In an effort to improve student performance and produce a highly educated work force, the Knoxville Area Chamber Partnership (McHenry, IL) has decided to back an aggressive drive to help Knox County schools track and correlate student performance, demographic and financial data.
The program includes the implementation of a TetraData warehouse and analytics solutions from Follett Software Company. This package will help school administrators and teachers identify student strengths and weaknesses, and will support their efforts to develop appropriate intervention strategies to meet individual student needs. The school hopes to find out how much “instructional ‘bang for the buck’ the district is getting for specific education programs.”
A 2007 study showed that the school district was lacking accurate, up-to-the-minute performance data; the Chamber then proposed helping the district develop data management systems that would provide the information to support the district’s goal of improving student achievement.
Knoxville Chamber member Gary Spencer says Follett Software’s proposal beat the competition for several reasons says that “once the cost management system is built and accurate measures of output are in place, the district will be able to determine whether its resources are aligned to meeting its goals and objectives.”
