News & Updates
Artificial intelligence, changing workforce needs, and growing expectations around student outcomes are reshaping the questions community colleges need to answer. How can colleges use data more effectively and efficiently? How should they approach AI? And how can they better understand and communicate the value they create for students, employers, and communities?
The 2026 ATD Data & Analytics Summit, to be held Sept. 30–Oct. 2 in Baltimore, will explore these questions under the theme “Future Ready: Digitally Transformed and Data Empowered.” We spoke with Shara Davis, ATD senior fellow of special projects and co-lead of the 2026 Data & Analytics Summit, about how the summit has evolved, what participants can expect this year, and why these conversations matter for community colleges.
Q: This year’s theme is “Future Ready: Digitally Transformed and Data Empowered.” What does that theme mean?
A: Community colleges are navigating new expectations around technology, analytics, and digital engagement while also thinking about how to advance student success, institutional transformation, and community impact. Digital transformation is a key enabler of data empowerment because it creates the conditions for people to access, understand, and use information more effectively. It begins with clear mapping of the existing technology ecosystem, followed by intentional modernization of legacy systems, integration of disconnected platforms, and automation of routine workflows and reporting processes. When these efforts are aligned, they reduce silos, improve data quality, and make information more accessible to faculty, staff, and students.
Just as importantly, digital transformation helps build confidence in the data by creating more consistent processes, clearer ownership, and more timely reporting. As a result, institutions are better positioned to generate actionable insights, make informed decisions, and respond quickly to emerging needs. Ultimately, this work supports student success by ensuring that the right people have the right data at the right time to guide meaningful action. For community colleges in particular, these capabilities are critically important today as institutions navigate rapid technological advancements and the need to provide more personalized and responsive support to students.
Q: The Data & Analytics Summit has been evolving for more than a decade. How has the conversation changed?
A: The summit dates back to 2014, when it was known as the Learner Analytics Summit. Co-led by ATD and the University of Maryland University College, the event focused in part on connecting disparate data sources, such as student information systems and learning management systems, and using predictive analytics to illuminate patterns in student progression.
[Former vice president and longtime ATD coach] Laurie Heacock, who is co-leading this year’s summit, was instrumental in both the Learner Analytics Summit and ATD’s inaugural Data & Analytics Summit the following year. Her vision was to support community colleges in building their data and analytics capacity and culture of evidence through a focused, in-depth learning event. That vision continues to shape the summit today.
The field has evolved significantly since those early events. Today, the summit addresses institutional capacity building in areas like data and AI governance and data literacy. How to define and measure postcompletion outcomes like economic mobility and the value colleges create for students, employers, and communities is an additional emphasis of this year’s summit.
Q: Let’s delve into some of those key areas that the summit will explore this year. Why are these conversations especially important right now?
A: Colleges are increasingly being asked to look beyond completion to understand what happens after students leave their institutions. That means looking at outcomes such as employment, earnings, transfer success, and economic and social mobility. Building on ATD’s Community Vibrancy Framework, which is rooted in the fundamental premise that education has the power to transform lives and strengthen communities, this year’s summit will provide participants with the most current definitions, models, and tools to measure postcompletion outcomes effectively.
Equally important right now are the programs institutions offer and how students move through them, both of which influence whether postsecondary education can deliver on its promise to students and their communities. This year’s summit will emphasize the importance of program portfolios, including aligning programs with regional needs, designing programs as connected pathways, and ensuring programs produce economic value and are tracked with rigorous data. Sessions will explore topics such as curriculum alignment, gateway course success, learning outcomes alignment, transfer pathways, and more. These sessions are intentionally geared for academic leaders, program coordinators, and faculty who share responsibility for building and sustaining a robust program portfolio that delivers real value for students and communities.
At the same time, artificial intelligence is reshaping all aspects of institutional operations, teaching and learning, workforce preparation, student support, and leadership strategy. The 2026 summit will help colleges think through responsible and sustainable AI use through effective governance practices coupled with the human skills needed to apply AI well.
