Aspire Public Schools, which operates charter schools in California and will soon expand to Tennessee, says it is making a tool for analyzing student performance available for free to any public school around the country that wants it.
The charter operator says it has already been making its “student performance analysis application,” Schoolzilla’s Assessment Explorer, available to teachers and principals at schools in California for three years. During that time, 146 public schools representing 105,643 students have made use of it, according to Aspire.
Aspire says it is already working with a number of traditional public school districts and public charter school organizations to develop data platforms that pull together information on achievement, finances and operations, and analyze how factors like attendance rates and per-pupil spending influence overall achievement.
The charter officials say the cost of sharing the analytical tool will be covered in part by contributions from philanthropies, and through an award Aspire received through the federal government’s Investing in Innovation (i3) competition.