Millie Boykin, Director of School Improvement for Bulloch County Schools, has dedicated her entire career to supporting students and educators in her district. Starting as a classroom teacher and later transitioning into leadership roles, including overseeing K-12 mathematics and school improvement efforts, Millie has always been focused on finding the right tools to empower teachers and drive student success. Over the last year, the district adopted Otus to address growing frustrations with its previous data and assessment platform. Recently, we had the chance to speak with Millie, where she shared how pairing a tool that brings all student data into one place with easy-to-use and real-time reports has re-engaged the staff in using data to drive meaningful change.
Three Ways Otus is Enhancing Teaching and Learning at Bulloch County Schools
1. User-Friendly Assessment Tools for Teachers
Bulloch County Schools’ previous system had become cumbersome and difficult to navigate, leading to teacher frustration and an approximate usage rate of just 10%. For district leaders, it was clear that an intuitive, efficient platform was needed to restore confidence and engagement. Otus provided a solution that empowered teachers to create assessments quickly, view data in real time, and pull together multiple data sources with ease. This saved hours of manual work and gave teachers a clearer picture of student performance.
The Student Profile houses every data point on a student from their classroom assessments to measures such as Georgia Milestones and iReady.
“We utilized [our previous] platform for about 10 years. Our teachers started getting frustrated, and it was not as user-friendly as Otus, so we were losing teacher usability pretty quickly. By the end of last year, before we moved on, we only had about 10% of our teachers utilizing that platform. So we knew that we needed to find something that was more user-friendly for our teachers, more accessible so that they would get back on board and look at student data.”
2. A Centralized Hub for Data and Student Profiles
One of the most daunting tasks for school leaders is ensuring that data is organized, accessible, and actionable. With Otus, Bulloch County Schools has a centralized hub where administrators and teachers can access everything from assessments to state testing data to progress monitoring—all in one place. This centralized approach eliminates the need to toggle between multiple platforms, which has long been a frustration in many districts. For leaders, having all student data housed under one system not only simplifies workflows but also enables more meaningful, data-driven decision-making.
The Student Profile houses every data point on a student from their classroom assessments to measures such as Georgia Milestones and iReady.
“We’ve never had a platform that can encompass everything from testing to data to progress monitoring to MTSS. And having that student profile all in one place where you can see everything all together – that is huge.”
3. Support That Sets a New Standard
As school leaders know, no matter how good a platform is, the level of support behind it can make or break its success in the district. Otus has set a new standard for customer service in Bulloch County Schools by offering a dedicated Client Experience Partner who is there every step of the way. This hands-on support model is a critical element in ensuring smooth implementation and high teacher adoption. With ongoing, personalized assistance, educators no longer feel left to figure things out on their own—they have someone who understands their unique needs and challenges.
“The customer service and support is top-notch. We compare everything to Otus because you all have set the bar high. Jess is our Client Experience Partner, and she is literally in everything we do with Otus. She connects so many dots behind the scenes that a lot of people just don’t know about. Basically, I feel like she’s on call 24/7 for us.”
Make Confident, Informed Decisions with Otus
For districts like Bulloch County, Otus empowers educators to quickly identify performance trends, assess instructional strategies, and make data-driven decisions that enhance student outcomes. With all student data centralized in one place, from assessment to progress monitoring, Otus gives school leaders and teachers the tools they need to confidently support student learning.
Watch the video to learn more about how Otus is helping schools like Bulloch County.
Full Interview Transcript
Kendell Hunter
All right. Well, Millie, thank you so much for being here with me today. Would you mind just starting us off with an introduction to share more about your background in education, your current role, and the school district that you support?
Millie Boykin
Sure. So I am currently a Director of School Improvement for Bulloch County Schools, and I have spent my entire career in Bulloch County. I started in elementary as a fourth-grade teacher, and I also I taught third grade and fifth grade as well. Then I moved into the role of an instructional coach for our district, and I served in that role for one year. Then I moved into the role I have now, which is a Director of School Improvement. I get the lovely pleasure of supporting different schools in our district. I oversee all of the K through 12 mathematics in our district, as well as Otus implementation for all the teachers and students in our district.
