A shared services and performance management proposal by 26 Ohio school districts and four education service centers has made it through the first cut in Ohio’s latest round of Straight A Fund applications.
Called the Data Driven Districts Initiative, (D3), the educational organizations on the grant will work with three Ohio vendors to modernize data collection and analysis in their business operations and apply that knowledge to creating more efficient and less costly overall operations.
“The ultimate goal is free up more resources for classrooms,” said Hugh Quill, president of Public Performance Partners, project manager.
“We will deliver cloud-based data collection and analysis tools to districts that will enable them to employ the same sort of data-driven decision-making used by successful private sector companies,” Quill added.
The lead applicant on the grant is the Educational Service Center of Cuyahoga County. In addition to Public Performance Partners, Enlit, LLC will provide software and training and Cuyahoga Community College will provide leadership and performance management training for grantees.
The Straight A Fund is a program by the Ohio Dept. of Education offering grants for public education organizations in Ohio to fund new approaches to cutting costs and driving more dollars to the classroom. Applicants must first pass a scoring round based on sustainability – or the applicants’ ability to maintain their project beyond initial Straight A funding. D3 has passed this round and moves on to the final round of scoring which will score the actual project on several programmatic levels.
