Fulton County Schools (FCS) partnered with SDP to produce the SDP College-Going and Human Capital Diagnostic for its district. The diagnostics are meant to demonstrate how districts can capitalize on existing data to understand its current performance, set future goals, and strategically plan responses.  The College-Going Diagnostic report illuminates students’ enrollment over time and compares these patterns across a variety of student characteristics and academic experiences.  The Human Capital Diagnostic report investigates teacher effectiveness with the intention of informing district leaders about patterns of teacher effectiveness and identifying areas for policy change that could leverage teacher effectiveness to improve student achievement.

Fulton County Schools (FCS) partnered with SDP to produce the SDP College-Going and Human Capital Diagnostic for its district. The diagnostics are meant to demonstrate how districts can capitalize on existing data to understand its current performance, set future goals, and strategically plan responses.  The College-Going Diagnostic report illuminates students’ enrollment over time and compares these patterns across a variety of student characteristics and academic experiences.  The Human Capital Diagnostic report investigates teacher effectiveness with the intention of informing district leaders about patterns of teacher effectiveness and identifying areas for policy change that could leverage teacher effectiveness to improve student achievement.

This case study, published by Harvard Education Press, describes how to use data to challenge assumptions, reveal student needs, address these needs programmatically, and evaluate results. It shows a team of data specialists and educators working together, across institutional and departmental boundaries, to determine why some high school seniors who intend to go to college after graduation do not enroll in the fall. Together, they develop, implement, and evaluate a summer counseling intervention program called Summer PACE to ensure that more students enroll seamlessly in college.