Kendell Hunter
Well, thank you so much for being here with me. You definitely have a lot of experience that you’re going to bring to the conversation today. So I’m excited to learn a little bit more about what that looks like in practice. I did hear you mention Otus, so just want to set the table here What has Bulloch County’s experience with educational tech tools been like in the past? Is this the first data and assessment solution you all have adopted or have you all had a lot of experience with technology programs historically?
Millie Boykin
Yes. So we have a lot of different technology resources that we use in Bulloch County. We did have one primary data and assessment tool that we utilized for about 10 years before we moved to Otus. And I actually use that as a classroom feature. I used it obviously as an instructional coach and in the role that I’m in now. So that’s really my only experience. I can’t really speak to before that because I was not a teacher at that point. But then we moved away from that platform into Otus in the last year.
Kendell Hunter
Wow, 10 years is definitely a long time to be using a tool. I actually used Otus in the classroom before I came to Otus, so I definitely know that journey of sticking with something for a long time. I’m just curious if you’re comfortable, what were some of the pain points that you experienced with that tool you used for over a decade that really made you reevaluate your team’s needs and look at resetting the table to better meet staff and student needs in the future?
Millie Boykin
Right. So we utilize that platform for about 10 years. And like all, it started off on a smaller scale, and then it got really big, really fast. And we decided just to see what our options were about a year or so ago when we started seeing some frustrations in terms of customer service. Parts of the platform would stop working. And in the past, we would get a timeline for how things were going to be fixed, and that eventually went away. So it was like, well, I don’t know if it’s going to not work today or for a whole So our teachers started getting frustrated, and it was not as user-friendly as Otus, so we were losing teacher usability pretty quickly. By the end of last year, before we moved on, we only had about 10 % of our teachers utilizing that platform. So we knew that we needed to find something that was more user-friendly for our teachers, more accessible, so that they would get back on board and look at student data.
Kendell Hunter
That makes sense. That support piece is just so important. I know. It is, yes. I spent some time on the phone back in the day with different helplines, listening to the classical music while I’m teaching because I’m like, I just need help. Somebody needs to reset this. So I certainly understand how important that is. And yeah, if you have a district of your size, 10 % implementation, wow, that’s extremely low. So I can definitely understand the need to reevaluate, first of all, where your fiscal responsibility is towards the tool, but then also just if it’s doing what it originally set out to do. I’m curious, especially for a district of your size, as you started to evaluate other tools, did you all have a set of criteria in mind or look-fors or must-haves that you heard from maybe teachers or coaches as far as things that you were like, We need this in order to make the change or to guide that decision-making process?
Millie Boykin
Right. So we did get feedback from teachers and administrators on the different pieces that they wanted to see in a platform platform. Obviously, usability was pretty high. Just wanted it to be user friendly, something they could dive into and just learn by being in the platform. That was really big. Just giving teachers one place to house student data and not having to sit there for an hour to get the data to appear how you wanted it to appear. So they were really looking for some, I give an assessment, I want to view the data. And viewing data side by side with other pieces, whether you pull in state assessment data with something we give locally just to see it together. So the ease of being able to do that was really, really big, not only for our teachers, but also different administrators in the district as well.
Kendell Hunter
That makes sense. That real-time piece is critical. It is. And you certainly don’t want to spend an hour generating or just pulling up milestones. I think you all use iReady, is that correct?
Millie Boykin
Yes, we do use iReady.
Kendell Hunter
I’m guessing. And then the classroom assessments, you wanted that whole picture. That certainly makes It seems like a very reasonable list of look for us that you had as you set out. I’m curious, was there anything that moved the needle and made you all decide Otus was the right fit for Bollic?
