The dashboard is a free, interactive planning tool that allows school and district teams to measure their readiness for a Future Ready transition, identify gaps, select appropriate strategies, and a research-based action plan. Specific information on the dashboard can be downloaded here.

Before creating a login for the dashboard, take a look at the Future Ready Framework, the dashboard summary doc, and our 5 Step Planning Process, to give you enough background on how the process works. Then as described in Step 1, create a Future Ready planning team and begin the planning process. Superintendents are also encouraged to begin committing to the Future Ready District Pledge

The Future Ready journey involves a process of continuous improvement. As technology advances, districts will need to reassess their efforts, create a new vision for student-centered learning, and revise their plans. The Future Ready dashboard is a tool to help districts use the same language when tackling the difficult work of transitioning to digital learning. Districts should use the dashboard in a continuous fashion to assess and analyze readiness levels in various gear areas, obtain stakeholder input, assign responsibilities, set goals, and track progress over time

The initial Future Ready team meeting can take up to three hours. To cut down on time, we recommend sharing a hard copy of the district leadership assessment with each team member for review. One to two hours should be set aside for the initial leadership team meeting to complete the self-assessment questions and submit the collective findings as a team. See STEP 2 for complete instructions.

We recommend that districts set goals that are SMART (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant and Time-bound). Each district's goals are unique and are written to address one of the gaps identified through STEPs 2 and 3 in the 5 Step Process. Here is an example:

 

Sample gap: The district has not yet reviewed 21^st Century/Deeper Learning skills, selected a set of skills that resonate with all stakeholders, and integrate those skills into all curricula. To address this, the district might set the following goal:

Sample goal: In next academic year, the district will work with stakeholders to identify a set of 21^st Century skills that are essential for students’ success in school and life, and integrate those skills into all curricular frameworks.

Yes. A sample of the leadership assessment and gear surveys are posted for review on the “Framework & Resources” page. The Leadership Assessment is available on the framework page. Subsequent gear level assessments are available on each gear page.

The Future Ready Hub consists of ongoing professional learning opportunities from organizations, district leaders, and national experts. Educators visit the Hub to access events, workshops, webinars, blogs, mentoring opportunities, and artifacts from schools and districts around the country. Please send your inquiry to Sara Hall at [email protected] with a short description of your organization and what contributions you and/or your organization would like to make to the network.

Please send your inquiry to Lia Dossin to learn about current sponsorship opportunities.

We recommended that districts schedule recurring weekly meetings for the first 2–4 meetings of the planning process. This will allow team members to become familiar with both the Future Ready Dashboard and framework. Once the team is functioning and taking on direct responsibility for specific parts of the planning process, monthly meetings should suffice as long as there are clear expectations of how the dashboard will be used to accomplish the identified goals within each gear. The district's Future Ready "Project Manager" would be responsible for coordinating and facilitating the team through the 5 Step Process.

The 5 Step Process is designed to support school and district leaders in planning their digital conversion and creating an action plan. A Future Ready team should consist of a diverse group of leaders representing different roles and levels within the district. STEP 1 describes the core function of the planning team and recommends various roles that could be included as members.

After logging in the first time, your password can be changed by clicking "My Profile" and "Edit". If you don't remember your password, click "Forgot Password?" on the dashboard login page. The system will send an email with instructions to reset your password to the address associated with your account. If you do not receive the email within 30 minutes of your request, click the HELP button and our support team will change your password manually.

Adding team members to your district team is easy. Simply share your team's unique code with new members and they can add it to the registration form when creating an account or copy and paste it in the "Join Team" window on the "Create and Manage Teams" page. Locate your team's code by clicking "Create and Manage Teams" from the sidebar menu.

Access anonymous survey links for each of the Future Ready gear surveys by clicking "Engage Stakeholders" in the sidebar menu. Review STEP 3 to for guidance on creating a list of stakeholders and inviting them to complete a gear level survey about district readiness. Data from gear surveys can be consolidated and compared to district leadership assessments by clicking "Reports", and "Create Consolidated Report.

The Future Ready Project Manager has the ability to add or remove members of the district team. Click "Create and Manage My Teams" on the sidebar menu manage user privileges.

Yes, we take all necessary precautions to keep your data safe. All communication with the Future Ready Dashboard is encrypted over SSL with a 256-bit key. Users will notice the "https://" and lock image in the browsing window next to the Dashboard URL, signifying the secure transmission of data. Your privacy and security is a top priority. Please review our Privacy Policy for details on data security.

We recommend teams re-take the district leadership and/or gear level assessments to measure progress in their districts. To re-take the assessment or surveys simply follow STEPs 1-3 in the 5 Step Process. To archive, dated report data, click the "Archive Report" button associated with each report on the "Reports" page you'd like to file away.