Keeping track of more than 260,000 students is a daunting task, to say the least. As a way to help keep accurate records in a way that is user-friendly, a few years ago the District implemented the Data Warehouse.

And now, the District has been honored by The Data Warehousing Institute (TDWI) with its coveted annual Best Practices Award for its business intelligence deployment in the government and non-profit organization category.

As the nation's fifth largest school district, Broward County needed an easy way to track and monitor its more than a quarter million students. The information that is maintained by the Data Warehouse includes attendance, test scores and overall classroom performance. The objective of the business intelligence deployment is to use this detailed information to improve student achievement and success.

"We're thrilled to have been chosen as a winner of the TDWI Best Practices Award," said Dr. Phyllis Chasser, who works for the District's Education Technology Services Department. "The Data Warehouse has played a vital role in our organization, enabling staff to gain key insights that are used to improve teaching and problem solving strategies." In the old days, if a teacher wanted to see the past history of one of their students, they would have to either contact the student's former teachers or previous school. Now, thanks to the Data Warehouse, a teacher can instantly see a student's history to get a better picture of where the student was and how to help them succeed in the future.

"The competition this year for the Best Practices Awards was once again very strong," said Wayne Eckerson, director of education and research at TDWI. "But the Broward County School District clearly stood out from the rest and demonstrated a set of best practices from which others can follow and learn from in the government and non-profit organization category."

TDWI's Best Practices Awards are designed to identify and honor companies that have demonstrated best practices in developing, deploying and maintaining data warehouses and business intelligence applications. These awards serve as a model of best practices for other organizations and practitioners to follow. Winners were determined by a panel of experts that included: practitioners, consultants, industry analysts, journalists, Journal of Data Warehousing editors, Institute Fellows and TDWI management.