Millie Boykin
I will say, as we had a demo set up for our district, and then we brought Otus back in to meet with our principals and a group of teachers. I think the biggest thing was with Otus, they just listened to us. A lot of other companies I’ve worked with in the past, when they come to you, they’re really pushing to sell their product. I always feel like a lot of times we’re getting back into a corner to give people an answer very quickly. But with Otus, it was very much on my timeline. When I was ready, I can move us to the next step. Then when we came in, I’ll never forget the first day when we sat down just as a district with them, and Kevin was who we met with, and he was like, What are you all looking for? What do you want? He just sat there and he listened to us for about 30 20 minutes. I never had someone trying to sell a product be like, Let me just listen to you for a while. We all feel like we were very much heard. It was very honest, open feedback from Otus as well of, Okay, I hear that.
Millie Boykin
Here are the things you want. Here’s what we can do. And they were also very honest and open of, Here’s something you’re used to that you’re not going to have. So there were no surprises when we did implement Otus. It was like, Okay, we knew this wasn’t coming. However, we’ve got these other pieces that we’ve never had before. I think that was the biggest thing is we just didn’t feel pushed, and we felt like they heard what we were looking for, heard what we wanted, and they were able to marry it with what they already had.
Kendell Hunter
That seems very intentional how those conversations really transpired. I definitely appreciate that approach. Kevin’s great. I’ve worked with him as well, so I’ll be sure to pass along this shout out there. I especially appreciate that you called out that there were conversations around what we can do versus what we can’t do. So that, like you said, when teachers log in, there’s no surprises. And it gives, I assume, your team the opportunity to say, Okay, is this a non-negotiable? As we move forward, is this something that we need to be successful? Or was this a nice to have that maybe we’ve just become a bit more used to? So I definitely think that level sets the expectations. Sure.
Millie Boykin
Definitely.
Kendell Hunter
Thinking about that piece and what the tool, what Otus was able to offer you all and going down that checklist of what you were looking for, sounds like you had a lot of people as part of the process. And I know sometimes those conversations can be a little bit scary. I’ve been on the pilot teams before where you’re like, okay, this is daunting. I’m learning everything over. I’ve been with this other tool for X amount of years. How would you describe the support throughout that transition once you decided, okay, we’re going to go forward with this and play around and started working with our client success team? Anything noteworthy around how they supported that transition and then the training?
Millie Boykin
The customer service and support is top-notch. You guys have set the bar now. Like anybody else we talk to, no matter what it’s for, if it’s for a certain content area, we’re looking at a workbook or a textbook, we compare everything to Otus now because you all have just set the bar high. Having the Senior Client Experience Partner from the beginning until forever and ever is huge. Jess is ours, and she is literally in everything we do with Otus, which is amazing because she can be sitting and training a teacher on something, and then she can be meeting with a principal two weeks later and be like, Oh, I heard this in the teacher meeting, and you need to be aware. She connects so many dots behind the scenes that a lot of people just don’t know about. Basically, I feel like she’s on call 24/7 for us. I know she has other districts that she supports, but I feel like anytime I need her, she’s there. Whether I email her, call her, whatever. Where she is always accessible and coming up with a solution to a problem. There has never been a time where she’s like, Can’t do that.
Millie Boykin
Sorry. She’s always like, Here’s option A, here’s option B. Which one would we like to do? And then just having the support for our teachers has been huge through the chat, which that is new for our teachers to not just send me an email or call 1-800, whatever, but here is a feature, this chat feature that can walk you through step by step. And it’s taken a little bit of training teachers to go to that. But once they get trained and we get like, Oh, my gosh, they walked me right through what I needed, or I had an answer within five minutes, which we are not used to at all. It’s more like, oh, we’ll wait a week or two and get an answer to that. That’s not been the case with notice at all. We’re getting answers within seconds or minutes when we have a question.
Kendell Hunter
And that makes all the difference. Yes. You all are busy. I’m sure you’re like, time to move on. I need to get the answer to this and move on. Well, thank you for sharing all that. I know Jess is a great thought partner to school districts and have that very methodical approach that, like you said, connects the dots, which is great. We talked a bit about the implementation and your experiences so far. I’m curious, what were some of the initial goals that you had for teachers or for other administrators around getting into Otus? Was there a phased plan or was it like pick and choose your own adventure as far as if you wanted to focus on data or assessments, any initial goals you all had?
