Become a Partner

Are you interested in partnering with the Strategic Data Project?
There are three primary ways to partner with SDP through our Fellowship:
1) hosting one or more Data Fellows;
2) enrolling one or more Agency Fellows; or
3) hosting Data Fellow(s) and enrolling Agency Fellow(s).

BECOME A PARTNER

SDP partners with a range of education organizations.  Current partners include school districts, charter management organizations, state education agencies, and non-profit organizations.

We are now accepting applications for agencies interested in joining Cohort 5 (September 2013-September 2015).  You can access the partner application here.  The deadline to submit a letter of commitment is January 31, 2013, and the deadline for submitting the full application is February 28, 2013. 

You can learn more about the fellowship and the partner application process by watching our informational webinar. 

Please direct any questions and submit letters of interest to Nneka Ibekwe, Recruitment and Network Strategy Manager, at .

THE FELLOWSHIP

The SDP Fellowship is a two-year program that develops and supports talented analytic leaders in school districts, charter management organizations, state education agencies, and non-profit organizations. The goal is to ensure Fellows are in roles where they can have significant impact on policy and management decisions that are likely to improve student outcomes.  Fellows are highly skilled strategic analysts with an entrepreneurial passion for using data to drive decision-making. The SDP Fellowship is comprised of two kinds of fellows:  Data Fellows and Agency Fellows.

Data Fellows are recruited by SDP via a nationwide search and matched to an SDP partner agency where they serve as full-time, paid, agency employees.  Fellows report to senior managers, ensuring access to key decision makers and strategic planning work.  You can find a more detailed description of the expectations for an SDP Data Fellow here.

Agency Fellows are current agency employees who are competitively selected by SDP and their agency to participate in the Fellows Program for the same two-year period.  You can find a more detailed description of the expectations for an SDP Agency Fellow here.

The appropriate number of Data and Agency Fellows will depend on your agency’s needs.  By way of example, some current participating partners have one Data Fellow and no Agency Fellows.  Others have decided to begin their partnership with two Agency Fellows in one cohort, and will on-board one to two Data Fellows in subsequent cohorts.  The right mix will depend on the needs of your organization, though we recommend that Data Fellows be paired with at least one Agency Fellow to facilitate the Data Fellow’s entry into the new organization – this can happen over more than one cohort. 

To date, SDP has engaged four cohorts of agencies and Fellows (including a pilot cohort launched in 2008), and has over 100 Fellows and Alumni in the field.

All Fellows (Data and Agency) receive a rich complement of professional development designed to boost skills and knowledge in three key areas: (1) measurement and analysis, (2) leadership and change management, and (3) education policy. 
The professional development over the course of the two-year Fellowship includes:

• One four-day orientation, including sessions led by some of the leading program evaluation experts in the field.
• Five 2-day workshops with specific themes around teacher effectiveness, college-going success, resource allocation, and compensation reform.
• Two annual convenings in which Fellows, agency leaders, and Activate ED collaborative members (The Broad Center and Education Pioneers) collectively address the challenge of shifting the culture of school systems to use data in better and more informative ways.
• A stipend for individual software and professional development funds.
• A nationally recognized researcher to serve as a Faculty Advisor to each team of Fellows.
• Access to a growing national network of analytic leaders.
• Online resources and communities, including a password-protected website, list-serves that bring together our larger network of SDP fellows and alumni, and the Harvard Graduate School of Education online library.

Our goal is to provide the Fellows a premier professional experience that impacts their career trajectories indelibly.  We expose Fellows to the best and most current research in education reform and support their analytic skill-building in very specific ways.  We link Fellows to a growing, national network of talented analytic leaders who are singularly focused on improving student outcomes in America’s public schools.

The two-year cost to recruit, place, and enroll a Data Fellow is $56,000. The cost to enroll an Agency Fellow is $46,000. These fees cover all travel expenses, including expenses for one Fellow Supervisor to join orientation and two annual convenings. 

OUTCOMES

We expect that agencies will achieve the following results by the conclusion of the partnership:

• Advanced analytic capacity.
• Clear priorities and plans for strengthening data systems and approaches to using data to support ongoing decisions, including replicating the diagnostic analyses in future years.
• Organizational willingness to sustain the work of the SDP through Fellows-like staff positions and maintenance of research-ready data.
• Thorough understanding of current performance on critical educational dimensions.
• Effective resolutions (or progress toward) of high priority policy issues.
• Clear demonstration of the value of data-driven decision-making across the agency and movement toward shifting the culture of the system.
• Rich participation in a network of education leaders across the nation who are committed to encouraging and sharing best practices around data-driven decision-making in an effort to improve student outcomes.