CEPR works with practitioners and policymakers to define and refine the Center's research agenda. This agenda will evolve as certain questions are answered and others come to the fore.
Strategic Data Project Overview
Learn more about the Strategic Data Project Fellowship
The Strategic Data Project (SDP) is an initiative of the Center for Education Policy Research at Harvard University (CEPR). SDP is funded by a generous grant from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. In collaboration with partner education agencies (e.g., school districts, school networks, and state education agencies), SDP works to promote a culture of data-utilization to inform key policy and practice decisions that directly affect student achievement. SDP will achieve this goal by partnering with high-potential agencies to improve the decision making of districts, states, and school operators by regularly providing educational leaders with rigorous analysis that allows for deeper insight into their organizations’ processes and outcomes. This partnership has three main strands:
- Working within agencies to improve the use of data in policy and practice decision making by improving the structure of existing data and data systems and demonstrating the analytics possible with the new structure;
- Enhancing districts’ analytic capacity through the placement of Strategic Data Fellows who will lead data-driven projects that leverage data analysis and stakeholder engagement to enable action in core policy and practice areas to improve student performance;
- Collaborating with district leadership, other educational leaders beyond the district, and other Fellows over two years to promote a culture of evidence-based decision making within the education sector at large.
The vast amount of administrative data assembled by school districts to track enrollment, pay teachers, and comply with the No Child Left Behind Act are underutilized for policy development and strategic planning. Appropriately harnessed, these data can be used to identify effective teachers, track the distribution of teachers, predict student success, and develop better policies to improve student achievement. However in most districts those data remain to be assembled and analyzed. SDP aims to leverage data in a more strategic manner and learn the lessons these data have to teach. SDP will greatly improve how district and state leaders use data in management and policy creation, resulting in improved outcomes for students.