About the Project

Across the country, many communities are helping students of all backgrounds achieve at the highest levels. Part of their success has been a rigorous, ongoing dialogue at all levels of the system about what can be learned from data on student and school performance. We built this site to broaden the dialogue on how St. Louis schools are performing, what we can learn from progress locally and nationally, and how we might accelerate improvement in the region.

Through occasional articles and analysis, we hope to better equip local superintendents and their boards, organizational partners, media, and other stakeholders with data and research-informed content about educational improvement.

Our Data

State and local government agencies and school districts provide a wealth of data on student and school performance. We leverage these important datasets in our analyses.

Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education

DESE’s Missouri Comprehensive Data System (MCDS) Portal provides rich, longitudinal school-level data on a wide range of indicators including enrollment, achievement, attendance, suspensions, and more.

Navigate STL Schools

Built specifically for parents and families, Navigate STL Schools collects and shares original data on St. Louis schools’ instructional designs, enrollment options, in-school and after-school offerings, and more.

Stanford Educational Opportunity Project

The Educational Opportunity Project at Stanford University takes a novel approach to standardizing student achievement data across all 50 states and Washington, D.C., providing district- and school-level estimates of achievement, improvement, and growth over time.

Team Members

Stories and analyses on this site are written and developed by a diverse mix of contributors, including The Opportunity Trust staff, organizational partners, and guest contributors.

Steve Cartwright

Steve is a data analyst consultant with The Opportunity Trust and founder of Exponent Education.

Izzy Rubin

Izzy is the Data Analytics Manager with The Opportunity Trust.

Frequently Asked Questions

How is this project funded?

This website is a project of The Opportunity Trust. Learn more about the Trust here.

Do you have a learning agenda?

While we don’t have a planned series of topics to cover throughout the year, we intend to pursue these overarching goals through this project:

Make national and state data more accessible through interactive dashboards and original, editorial content to support data understanding and use.
Use data to identify and highlight systems, schools, and programs with evidence of effectiveness.
Share analysis, case studies, and other learnings from the field to help education leaders drive change within their own organizations.
Build public understanding of our own point of view about how to assess school quality through current and future data.

Can I suggest an analysis topic?

Yes – we’d love to hear from you. Contact us below.