ASU, Helios Launch ‘ASU Helios Decision Center for Educational Excellence’ Partnership
Arizona State University and Helios Education Foundation announced a five-year expansion of their partnership to enhance the work of the ASU Helios Decision Center for Educational Excellence, which utilizes data compilation, analysis, and visualization to help inform education policy and increase postsecondary completion in Arizona.
Inside the new Decision Theater at the Helios Campus in Phoenix, Helios founding chairman Vince Roig, ASU president Michael M. Crow, and Helios president and CEO Paul J. Luna announced the extension of the partnership to improve educational outcomes for all students in Arizona.
“ASU and Helios are both driven by a profound commitment to enhancing access to quality learning through meaningful collaboration, innovative thinking and data-driven solutions,” said Crow. “The robust continuation of our cooperative analysis and service as realized by the Decision Center for Educational Excellence is vital to designing Arizona’s education future and in turn, strengthening every community.”
The Decision Center for Educational Excellence builds groundbreaking tools to navigate data on Arizona’s pre-K through post-secondary educational system performance, providing real-time feedback on how policies, practices, new innovations and other interventions affect the state’s education systems.
The state-of-the-art data visualization delivers school administrators, policymakers, community leaders and elected officials the tools and information they need to improve student performance, increase equity in education and promote postsecondary degree attainment.
“Together, Helios and ASU are tackling some of the most serious challenges within our educational system,” Roig said. “This partnership is key to putting Arizona on a path towards a more equitable, higher-achieving educational system that improves college-going rates for all Arizonans, regardless of zip code, race or gender.”
The ASU Helios Decision Center for Educational Excellence has been at the forefront of identifying solutions and interventions that can serve to improve educational performance in underperforming schools and communities. Recently, for example, the ASU Helios Decision Center for Educational Excellence worked with the Arizona Department of Education to help school districts understand how their students are performing in postsecondary education. The reports gave districts feedback on grades in courses, degree and certificate completion, and how they compare to the state overall. This will help schools better prepare students for success in college.
“This is real-time data and information we can use to improve Arizona’s education outcomes,” said Arizona Superintendent of Public Education Kathy Hoffman. “We are proud to be a key data partner so these two institutions can do the hard work and provide the tools to help those in education policy make the best decisions for all students in Arizona.”
In addition, the ASU Helios Decision Center for Educational Excellence unveiled the next 5-years of data work, including in-depth analyses of early childhood, K-12, and workforce data.
The ASU Helios Decision Center for Educational Excellence is funded by a $6.5 million educational grant from Helios. ASU and Helios originally announced their groundbreaking Decision Center partnership in 2018, funded by a $2.5 million grant from Helios.
