CITY OF SOMERVILLE, SOMERVILLE PUBLIC SCHOOLS LEAD REGIONAL SCHOOL ‘STATNET’ PILOT PROGRAM

Since 2012,
the CIC program has provided over $6.25 million to 47 unique projects that
involve 82% of all municipalities in the Commonwealth.  CIC funds provide municipalities with one
time start up and transition costs to develop new innovative ideas that will
allow municipalities to deliver core services as efficiently as possible, given
our new fiscal reality.

School StatNet is being modeled after a successful Municipal StatNet program,
which Somerville helped found in 2008 with Springfield and Amesbury.  In 2012, the Patrick-Murray Administration,
through the Executive Office for Administration and Finance (A&F) provided
the City of Lowell with funding to continue to develop and strengthen the
Municipal StatNet program.   Municipal
StatNet brings together New England municipalities to discuss data and share
best practices, and has grown to include the participation of more than 64
Massachusetts communities, and 10 more in other New England states.   Funding from A&F allows all 351 cities
and towns across the Commonwealth to participate in Municipal StatNet for no
cost.

"While
Somerville has been using our own data to make decisions and improve operations
for almost a decade, the municipal StatNet program has helped us take the next
step - to measure what we do not just over time, but against the performance of
other cities," Mayor Curtatone said. "At municipal StatNet meetings, we always
learn that no one community has resolved every municipal challenge and every
community has some innovative practice to share. We expect the same lessons
learned to come out of School StatNet."

"The Patrick-Murray Administration is
committed to providing additional resources and tools for our cities and towns to
deliver high-quality services even more efficiently," said Secretary of
Administration and Finance Glen Shor. "Through regionalization of services, we
are creating innovative opportunities for neighboring communities to leverage
shared expertise and resources to expand best practices."

School
StatNet will bring together school districts from throughout the Commonwealth
to examine data on school operations and student achievement, and to discuss
operational strategies on a variety of topics. Examples of topics that may be
discussed include how districts are using extended learning time to improve
student achievement, or how they are implementing the new educator evaluation
system.  A State-level advisory board
will help shape the direction of School StatNet so that it complements related
initiatives at the State level, such as the release of Edwin, the State's new
teaching and learning data management program.

"School
Districts have a lot of data and data-related initiatives, and we spend a lot
of time reviewing and discussing data during internal meetings as teachers, principals, and administrators," noted Somerville
Public Schools Superintendent, Tony Pierantozzi.  "However, we do not have
as many opportunities to talk about data in a substantive way with other
districts.  We believe these School StatNet discussions will yield the
exchange of good ideas and strategies regarding common challenges.  This
will ultimately lead to stronger shared practices across the region that will
result in improved learning for our students."

"The
StatNet Pilot Program is a worthy attempt at regionalizing benefits that could
smooth the flow of information while offering the chance of saving duplicating
expenditures," said Revere Public Schools Superintendent Paul Dakin.

School
StatNet will hold its pilot meeting on Tuesday, May 21^st at
Massachusetts International Academy in Marlborough, and will discuss systems of
support and intervention that school districts can implement, and an overview
of all participating districts.  If you
are interested in attending, please RSVP by contacting Stephanie Hirsch at SHirsch@somervillema.gov.