Almost fives months ago I joined Microsoft as a Data Platform Solutions Architect. As a DPSA for Microsoft, I am a part of the Education STU (Specialty Team Unit). This means that I have the unique privilege of getting to work with administrators, IT staff, faculty and teachers at K12 and higher education institutions all over the East coast.

The reason I love working with schools is because I truly believe that the work we’re doing at Microsoft has the potential to make a real difference in the lives of students and teachers. Take Tacoma Public Schools as an example. In 2007, a national study labeled Tacoma Public Schools as a “dropout factory” with a graduation rate of 55% in 2010. To me, as a father of three beautiful kids, that’s heartbreaking.

Every parent, including myself, desires to give their children a better life and better opportunities than we had growing up. Thankfully, new leadership at Tacoma Public School aspired to change the tide for their students and engaged Microsoft in a series of discussions around using data-driven analytics to improve student outcomes. Using technologies like Azure Machine Learning and Power BI, Tacoma Public Schools and Microsoft worked together to identify key factors that could indicate a child is currently at risk or could become at risk of not completing their education. Through their hard work, the administrators at Tacoma Public Schools were able to improve the graduation rate from 55% to 78% by 2014!

Read the full story about the incredible success Tacoma Public Schools is having here.

This month, Microsoft is hosting two free, live webinars on how Microsoft technologies, like Azure ML and Power BI, can help your schools begin taking a data-driven approach to improving student outcomes. The events are scheduled for April 6th and April 20th beginning at 12:30 PM ET. The sessions are live and will include time for questions and answers from our experts. Visit this link to register for these webinars or click the Register Now button found below.

And if we at Microsoft can do something to give our children the best chance possible to learn, grow, and succeed, shouldn’t we do that? The answer is obvious and that’s why I’m proud to work at a company like Microsoft that is working hard to give our educators the tools they need to grow our kids.