innovation for Weld Re-3J School District. We cover three communities and a large outlier area around those communities, just northeast of Denver. My background is... Originally, I went into education. I started as a paraprofessional in a life skills classroom many years ago and realized it was my calling. I was a career changer to begin with, had a completely different background, and then went back on a master's in special education. So, I had a very strong foundation in understanding plans, IEPs, 504s, ALPs. And so then when I started at the district seven years ago, I was the special education coordinator. And at the time, we had just transitioned away from a different data warehouse. We were in this place where we had no data warehouse. As someone who had worked within IEPs and 504s, all those other plans, it felt very up in the air for us. So that's when our search began for figuring out what we could utilize. It took us a few years to find something that we were interested in actually moving forward with. But that's my background. So, I've since moved into this executive director of assessment and innovation for our district.

And again, that looks at holistically capturing a lot of data for our students. And it's for all of our students in the district. Our district is relatively small student-wise. We're just under 3,000 students. But obviously, we have lots of plans and needed a place to be able to capture those.

Kendell Hunter

Thank you so much for sharing all that. I'm also a former para turned special education teacher, so you're in good I'm funny here. I'll do it. I'm on the other end of things now, but being a para was such a good experience. I know you said that the district did not have a data warehouse. I'm curious: did your team have a list of must-haves or criteria that you brought to the conversation around what a data warehouse would need to do when you're looking for that need to streamline your progress monitoring plans? Did you need something that has X, Y, or Z? Did anything drive the decision?

Becky Langlois

I think for us, it was really driven by what would be the most beneficial for our teachers, for our staff. What would really reduce the administrative burden on them? Because a lot of data warehouses, especially at that time, didn't connect well to third-party data. So that was a big part of it for us, is what is going to be the easiest data warehouse for us to use, who has plans built in, and then what's going to be the most robust data solution for us that really captures as much as possible so that we're not having to manually, or a teacher is not having to manually input data.

Kendell Hunter

That makes sense. It sounds like it was a little twofold. You needed to be able to see the data, but you needed to be able to do something with it. Did your last platform have the ability to create plans similar to what you're doing in Otus, or was that like a Google Sheet? What did that look like before?

Becky Langlois

Previously, the platform did have the ability to make plans. It was antiquated, I would say. It was not an intuitive platform by any means. So it took a lot of training. It took a lot of upkeep and maintenance. And then when we moved away from that, we were in that limbo time where it was a lot of... We tried to utilize our student information system for some of those plans. We had Google drives. We were pulling from the actual third-party data each one of those different websites we would pull data from and try to make it into a data snapshot for each of those. So it was very much a hodgepodge, to say the least. So that was also a huge driver in this, that the way my brain that logically works was I need something that's going to produce this report for me. So that's what we all were working towards. And to be able to capture all that data in one place really was what we had hoped for.

Kendell Hunter

Awesome. Yeah. Hodgepodge and efficiency don't always go hand in hand. Got it all. I certainly understand. Would you say since adopting Otus, your team's organization of both the data and that progress monitoring piece has improved?

Becky Langlois

Oh, absolutely. Yeah, I would say everyone... Not everyone. A couple of us were big proponents of Otus early on because we saw where it could go, and we saw just the level of customer service. The support that we were receiving from Otus was above and beyond any other platform we were working with at that time. I will say that I still feel that way about Otus. I would say that a lot of folks were really concerned in the beginning because the other thing with EdTech is that it frequently... So you start with one company and then they're sold to somebody else because it's such a rapidly growing and changing field. So then everything can change. If a new company purchases that platform, then the customer service might not look the same or whatever. But we have not experienced that in the time that we've been with Otus. So, that gave people more faith in the outcomes. And then it's been a slow transition for staff to adopt. We really tried to be very intentional about our implementation and professional learning around utilizing Otus. This, but we also knew that we needed to go slow to be able to go fast eventually.

