Using Data for Equity: Empowering Educators with Information, Tools and

Over the last year, Ohio has taken intentional steps to prioritize continuous improvement across the education enterprise, guided by Each Child, Our Future, the State's five-year strategic plan for education. At its core, the State's strategic plan recognizes that improvement demands effective use of data and analysis. Ohio is poised to seize the opportunity presented by the Request for Applications: NCES 19-01, Institute of Education Sciences Grants for Statewide, Longitudinal Data Systems. The State's grant proposal is simple. By ratcheting up information, tools and training, Ohio seeks to accelerate and expand use of its data system to better support its educators so they can challenge, prepare and empower each student to meet his or her post-high school goals and dreams.

Ohio's funding request will support four project outcomes:

1. SLDS Project Outcome 1: One-Goal: Establish preK–12 and Workforce Linkage. Ohio's goal is to understand students' post-high school experiences. We will accomplish this goal through benchmarking, by establishing a preK–12 education and workforce data linkage and analyzing postsecondary outcomes.

2. SLDS Project Outcome 2: Enhance Ohio's Equitable Access Analysis Tool to Include Additional Data and Increase Functionality and Usability. Ohio's goal is to increase equitable access to excellent educators for all students. We will support this goal through a product. Ohio will create a web-based, interactive Equity Report tool that provides equity gap data to all districts and schools in Ohio.

3. SLDS Project Outcome 3: Using Data to Identify Students At-Risk of Not Graduating. Ohio's aims to equip educators with data that helps them see where students need additional supports. We will support this goal through two products, creating an Early Warning System and Progress Toward Graduation reports accessible to all districts and schools at no cost.

4. SLDS Project Outcome 4: Building Resources for Regional Data Leads (RDLs). Ohio's goal is to ensure that educators have the knowledge and skills to make sense of the rich data resources available to them in Ohio. We will support this goal by strengthening a feature of Ohio's current support system, creating a formalized training program focused on using data for improvement.