The goals of the multi-year ASIP project are to improve student achievement in the core subjects, increase the number of high school graduates, and help school leaders create a road map for whole school reform. Fulfilling these goals means being able to track student performance and results. Although the percentage of Ohioans with a high school diploma is higher than the national average, college completion rates are not keeping up with those of other states.

Ohio schools are rated by state metrics, such as the State Performance Index, as well as federal metrics like the Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) summary, part of the No Child Left Behind legislation. Each district must figure out how to meet these goals and comply with the educational standards. Formerly this compliance exercise was a once-a-year effort that satisfied basic funding requirements. Today, thanks to the new business intelligence and performance management application, planning has become an organic, evolving process.

ASIP uses a menu system to guide users through a logical path of planning, documentation, assessment and strategizing. Parameterized reports help users determine what to evaluate  by subject and grade  and then who to evaluate  by individual student. For example, by drilling into the Federal AYP summary report, a teacher might see that students are struggling in math relative to the goals. He or she can then drill down to detect precisely where the problem occurs most frequently.

Similarly, by examining item analysis reports, a school principal can see that the 4th grade students are having trouble with number sense. Looking at the data from another dimension, he or she can identify individual students that need assistance.

ASIP simplifies observation and planning to the point that School Leadership Team members feel they can make a difference at their schools. Formerly they knew there were problems but couldnt track progress throughout the year. Now they can see which students are having trouble and exactly what they need to learn, in time to make a difference in those students academic careers. 
The data and the planning tool are now part of the same application, giving teachers and staff a one-stop shop for entering, reviewing and analyzing data. As they do the analysis they can think about the correct strategies they need to implement.

Eventually ASIP will aggregate data all the way up to the district level so the Superintendent can use a BI dashboard to discern macro trends. The long-term goal is to make planning and strategizing easy, so it isn't seen as a chore but as a strategic advantage.

ASIP is driven by WebFOCUS business intelligence technology from Information Builders. WebFOCUS consolidates several sources of data into reports that teachers and administrators can quickly access and easily understand. 

WebFOCUS was important for its ability to take data from many sources and many formats and present it back to users to easily manipulate the data. Columbus City Schools used WebFOCUS to conduct a four-step BI implementation:

1) Make the data available in a consolidated form, with three years of assessment data accessible through an intuitive interface, 
2) Validate that the data helps users make better decisions, 
3) Improve the user's ability to comprehend the information by providing data visualization and drill-down capabilities, and 
4) Allow users to capture observations and modify their plans on an ongoing basis.

Users can view ASIP data though dashboards and reports. They can enter observations and update the database using WebFOCUS Maintain. For example, after evaluating new data and performing a preliminary assessment, the school Leadership Team members can capture observations and document ideas, then switch over to the planning process to identify patterns and trends. This helps them spot problems that need attention. 

WebFOCUS was designed to enable large numbers of people to easily access real-time information and transform it into custom reports. As a self-service BI environment, it provides both technical and nontechnical users with fast access to business data. It helps Columbus City Schools offer advanced Web-based reporting features to thousands of people.

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ASIP helps the district comply with federal and state requirements and improves student intervention strategies. Previously, school staff had to look in multiple locations online to see aggregate student achievement or drill down by subject. Now ASIP trend reports compare end-of-year baselines to quarterly assessment results so they can measure and track progress throughout the year. 

ASIP simplifies observation and planning to the point that School Leadership Team members feel they can make a difference at their schools. Formerly they knew there were problems with student learning but couldn't easily devise targeted interventions or track progress throughout the year. Now they can see which students are having trouble and exactly what they need to teach them, in time to make a difference.

ASIP is a useful tool for laying down a framework for continuous improvement. In summary, it streamlines the planning process, helps the district comply with federal and state requirements, targets student intervention, prepares a more competent workforce in the community, and minimizes the impact of staff turnover by providing a continuous reference point and placing current assessment data into a historical context. It also helps individual schools detect performance deficiencies and make improvements.

About 4,000 teachers and administrators rely on the new BI environment to determine which areas to focus on. Ultimately, the project helps the students prepare for success in higher education and the working world.

