OpenSDP | Strategic Data Project

"Harvard's Strategic Data Project works with education agencies to find and train data leaders to uncover trends, measure solutions, and effectively communicate evidence to stakeholders. Our inspiring network of system leaders, fellows, and faculty come together to share how to best use data to make a difference in the lives of students....

The Strategic Data Project is a diverse, passionate community of education leaders, data strategists, and faculty committed to using data to help all students succeed. Together, we are driving data-informed change in over 125 school systems and organizations....

Since 2008, SDP has partnered with school districts, charter networks, state agencies, and nonprofit organizations across the country and around the world to bring high-quality research methods and data analysis to bear on education management and policy decisions.

An initiative of the Center for Education Policy Research (CEPR) at Harvard University, SDP was formed on three fundamental premises: 

1) Policy and management decisions can directly influence schools' and teachers' ability to improve student achievement.

2) Valid and reliable data analysis significantly improves the quality of decision making.

3) Building an agency's internal capacity to conduct rigorous data analysis is critical to producing and sustaining evidence-driven decisions....

OpenSDP is an online, shared community of analytic code, tools, and trainings to foster collaboration among education analysts and researchers. Housed on GitHub, users have access to code and tutorials for every stage of the analytic cycle, from preparing and standardizing user data to conducting analyses and producing visualizations. ..."