What is it?
Outcome Metrics is a "rolled up" indicator that quantifies the underlying drivers behind school district priorities. The drivers are a set of research-backed topics that have strong correlation on impacting the specific outcome.
We currently support 4 different outcome metrics:
- Absenteeism Risk Index
- Staff Retention Index
- Community Trust Index
- Culture and Climate Index
Each outcome metric has its own unique set of 5 research-backed drivers.
How the feature works, we theme the drivers against all of the respondent data within the collection. Each driver will have a count of mentions and corresponding sentiment. Each driver will also have a link to an external example research source. Note: the drivers will always remain the same for each outcome metric, along with the example resource.
We then roll it to an average sentiment score and percentage of respondents who have mentioned at least 1 of the research-backed drivers.
The Metrics section of a collection will also contain the total respondent count. This metrics section at the top will house other future metrics and stats which are on our future roadmap.
What problem are we solving?
Traditional metrics (like attendance logs) only show what has already happened. As an example, when a teacher records student attendance data… they mark a student ‘present’ or ‘absent’ into an application; that application then aggregates that data to show ‘average daily attendance’ rates, and some reporting around “chronically absent”.
The challenge is these are lagging indicators AND they tell us nothing about why they’re occurring.
Discover Outcome Metrics provide a leading indicator by quantifying the respondent voices into proactive analysis to understand the underlying reasons (why).
- Vague Strategic Priorities: Moves away from "fluffy" language like "improve" or "foster" by providing tangible impact assessments.
- Lagging Data Limitations: Traditional metrics (like attendance logs) only show what has already happened. Outcome metrics capture what people are saying now against research-backed topics to identify risks before they show up in the logs.
Why is it valuable?
Proactive vs. Reactive: Allows leaders to move to the "proactive side" by identifying barriers (e.g., transportation or mental health) before they manifest as chronic issues.
Research-Backed Credibility: All drivers are based on national research, and users can click directly on sources to see the evidence-based foundation for each metric.
Deep Insight Integration: Offers the potential to analyze the impact of these drivers alongside other key data points, such as achievement score, retention rates, bond approvals, and attendance bands.
Use case
Descriptions:
- Absenteeism Risk Index (ARI): Shows how many students are running into attendance barriers and how negatively they feel about them.
- Staff Risk Index (SRI): Highlights staff struggle areas, from workload and burnout to leadership trust.
- Community Trust Index (CTI): Reveals stakeholder perceptions of district transparency, responsiveness, and fairness.
- Culture & Climate Index (CCI): Measures if students and staff feel safe, supported, and connected.
Not all templates have a specific outcome metric; as the underlying capability aligns to a very specific use case. Here are the following templates and the corresponding outcome metric.
Outcome Metric | Use case | Discover template |
| Absenteeism Risk Index | Absenteeism & Attendance | Calendar Start Time Analysis Optimizing & Improving Student Attendance Understanding Chronic Absenteeism |
| Community Trust Index | Community Engagement | Community Alignment and Trust Strategic Restructuring and resource optimization |
| Operations & Budget | Budget planning & Community Feedback | |
| School/District Improvement Planning | District Improvement Plan Assessment School Improvement Planning | |
| Strategic Planning | Inform Strategic Plan LCAP Annual Update LCAP Goals Analysis Policy feedback & alignment Portrait of a Graduate | |
| Staff Retention Index | Staff Recruitment & Retention | Staff Retention Uncovering Teacher Attendance |
| Culture and Climate Index | Culture & Climate | Culture and Climate series (all groups) Family voice Climate Analysis Over Time (all groups) Staff voice Student Voice |
How does it work?
Leading Indicators: Engagement data acts as the "why," while traditional logs remain the "what happened".
The "Score" Formula: The metric aggregates two key dimensions:
- Mention %: How many respondents are running into a specific research backed driver (the "scale").
- Sentiment Score: How negatively or positively they feel about those drivers (the "severity").
Research backed Drivers: Uses a set of defined "Drivers" (e.g., Illness, Family Responsibilities, Transportation) to ensure consistent measurement over time.
Visual Interface: Results are displayed via a color-coded dial (Red to Green) and detailed cards that explain the calculation.