As the second largest district in the nation, it is no small feat to analyze and understand the needs of Los Angeles Unified School District’s broad spectrum of educators and students to best serve their unique educational requirements.
“During the pandemic, we were looking for ways to ensure value on the apps we purchased,” says David Kooper, Senior Director of Information Technology at Los Angeles Unified School District. “We wanted to make sure the apps were being implemented with fidelity and whether our internal divisions should continue to fund various apps based on how often they were being utilized in the best interest of the district.”
For this and other efforts, Kooper, Senior Director of Information Technology at LAUSD, was recently recognized with the Innovative Technology Director Award at the Tech & Learning Regional Summit in Austin, part of the Innovative Leader Awards.
Betting On Big Data
Part of the responsibility of finding new tech solutions is to determine the best bang for the budget buck. Validating the investment through evidence-based results is ideal.
“Budgets are made by decisions,” says Kooper. “While part of the budget involves fixed costs like staffing, the other side is discretionary spending. If you invest in one area that provides you with the data that you need, it’s going to potentially save you money in another. It’s one thing to buy a product, it’s another entirely different thing to figure out at the school level and at the district level whether or not these apps are being utilized.”
Another issue in a district as large and broad as LAUSD is connecting disparate schools to collect usable information. Kooper broke down silos by equipping 400+ principals and district/school leaders with visibility into student device and app usage, paired with targeted professional learning to ensure leaders could act on the data. This enabled principals to retire ineffective tools, maximize investments, and deliver more consistent digital learning across one of the nation’s largest school systems.
Gaining access to a tool to determine true tech use value across a vast district using data demonstrated where cuts could be made without affecting the student or educator experience. For this, Kooper relied on insight provided by Lightspeed Systems, which proved invaluable.
“You just have to look at it from a wide lens to see what the impact is,” Kooper says. “What are you losing by not investing in this, versus the amount of money that you’re spending. It makes sense for most districts. Districts also gain the ability to negotiate or renegotiate contracts using this usage data. I don’t know how a school district could function without looking at the operational and structural impact within their data.”
For LAUSD, savings reaped through removing ineffective tools and smart guidance for future purchases more than compensated for investing in the tech.
How to Use Data Insight to Inform Professional Development Plans
Advice from Kooper to other districts looking to replicate LAUSD’s success:
Look at the data. Analyze data at the app, school, and district level to decide what training needs to take place.
Track implementation of not just paid apps, but unpaid apps. Use insight from data as visibility of how often emerging technologies such as AI or engineering-type apps are being used at schools.
Ask questions. Are there barriers to the technology implementation? Is it due to a lack of training? Is it because of a lack of direction? Is some other factor limiting the exposure to a particular app or to a particular technology?
Extrapolate meaning from the data. Ask why would one school be utilizing an app or technology, whereas it is being underrepresented at another school. It gives insight that might lead to follow up and targeted PD at the school level.
The Right Tech Helps in Times of Need
Southern California faces added challenges due to extreme weather and natural disasters. When wildfires forced school closures at Eaton and Palisades, Kooper created school-site groups to track student engagement and access in real time.
“We measured usage data among the impacted students to figure out who was logging in and who potentially was using key apps we use in our school district for delivery of instruction,” he says. “It told the story of where people were and their ability to start accessing learning tools. It gave some insight in terms of students getting back to a sense of normalcy based on their ability to log in, access the curriculum and get the support they needed. It also gave us one additional tool to look at the impact that technology plays on instruction.”
By surfacing differences in device and application use across campuses, Kooper ensured equitable digital learning continued despite the disruption — demonstrating how innovation through data use can directly support students in moments of crisis.
Bigger Builds A Better Product
As the second largest district in the nation, LAUSD offers a broad and varied opportunity for focus groups. Kooper consistently drives K–12 innovation by piloting emerging technologies and building partnerships that shape the future of educational technology.
“We like to think we deal with partners, not just vendors,” he says. “Everything we do is at scale, with all the functionalities that make an implementation more challenging for a larger school district. Companies need to understand beforehand how their systems are going to be impacted by the number of users we have.”
That massive array of user experience is an asset. Kooper brings a collaborative approach — ensuring principals, teachers, and IT leaders are included in testing and feedback. This inclusive process has accelerated adoption, reduced resistance to change, and given districts confidence that new tools will translate to better learning experiences for students.
“We want people to be able to see working with LAUSD as an advantage,” he says. “They might have a canned product that works well for 60 or 70% of the people. We’re going to help them create a product that could be used in ways they may not even be anticipating. The exposure is grander, with a lot of users, so we tend to see things a little bit earlier than other folks.”
Beyond technology pilots and roll-outs, Kooper’s programs in business intelligence, device management, application effectiveness, and network security have provided nationwide models for safe, scalable, and impactful edtech adoption. Care is always put into new additions to the program.
“We have to really think out of the box and think things through 100% before implementation to avoid rolling the dice on impact for any user’s experience,” he says.
In 2025, Kooper led LAUSD’s first districtwide screen time analysis, equipping leaders with data that directly informed school board decisions and parent engagement. This combination of policy leadership, crisis response, and community trust-building highlights how Kooper’s work extends beyond classrooms to shape districtwide culture.
By sharing clear, transparent trends, Kooper strengthened trust between schools, families, and the community, while setting a precedent for evidence-based policy.
Procurement of Digital Solutions (PoDS)
PoDS is the system LAUSD uses to review and approve all digital tools, apps, and online services before they are used in classrooms or offices.
Why is PoDS important?
- Protects student and staff information. Many apps collect personal data. PoDS ensures vendors handle this information safely and legally.
- Keeps our network secure. One unsafe app could put an entire system at risk. PoDS prevents that.
- Ensures quality and compliance. PoDS checks that tools meet District standards, align with teaching goals, and work within existing systems.
- Applies to all products. Free, paid, instructional, or administrative. If it is digital, it goes through PoDS.
- Lightspeed Systems
- Brain Pop
- Discovery Education
- Dreambox
- EdPuzzle
- IXL
- Kami
- Labster
- Nearpod
- Newsela
- Reading Horizon
- Renaissance
- Rosetta Stone
- Seesaw
- Shmoop
- SmartMusic
- Soundtrap
- ST Math
- Zearn
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