Project Unicorn is an effort to improve data interoperability within K-12 education. We aim to create a community of innovators who make the broader case for secure interoperability by determining shared priorities, working in partnership with school systems and vendors to understand its importance and benefits, creating a demand side push for interoperability through partnerships, and educating buyers to consider the total cost of ownership through informed comparison of vendors.
The main objective of Project Mothra is to create an inventory of the technology products used by schools in order to identify common leverage points, places to collaborate, and shared pain points to tackle. Project Mothra has three main components: curation of programs in use, curation of key performance indicators in use, and creation of a repository.
Project Scylla: Alumni Data Mapping is an effort to map alumni data in a way that is easy to use for schools. While great strides have been made by the work the National Student Clearinghouse is doing, the data files that they provide are not easy for schools without dedicated data teams to use. Project Scylla aims to 1) bring education organizations (LEAs, funders, nonprofits) to consensus about what aggregate statistics are most important to report about; 2) create a shared definition of these statistics; and 3) provide free and easy-to-use tools to generate these statistics from the data and to convert the Clearinghouse data into a readable summary file for school leaders and teachers.
The Project Medusa is studying data and technology staffing models and spending on outsourced capacity and tools. The project aims to look at these models and tools at 15-20 charter management organizations that represent a range of academic models, per pupil revenue, and organization size (some of the factors that are most likely to impact staffing) in order to answer crucial questions.
Project ended Spring 2019.