Helping districts and administrators with their continuous improvement processes
Their mission is clear:: “Creating a world of innovative schools together.”
806 Technologies partners with districts to simplify improvement planning and compliance efforts, making it easier for educators to focus on what is most important – student success.
806 Technologies began in 2008 when founder Ross Laughter developed Plan4Learning to help his mother, an assistant superintendent, streamline her district’s improvement plans. What started as a solution for floppy disk planning has grown into a powerful, cloud based tool used by school districts across the nation.
The beginning
The company’s CEO and founder Ross Laughter was working as a software developer when he created Plan4Learning in 2008 for his mother. She was an assistant superintendent, and worked at a school district whose continuous improvement plans were laboriously documented on a floppy disk and passed from leader to leader for reading and revising. Laughter was motivated by his mother’s plight and believed he could make the process more efficient, meaningful, and accessible. Sixteen years later and his company’s solutions are being used in 40 states, helping 20 percent of our nation’s schools. Laughter models a relentless commitment to the company’s core values, two of which are #beadaptable and #becurious.
The path ahead
In January of 2023, Ross displayed a generative AI chatbot on the screen at the company’s annual leadership meeting and exclaimed, “This is the future.” He challenged his team to use the new technology to serve educators better and lift their burdens even more, a directive tied to the company’s vision and mission.
Plan4Learning aids in the creation of a district or campus improvement plan, an annually updated document created by school districts and/or campuses, which is used to assess needs, set improvement goals, create action plans, and drive decision making about budgeting, curriculum, staffing patterns, staff development, and school organization. Plan4Learning Campus Improvement Plan software makes it easy for districts and campuses to create plans that improve student performance and ensure compliance with state and federal laws.
Product Features
Plan4Learning helps districts and campuses:
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Assess needs and set meaningful improvement goals.
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Turn plans into action with tools to monitor progress in real-time.
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Easily meet state and federal requirements while staying fully compliant.
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Simplify budgeting, staffing, and curriculum decisions for lasting impact.
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Automate reviews to free up timme for what matters most—students.
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A Smarter Way to Plan with Ask AI
Educators are pulled in so many directions, and their time is invaluable. That’s why 806 Technologies introduced the additional feature, Ask AI, a secure tool that helps simplify needs assessments, making the process faster and more effective. With this feature, educators can:
- Quickly analyze data to uncover the root causes behind their challenges.
- Shift their focus from tedious tasks to impactful planning.
- Rely on insights continually refined by certified educators to support meaningful decisions.
What makes Plan4Learning unique?
Leveraging generative AI
In 2023, the 806 team began collaborating on the development and integration of a secure AI tool into their products. They focused on the most challenging aspect of the planning process for education leaders, both historically and today: the comprehensive needs assessment. This area, where their Professional Learning Team excels, was a natural fit for an AI solution that could streamline the process, supporting education priorities more effectively at scale, while saving time and resources.
According to Cindy Gibson, Chief Learning Officer, “By the fall of 2023 the AI feature was integrated into Plan4Learning production and ready for beta testing by a cohort of current users who were proficient in the software. The feedback was excellent, with testers saying the new AI tool helped them parse down the amount of information they entered and drove them to be more thoughtful and intentional about what to include. They also said the plan felt more polished and that it gave their principals a jump start, allowing them to more quickly deepen conversations. Staff retention is a nationwide problem so we were excited to hear the AI tool also provided new leaders with necessary context on how needs assessment and planning processes should flow, acting as a thinking partner along the way and saving valuable training time.”
Examples of Success
Lewisville Independent School District
Lewisville ISD, a district with 72 schools and over 54,500 students was struggling with antiquated software for their campus improvement planning process. The user interface was slow and outdated. The creators of this old software did not understand Lewisville ISD’s needs, nor were they keeping up with changes in state and federal regulations.
Lewisville ISD partnered with 806 Technologies to participate in a pilot of Plan4Learning. We trained and onboarded a subset of the district, starting with 28 Title I schools. After piloting Plan4Learning, all 28 principals fully supported and approved a full roll-out of the improvement planning software. We helped Lewisville ISD train and onboard their additional 44 schools so that the entire district was seamlessly operating on a new system. The old software was completely replaced by Plan4Learning, and the district wide transition to this new platform was smooth and organized.
Richardson Independent School District
Richardson ISD, a district with 56 campuses and nearly 40,000 students, needed a tool that made collaboration possible, improved efficiency, and enabled monitoring and follow-up for all of their improvement plans. And they needed this all at an affordable price.
We worked closely with Richardson ISD to help them choose the best solution for their district. Richardson ISD chose to implement Plan4Learning across every campus. It fulfilled every promise of the technology tool that they were looking for. With the help of our support team, Richardson ISD implemented the product with ease.
What users are saying:
“The adoption of Plan4Learning was like turning on a light switch for our CIP process – it’s the best platform I work on.”
—-Courtney Hart, Ph.D., Federal Programs Director
“The adoption of Plan4Learning was like turning on a light switch for our CIP process – it’s the best platform I work on.”
—-Tabitha Branum, Superintendent of Richardson ISD
What makes Plan4Learning Unique?
Plan4Leaning is Campus & district improvement planning, simplified. When developing improvement plans, increasing student achievement should be the top focus. Unfortunately, required components often divert the focus to checking off federal and state compliance boxes.
Plan4Learning is designed by educators for educators to simplify the improvement planning process by streamlining key steps and ensuring compliance across the board. With that taken care of, campuses are free to align with a common vision, identify key needs, and develop strategies to impact results. The result is a clear path of needed improvement defined by our SMART performance objectives.
Meet the team
Ross Laughter, Chief Executive Officer
Ross Laughter is the CEO and founder of 806 Technologies. He founded 806 Technologies in 2006 with the belief that technology should fill in the gaps for educators without creating detours. His journey began when he set out to help his mother, an assistant superintendent, manage school improvement plans more efficiently. With 15 years of programming experience and a BS degree from Texas Tech University, Ross developed what would become 806 Technologies’ flagship software solution, Plan4Learning. Under his visionary leadership, 806 Technologies has grown into a national company, serving over 1,500 school districts and thousands of schools. Ross inspires and empowers his team with a contagious enthusiasm for excellence. He lives in the Dallas area with his wife and three children.
Mark Hailey, Chief Customer Officer
Mark Hailey is the Chief Customer Officer for 806 Technologies. The best way to learn how to provide world class customer service support for educators is by walking in their shoes, and Mark Hailey has done exactly that. Mark’s parents are lifelong educators and administrators; he went into the family business as a high school teacher and head coach for 5 years. For the past 27 years, he has held executive positions in businesses focused on K-12 public education. His experience includes leading companies’ front-facing responsibilities, ensuring that world class customer service is a priority, and providing professional development training at state, regional, district, and school levels. Mark even owned his own parent involvement company. Mark loves the education business and says every day is his “best day” at 806 Technologies.
Cindy Gibson, Chief Learning Officer
Cindy is Chief Learning Officer at 806 Technologies. She has served in the education field for 30 years. Her various roles in both public and private schools include school and district level leadership. At 806 Technologies, she works hand in hand with State Departments of Ed to develop, document, and monitor continuous improvement planning processes and state/federal compliance monitoring processes. She also leads the exceptionally talented educator team of Professional Learning Specialists at 806. Cindy grew a passion for continuous improvement planning during her federal programs years in a large Dallas area district, where she supported school administrators with identifying needs and building focused plans, as well as providing training in state and federal grant compliance. As a former district user of Plan4Learning and Title1Crate, she also loves to share the simplicity of documenting those processes in the 806 software.
