Caspio and Summit Education Initiative Pave Road to Success for Students

By Cristina González Alcalá, Research Associate at Summit Education Initiative

The mission of Summit Education Initiative (SEI), a nonprofit organization, is to improve personal and regional prosperity through increased educational attainment. SEI envisions a future in which every student graduates with a plan to be enrolled, employed or enlisted. We work with government institutions, business entities, foundations and other nonprofits to enhance academic opportunities for children in Summit County, Ohio.

SEI’s role is to identify the major challenges that inhibit students from achieving career success, and to conduct ongoing research to track progress on mitigating those challenges.

The Need for Centralized Data Management

SEI collects and analyzes vast amounts of data from public and nonpublic schools in Summit County. We then transform this data into actionable insights and share it with our partners so they can improve the educational journey for students.

Our data was being captured in different formats, usually spreadsheets, making it complex to interpret and difficult to secure, manage and publish the information. To address this challenge, we needed a solution to centralize our data collection efforts and allow our partners to easily access the data in a secure manner.

Secure and Easy-To-Use Online Database Platform

We were drawn to Caspio’s low-code application development platform because it allowed us to build a searchable database application with ease. We were able to create a custom application that met our unique requirements, without hiring expensive programmers.

Our new web database application, built using Caspio, allows us to visualize data and produce reports in real time.  We can also securely embed the application on our website and the websites of our partners, making it convenient to access the data. The Caspio platform is not only secure, it is also compliant with the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA).

Outstanding Customer Service

Given our limited technical experience, we required a bit of assistance to get started. The Caspio team was incredibly helpful. Each time we reached out, we received responsive and courteous assistance that put us on the right path.

The Road to Success with Caspio

Our new application delivers weekly updates of a student’s absences, grade point average, report cards and test scores — both State and National. Other organizations have spent US$30,000 or more on a similar solution. Leveraging Caspio’s pricing discount for nonprofits, we achieved the most rapid and cost-effective route to market. Best of all, we were able to provide this service to our partners for free.

Thanks to Caspio, SEI is putting those savings to work to fulfill our mission: helping students.