Participants will also experience a wide array of concurrent session offerings, including the latest research from Gallup-Lumina and our colleagues at the Community College Research Center (CCRC). Together, these conversations connect data and analytics to the broader work of institutional transformation, student success, and community impact.
Q: Data and AI governance are a major focus of this year’s summit, including a hands-on workshop. Why is governance becoming so important?
A: As institutions seek to make greater use of integrated data, predictive analytics, and emerging AI-enabled capabilities, the quality, consistency, accessibility, and security of institutional data become increasingly important. Data governance provides the structures, practices, and shared understanding needed to ensure that data can be trusted, appropriately accessed, and effectively used in support of student success and institutional decision-making.
Strong governance helps colleges treat data as an asset for decision-making rather than as a liability. That starts with clear ownership and stewardship: institutions need to know who is responsible for maintaining data, addressing errors, and making decisions about how data should be used. It also means establishing practices that support data integrity because inaccurate or incomplete information about programs, student support, staffing, funding, or other areas of institutional work can create real risks for an institution.
Governance also helps institutions determine who should have access to which data and under what conditions. Too little access can create data silos and make it difficult for people to get the information they need, while insufficient controls can create privacy and security risks. Clear policies and practices can help institutions meet requirements related to FERPA, Title IV, state reporting, accreditation standards, and other obligations while establishing a consistent approach to responsible data use.
Finally, effective governance depends on the underlying data architecture. Strong integration and clear architectural standards allow information to flow reliably across systems; without them, institutions can end up relying on manual reconciliation and reports that are difficult to maintain or trust.
As colleges increasingly incorporate AI into institutional work, these foundations become even more important. Responsible AI use depends on having trustworthy data, clear policies, appropriate access, and defined responsibilities for how data and AI-enabled tools are used. The summit’s governance workshop will give participants an opportunity to work through these issues and consider how stronger governance practices can help their institutions use data and AI more effectively and responsibly.
Q: The summit brings together professionals from across the institution — not just institutional research or IT. Why is that cross-functional approach so important?
A: Data and analytics are connected to many areas of institutional work, which is why the summit is designed for professionals across academic affairs, institutional research, information technology, student services, workforce development, and senior leadership. It also brings together community college leaders, practitioners, researchers, coaches, and partners who are working to help institutions become more data empowered, digitally transformed, and future ready.
The summit emphasizes connection and application, giving participants opportunities to learn from peers, engage with partners, reflect with their teams, and consider how emerging ideas and approaches can be applied on their campuses. College teams can compare approaches, identify promising practices, and discuss implementation challenges while working together to determine next steps for advancing their data and analytics priorities.
The experience is designed to be practical, collaborative, and action oriented. Participants can return to their campuses with new ideas, examples, tools, and a clearer sense of how to turn what they have learned into institutional strategy and measurable impact.
Q: For people who have attended the Data & Analytics Summit before, what’s new or different about this year’s event?
A: The Data & Analytics Summit has always been designed to help community colleges stay abreast of emerging opportunities, learn from the latest research, hear directly from peer institutions, and build relationships with colleagues across the field. Those core elements remain central in 2026.
What is different this year is the range of issues colleges are now being required to navigate at once. Data and analytics are increasingly embedded in a much broader set of institutional decisions about technology, AI, governance, strategy, student success, workforce alignment, and the value of a college education.
The 2026 summit reflects that shift. The program moves beyond using data to inform decisions and asks what it takes to build an institution that’s ready for what comes next.
We are also excited to bring the summit to Baltimore, a new setting for this longstanding national learning community.
Q: What do you hope attendees will take away from the event and bring back to their campuses?
A: The conference is designed to move participants from big-picture trends to practical institutional action. Sessions will connect national conversations about AI, labor market change, learner value, and economic mobility with examples from colleges developing new strategies, tools, and habits of practice.
Attendees will have opportunities for structured learning, peer exchange, and team planning. College teams can compare approaches, identify promising practices, discuss implementation challenges, and leave with clearer next steps for advancing their data and analytics priorities.
The experience is intended to be practical, collaborative, and action-oriented, with language, examples, and tools participants can bring back to their campuses.
Learn more about the upcoming 2026 Data & Analytics Summit and register to attend.