Case Study: Wichita Public Schools achieves data-driven decision-making for remote learning with Microsoft Power BI

How Wichita Public Schools are using the Microsoft ecosystem to thrive in difficult times

Wichita Public Schools turned to Microsoft Power BI and the broader Microsoft ecosystem (Azure, Microsoft 365, Teams, Power Automate, Power Apps, Intune, Surface devices, Windows 10) when COVID-19 forced its 50,000 students into remote learning. The district faced a large digital divide, device obsolescence, limited cloud adoption, and a major need to upskill 1,800 educators while rapidly scaling access and management for distributed learning environments.

Using Microsoft Power BI alongside Azure, Teams, Intune and Surface hardware, the district moved apps and resources to the cloud, standardized devices, and automated provisioning—deploying 49,000 student devices and 6,000 staff devices (including 32,000 devices rolled out in five days). They ran 160 educator training sessions, built Power Automate/Power Apps workflows for approvals, and implemented Microsoft Power BI dashboards to track attendance, app approvals and student outcomes—giving leaders timely, actionable data and enabling personalized, class‑specific software provisioning.

Wichita Public Schools

Rob Dickson

Chief Information Officer