Millie Boykin
Well, when we surveyed our teachers, when we were even toying with the idea of moving to something new, the biggest thing for them was a platform to give assessments on and something that was very user friendly. Our trainings have been more focused on assessment creation just to get teachers in the platforming using it. But we also know there’s the lessons component and lots of other pieces, but we felt like that’s what they were crying for the most. So that’s what our trainings have been focused on. And now they’re getting ready to… They’re moving into wanting to hear more about the data piece now that they’ve had some time to give assessments. Now it’s like, Okay, what do I do with my data? Where do I find this? Where do I find that? So we’re taking it slow at first, but we have found taking that slower approach and giving quality support is much better than just throwing everything at them and being like, Figure it out on your own. So So that’s been big. I would say with our administrators, the biggest thing has been showing them how to access the data that they have access to.
Millie Boykin
We met with our principals just a couple of weeks ago and just walked them through the analytics. Here’s how you find the tests that are going on in your building. Here’s how you look at state testing data. Here’s how you look at iReady data, and just giving them the pieces that they needed to then go on their own path and figure out what they need that’s best for their school. So And plans has been a huge thing for us. I don’t know, that might be now might be the best time or not. I don’t know. But that was a… We had to give up a few things. We moved to a new platform that we weren’t able to have. But then the plans made up for that because we’ve never had a platform that can encompass everything from testing to data to progress monitoring or spend MTSS students. And having that student profile all in one place where you can see everything all together, that is huge.
Kendell Hunter
I love the plans module, too. It’s like you’re trying to slowly roll things out, but then you see that when you’re like, Oh, wait, I can add multiple students to the same plan and track different goals? Like that is a game changer. It is. I think your approach is very wise. Teachers are the nuts and bolts of the success of a school. So giving them what they want first as far as the assessment tools and making sure that their needs are met and saying, Hey, come check up this other data or dig into this further, is such a smart and methodical way to get that buy-in because they’re in the classroom. They want to give those formatives. They want to be able to see, Is this working? What are we doing? So I think that approach is one that certainly other schools in the area could mirror and see quick success. But of course, like you said, listening to your teachers and finding out what interests them, what is the best entry point, but then maybe administrators start slightly different. I appreciate you outlining all that. I know it’s early to say this, but would you say that given the training that you have and teacher’s first impressions, is Otus living up to the expectations as far as the assessment creation, delivery process, and then some of that student data?
Millie Boykin
Yes, absolutely. I definitely think they have definitely lived up to what we expected for sure. And they are just very quick to jump on anything that they can do to help. I really appreciate the feedback that I get from the support team anytime that they may talk to a teacher and be like, I don’t know, she’s 100 % satisfied. Can you circle back to this teacher? So I appreciate that as well. Whereas in the past, I feel like we may have danced around things like that and been like, Well, I gave her what she needed. Good luck to her. You all are really focused on making sure that the teachers that you work with are 100 % happy. And I really appreciate that because as we all know, teaching is hard right now. And so anything that we can do to make their lives and jobs easier is I agree.
Kendell Hunter
I agree wholeheartedly. I think I had heard that you all offered some additional Otus certified educator training to teachers. Can you tell me a little bit more about what that initiative looked like?
Millie Boykin
Yes. So Otus offers the OCE courses four times a year. And we were just very fortunate that we jumped on board with Otus this summer. And about midway through the summer was when one of the windows opened for the OCE courses. And Teachers, educators, administrators, whoever can sign up for one, two, or all three cohorts, and they have a certain time frame to complete the coursework. It’s self-paced, so they can do it on their own time. But what we did in Bulloch County is we opened the doors and we said, If you sign up and you meet the requirements for the cohorts, you can document your hours and receive a stipend. And so we gave a stipend of $150 per course that was completed during the summer. And we had over 100 educators do those courses this summer, which was amazing because then we walked into pre-planning with at least one expert in the building. So most had five or six, but we at least had a person that when things were just tanking, Hey, can you run down the hall to Ms. So and so and just help her? It’s just this little thing, but she’s never seen it before, so she doesn’t know.
