Recognizing Fulton County Schools for its innovative and nationally competitive approach to public education, Harvard University has selected the school system to participate in a $15 million grant project designed to raise student achievement and improve teacher quality.

Funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the grant will guide Fulton and five other large school systems in a two-year program designed to determine what makes teachers effective in the classroom. The project also will study how well high school graduates perform in college once they leave the Fulton County School System.

“For many years we have measured student achievement through the use of the Balanced Scorecard. In fact, Harvard celebrated our efforts by inducting the Fulton County School System into the Balanced Scorecard Hall of Fame,” said Superintendent Cindy Loe. “Today’s partnership with Harvard builds on our success and takes our schools to the next level of achieving academic excellence.”

Based out of Harvard University’s Center for Education Policy Research, the initiative is called the Strategic Data Project. The main components allow teachers and staff the opportunity to work directly with university-based researchers on ways to improve the school system’s use of data to improve outcomes for students. Additionally, the project will provide leaders with valuable information -- specifically how well Fulton graduates perform in college.

With this project, Fulton joins an elite group of national and local school systems that are collaborating with Harvard University. Other school districts selected for the two-year project are Boston Public Schools, Fort Worth Independent Schools and the Gwinnett County School System. Last year, Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools in North Carolina and the District of Columbia Public School System were selected to participate – both are in their second full year of the project.