And so now we're three years in with having our staff members really utilizing the platform. And now they're like, well, can we try this, or can we add this to it? And now we're finally being able to have those conversations around common assessment and what that can look like. So, it's very exciting for me because I've really wanted this to take off since the beginning, but I also now see people realizing the usefulness of Otus and how incredibly intuitive it is. And so it's not a platform that people feel overwhelmed when they first start using it.

Kendell Hunter

Absolutely. That's so important. And I think your strategic implementation plan is probably a lot to thank for that because you show people a little bit and they're like, Oh, wait, okay, let me try a little bit more. But you have to get there on your own. So I think that's very wise. And, of course, we love to hear that customer service shout-out. So thank you so much. That is obviously a top priority for us at Otus. Digging into the actual use case of some of these plans, that entry point for you all of where you wanted to start with Otus. What was your initial vision for how the plans would be used? I know I'd love to dig into the Colorado Read Act, where that comes into the picture, and just different ways you're using Otus progress monitoring plans to support all the different student needs that you may have in your district.

Becky Langlois

Sure. So, originally when we began working with staff members, it was just around having the data accessible to them in one location with report features that made sense to be able to put in front of their building MTSS teams or a parent even. That was really user-friendly for anyone that was looking at the data. That was year one. Then we slowly moved into the second year We were able to move our 504s and ALPs over. It honestly was a grassroots approach. Once we had those case managers or teachers involved in using Otus and seeing the functionality of it and the ease of use with it, then this year, our assistant superintendent started talking about how we can make those replans more user-friendly as well because we were housing them in our student information system, which is we utilize infinite campus, I see. Being able to move it over to Otus has made it a lot more user-friendly. I will say that our customer service rep with Michelle. Michelle George is fantastic. I go to her with these crazy ideas, and she's always like, Well, let me try to put something together and give you a prototype, and then let's build from there.

That was what we did with the read plan. She worked very closely with our Assistant Superintendent, Dr. Jenny Wakeman. Her team has been really impressed with the ease of use for our read plans. Now we're actually moving on to the next step of utilizing Otus, which I'm working with Michelle right now to build out a way to be able to capture our graduate profile rubric, which we are looking at some core competencies that we want our students to be able to graduate with when they leave our district. Eventually, we're going to essentially build a student portfolio and house all their work from K-12 or however long they're in our district that will incorporate this whole body of evidence around assessment data, third-party assessment data, any internal assessment data that we want to track in there. But then we'll also be able to have portfolio work, work samples things like that, that teachers are able to put into their students' portfolio. So it's really going to be a very holistic view, K-12, of what our students are accomplishing. And that just makes me super excited because one of our strategic priorities in our district is around college and career readiness.
And so we'll be able to have students take that with them when they leave our district. So that's exciting for students and for their families to be able to see what they're working on and just making it really simple for everyone.

Kendell Hunter

Absolutely. Especially thinking about that transfer of knowledge just from year to year. It sounds like you're really putting systems in place to set up future teachers for success, students to understand, families to understand. Are you seeing stakeholders already collaborating across plans from year to year, or is it a little too soon for that? So a student with a reading plan this year, are they picking up next year with the same one?

Becky Langlois

Oh, yeah. Absolutely. So our teachers and staff members are utilizing Otus to... When a student moves up into their grade, they're looking at the plans that the student had, looking at then adding on to that plan. Instead of having to recreate a new plan year over year, they're able to just add on to it. So that's made things infinitely more simplistic and easy for our teachers. And so taking that burden off of them gives them more time for lesson planning, for team planning, whatever that looks like. So it's been very helpful.

Kendell Hunter

It's exciting. And I can't wait to see these college and career plans that you all are building. That sounds like it's going to be awesome to just follow that journey for your students who are there with you for year after year to really track that. Looking ahead to the rest of the school year, what else are you all focused on outside of those college and career goals? Is there anything else that you all are working on that you think Otus will fit into the picture as far as future planning?