Millie Boykin
So it was very nice just to have those experts spread out throughout the district. So that it wasn’t brand new for everyone when school started. And the courses, I did them myself. They are amazing. I love how you get a student login to work in so that that way you are learning it as a student, but then you can log into your teacher account and see it from both sides. So just in my role, it’s been very helpful because I can troubleshoot things that are going wrong with kids because I’ve seen it before. And we got lots of positive feedback from those that completed it this summer, which was amazing. So, yes.
Kendell Hunter
That’s so smart. I love that you motivated teachers, spending time, offer the incentive or the stipend. I certainly wouldn’t say no to that myself. But the bigger picture, those experts, wow, how awesome is that, that you didn’t have to start off and be like, oh, man, this is going to be very new for everybody. You had some people who were like, I did this. I can help you with that, which I know I always like to go to a peer first, too. So I think that’s a great idea and certainly something that others can learn from because self-paced is just the way to go. I know. Sit and get just does not work as much these days. If you don’t have to do sit and get feety, why bother? I just have two more questions for you. Thank you so much for all you’ve shared so far. I love learning how you all have so intentionally rolled this out. Sure to be an exciting year ahead for all of you. I’m curious, if another school came to and said they were considering a move to Otus, what advice would you give them?
Millie Boykin
Definitely to be open-minded. I think I use the same testing, data and assessment platform all through my teaching career until we moved to Otus. You’re never going to find anything that’s exactly like what you’re used to, and that’s okay. Just like we tell teachers, you’re a continuous learner. We also have to be continuous learners in this sense that just because something is different doesn’t mean it’s bad. Just going into things with an open mind and figuring out how can the features in better meet the needs in our district or our school or in my classroom, because there’s definitely something in there for everyone. I think the biggest difference with Otus and other platforms is other platforms are very focused on testing and testing only. But Otus is very universal in the sense that you’ve got the assessment piece, you’ve got the data piece, the student profile piece, you’ve got the plans where you can progress monitor kids all day, every day. There’s just a lot to offer. And to me, that’s going to meet more teachers needs than just having something that’s focused on one area only.
Kendell Hunter
That makes sense. Thank you for sharing how that total picture comes together. I’m curious, what are you all focused on for the remainder of the school year? Any big initiatives at the forefront of your team discussions? What does the future of this school year look like for Bola?
Millie Boykin
I think we’re just constantly getting feedback from teachers and seeing what they need and then giving them the support that they need from there. We have what we call periodic reviews in our district, where we meet with each school three to four times a year, and we sit down with them with their leadership and their school. So it’s teachers, admin, parapros, everybody, and definitely just getting feedback from them. How is this going? What do you need? How can we better support you? And then we just pull in the Otus, Jess or whoever it may be to give them what they need to be more successful in the classroom. So that’s where we’re going.
Kendell Hunter
Your approach of listening is just so powerful. There is power in listening to those needs.
Millie Boykin
Oh, Kevin taught me that, so he gets all the credit.
Kendell Hunter
I really appreciate that. I’m going to have to maybe copy this approach in some other areas of my life. So I think that’s a very good way to go about it. And also to make sure teachers feel supported and happy in what they’re doing. And things are making things are easier, not harder. It’s all about working smarter, not harder, I should say. That’s right. Well, Millie, thank you so much for sharing just about your journey to Otus, more about what you all are focused on this school year and some of your initial feedback. I know it’s very early in your implementation, but we’re just excited to hear about the quick success and get you on a call to chat more about it.
Millie Boykin
Yes, for sure. We’re happy to help in any way we can because you all have been great to us.
Kendell Hunter
We appreciate that. Thank you so much. Yes.
