Data Integration Pilot

BELL, Boys & Girls Club, Citizen Schools, Tenacity and MGH logos

Data is the great enabler of partnership, allowing for a better understanding of opportunity gaps and of what approaches might work best.  Along with five citywide organizations, Boston Beyond has led an effort to understand the challenges and opportunities of collecting student data centrally from various organizations. 

A series of surveys, interviews, and document review with Boston’s program providers revealed strong interest among programs in:

  • contributing data to a common database;
  • receiving, making, and tracking student referrals; and
  • participating in citywide measurement of student progress.

In order to achieve this level of data integration, program providers must: 

  • List their programs in BOSTONavigator
  • Collect BPS student ID #, adding this field to their application if necessary
  • Add data sharing and confidentiality language to their applications
  • Upload participation data using excel spreadsheets
    • Export data from existing tracking systems (no need to change systems)
    • Track participation directly in excel

The citywide organizations that guided and tested this learning process include:

Three additional organizations participated in the interview process as well: Boston University Upward Bound, Project Hip-Hop, and Spontaneous Celebrations.

For more information on data integration efforts, please contact Maura Boyce.