Becky Langlois

I would say, at this point in time, our biggest push which is really around our grad profile rubric and that our instructional leadership team at the district level is looking at how we can push that out. So we have a pilot team that's working on it this fall, and that's where we're at working with Michelle to get that developed within Otus. Then we're going to roll it out, a soft rollout for our entire district this spring. Then in the fall, it will be the full implementation, and all students will have that rubric within their their profile in Otus. That's our biggest push at this point in time. I'm trying to think if there's anything else. Just really ensuring that we have all the data in there so that if I have a special education teacher that needs to access third-party data to be able to include in the IEP process, they'll be able to do that. I think the other thing that I'd really love to see is more across-the-board usage. We have Obviously, our GT coordinator is utilizing this. Our 504 coordinators are any teachers that have students on read plans, which goes across all of our elementary buildings.
I'd really love to see where we continue to offer professional learning opportunities for our secondary teachers, so middle and high school level, so that they can become more familiarized with using Otus and ensuring that they're accessing all the features that are available in there. Because oftentimes, secondary teachers, I was a high school special education teacher, and the content teachers can become siloed. And so this is a way for them to look at that data to then prompt more conversations with their colleagues around how to best support students.

Kendell Hunter

It's a good goal. And those rubrics are a good feature to get some buy-in. At least start with your ELA department. That's always a good entry point. I know when I see those, I'm like, Oh, that would have been so good.

Becky Langlois

Yes, absolutely.

Kendell Hunter

I just have one more question for you, Becky. Thanks so much for sharing all about this. I'm just curious if another school leader, administrator in Colorado or elsewhere reached out about Otus, would you recommend Otus as a solution for similar needs to what you've all been experienced? And if so, why?

Becky Langlois

I would highly recommend Otus for so many reasons. Like I said, the customer service has been unparalleled for us, and I work in a various different platforms, looking at our ICAP, which is graduation guidelines and requirements for our students at the secondary level. And just the support we've gotten from Otus and everyone that we've worked with has been phenomenal. They're all former educators, so they get it. It's not like they don't understand the constraints and the guardrails that we have to work within. I know that when we were in the process of adopting Otus, we've reached out to another district to be able to hear their feedback on it, and it was all very positive. I definitely think that districts should look into utilizing Otus. I've actually told a couple of people recently about it, and they said they were hopeful to be able to reach out and hear what Otus could provide for their districts. So anytime anyone needs to talk through the idea of adopting Otus in their district, I'm more than willing to have that conversation with them.

Kendell Hunter

Well, thank you. We appreciate that. And I will certainly be sure to pass on your feedback to Michelle. I know she's a former administrator, too, so she certainly understands the challenges and will appreciate the shout out, too. So thank you so much.

Becky Langlois

Yeah, absolutely.

Bulloch County Schools' Journey to Better Data and Assessment

david.specht@otus.com (David Specht) — Mon, 28 Oct 2024 15:16:01 GMT

Millie Boykin, Director of School Improvement for Bulloch County Schools, has dedicated her entire career to supporting students and educators in her district. Starting as a classroom teacher and later transitioning into leadership roles, including overseeing K-12 mathematics and school improvement efforts, Millie has always been focused on finding the right tools to empower teachers and drive student success. Over the last year, the district adopted Otus to address growing frustrations with its previous data and assessment platform. Recently, we had the chance to speak with Millie, where she shared how pairing a tool that brings all student data into one place with easy-to-use and real-time reports has re-engaged the staff in using data to drive meaningful change.

Supporting Student Growth Through Data-Driven Decision Making

david.specht@otus.com (David Specht) — Fri, 11 Oct 2024 16:08:28 GMT

Jennifer Hutchens has been a dedicated educator at Brooklet Elementary School (BES) for 25 years, with experience teaching Kindergarten, first, third, and second grades before transitioning to her role as MTSS Coordinator. Her passion for helping students grow academically shines through her data-driven approach to Multi-Tiered Systems of Support (MTSS). In this Q&A, she shares her insights on the importance of using data to drive student growth, engaging students in progress monitoring, and the value of Otus in her district’s MTSS implementation.

Q&A With Jennifer Hutchens

Otus: What does data-driven decision-making mean to you, and how do you prioritize making informed decisions that drive student growth?