Through strong community support, Columbus City Schools has made dynamic, sustained progress over the past seven years. Improvements in academic achievement, financial management, and community engagement have resulted in state and national recognition. These efforts have culminated in the ASIP system.

Nationwide has played a key role in this progressnot just with its corporate giving and insight, but with hands-on assistance where it matters most: mentoring students. Over 350 Nationwide employees meet once each week with individual students as part of a mentoring program.

"Other districts have year-end data, but being able to integrate assessment data throughout the year into a BI environment that enables strategic planning  that's unique," said Barbara Boyd, associate vice president of education partnerships, Nationwide Insurance. "ASIP helps the district make the best use of funds and make intelligent changes to the professional development offered. Thanks to the power of BI, we are aligning district resources with the needs of students in a timelier manner."

ASIP focuses on improving planning at the district and school levels by infusing student data into management and classroom decisions, said Jill Dannemiller, director of school improvement and federal programs at Columbus City Schools. The objective is to have a planning tool with data embedded to streamline the process and let school staff members focus on teaching and learning and not hunting down data.

Today's students are the foundation of Central Ohio's tomorrow. Future economic growth is directly tied to the investment schools make in preparing students. In a global economy, Ohioans are no longer competing only with workers from neighboring cities or states for good jobs  they are competing with workers from China, India, South Korea and Europe. Specifically, Ohio must 
1) improve math and science education in its public schools, 
2) increase the number of its high school graduates who enroll in college and earn degrees, and 
3) inspire more of its high school graduates to pursue careers in science, technology, engineering and math fields.

ASIP is exceptional for its ease of use and ability to generate actionable insights. A principal is notified when new assessment data is available for viewing. After evaluating the new student data and performing a preliminary needs assessment, the School Leadership Team (SLT) can capture observations and document ideas via WebFOCUS Maintain, which updates the database. The SLT can then switch over to the planning portion of the system to generate historical trend reports by subject area, coded in red, yellow, and green, to identify patterns and highlight problems. 
For example, the SLT might detect a decline in grade point average for a particular subject, then factor in other variables such as attendance or discipline problems that could have impacted that part of the curriculum.

ASIP also helps when there is staff turnover. New principals and administrators have a continuous reference point  what was done in the past, how successful it was, and so forth. It provides a historical context. This is important for an urban district like Columbus City Schools where there is lots of staff turnover.

This isn't just an application. What the district has provided is transparency. ASIP helps the district and its individual schools comply with state mandated goals and targets  to find performance deficiencies and identify weak points. 

Some teachers tend to resist this type of analysis because it can be seen as a chore. Thus the biggest challenge was to convince thousands of teachers of the benefits of using a more comprehensive, integrated system. This demand created a significant challenge to deliver a quality product. The development team rose to the challenge. They gained the trust of the user community by providing information that teachers and staff needed.

When it came to training, teachers were surprised at how easy and intuitive it was. Many people stated they don't need training because the system is so easy to use.

The development team also faced some hurdles getting the project off the ground, then conveying the requirements to the Information Builders Consultants. Looking back, it would have been better to engage the consultants sooner in the process so they would have had a better idea of what was in store. It turned out to be more complex than what was presented to them, so the development cycle longer than expected. 

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Teachers have targeted their interventions to help students in more specific ways. Over time, ASIP will help the district prepare a more competent workforce in the community. Nationwide has 10,000 employees in and around Columbus, so having a well-educated student population will help ensure a dynamic workforce for the company while encouraging a new generation of workers to build lives for themselves in an area that has been hard hit by the economic downturn. 

Nationwide encourages other businesses to get involved with their local school districts to initiate a positive cycle of growth and prosperity for their communities. This solution could be offered to other school districts as well.

Nationwide presented the BI application at a school leadership meeting in August 2008, where they trained leadership representatives from each school, more than 1,000 people total. Soon after, these Leadership Team members used ASIP to do their initial needs assessment for the 2008/2009 school year. 
The development team is currently entering the first batch of quarterly assessment data into the system. Over time this will become a regular process, enabling Leadership Team members to continually update their plans and view longitudinal performance results.