Hutchens: Data-driven decision-making means making informed decisions to meet the academic needs of students. Data allows for targeted interventions. Data-driven decision-making is continuous. It determines the effectiveness of interventions and provides good information about when changes need to be made.

Otus: What does MTSS look like at Brooklet Elementary School, and what measures do you use to identify students needing Tier 2 or Tier 3 support?

Hutchens: MTSS looks slightly different at BES this year. We have four intervention teachers. One teacher serves Kindergarten and third grade. Another teacher serves first and second grade, and two teachers serve fourth and fifth grade. Each member of the MTSS team has planning time with grade levels, and the team has a designated time to plan together. To identify students needing tier 2 and tier 3 support, we use data from several sources, including iReady, running records, grades, foundational phonics benchmark assessments, and priority standards checklists.

Otus: How do you engage students in the goal-setting and progress-monitoring process so they understand their strengths and areas for growth?

Hutchens:

“I like to keep students engaged in the process of goal setting and progress monitoring. This is a great opportunity for students who struggle in the “regular” classroom to feel successful and accomplished.”

I progress monitor my students every two weeks. The students have the opportunity to see their progress on a graph. Every two weeks, the student and the teacher will work together to decide on a goal for the next two weeks. Students reflect on their progress and adjust goals as needed.

Otus: What strategies does your team use to effectively communicate progress and feedback to students and their families?

Hutchens: Our MTSS team uses several strategies to communicate progress and feedback to students and their families. We schedule regular conferences, use Google Classroom, Class Dojo, and emails to communicate with parents.

Otus: If a student is not making adequate progress towards their goals, what are some strategies you might suggest teachers implement to address their needs?

Hutchens: If a student is not making adequate progress toward their goals, there are several strategies that teachers can implement. They may need to consider flexible grouping within the grade level, scaffold learning for the student, or it may be that the student would benefit from accommodations such as extended time or modified assignments.

Otus: As a school district new to Otus, what are your first impressions? Has the training and onboarding been helpful and aligned with your school’s goals?

Hutchens:

“Otus has the potential to be a one-stop shop. It’s very user-friendly and easy to navigate. It’s so easy to enter data in the platform.”

The trainings have been especially helpful. The chat feature is also great. I have reached out by chat a couple of times and have had my questions answered very quickly. The “how to” videos are also very helpful. Otus has been very responsive to making adjustments that we have needed in the MTSS department.

Otus: How do you envision Otus supporting your district’s current MTSS and Progress Monitoring systems? Do you have any plans to either identify students for MTSS in Otus or create Plans to support the tracking of student needs?

Hutchens: Otus supports MTSS and our progress monitoring systems. The centralized data will be especially helpful to our teams to help identify students who may need more or less support under MTSS.

“I love that teachers are able to track a student’s progress over time, and we are able to look at data as a team to make informed decisions about students’ interventions.”

It is also great that everyone who works with a student who is receiving support is able to see all data, interventions, and progress monitoring for the student in one centralized location.

Otus: Are there any features in Otus that you anticipate will be time-savers for you and your team in the coming school year?

Hutchens: I anticipate that Otus is going to be a time saver for our MTSS team this year! We will begin adding all data in Otus.

“Instead of going through multiple reports to determine a student’s needs and gaps, it will all be right there for us. The ability to track progress for individual students and customize learning plans directly within Otus will save time when addressing specific student needs, especially for those requiring additional support.”

Creating a Collaborative and Data-Driven Culture

For Jennifer Hutchens, data serves as a powerful tool for shaping meaningful interventions and supporting student growth. By actively engaging students in goal-setting and using the comprehensive tools within Otus, she and her MTSS team can provide personalized support tailored to each student’s needs. With Otus’ centralized platform, Jennifer and her team are well-equipped to make informed, data-driven decisions that will have a lasting impact on their students’ academic journeys.

Watch the video below to learn more about how Otus streamlines MTSS efforts.

Learn More About MTSS and Data-Driven Instruction with Otus