• back to our impact
• how we measure the mind trust's success
• improving the city’s economic and social health

how we measure the mind trust’s success

While we track indicators like how many students and schools The Mind Trust’s investments have reached, our chief evaluative compass is the outcomes achieved by the students affected by Education Entrepreneur Fellows and Venture Fund investments. The Mind Trust measures these results based on the direct impact its investments have on three primary outcomes:

• Student learning
• High-school graduation rates
• Post-graduation outcomes, such as college matriculation, college completion and high-wage employment

With each fellow and Venture Fund investment, The Mind Trust establishes clear and measurable goals linked to the key outcomes listed above. In all cases, the goals are substantially higher than prevailing norms in comparable settings; our aim is to support ventures whose results dramatically exceed the outcomes students could otherwise expect in area schools.

Though the goals of each individual venture vary, the common focus on the three key outcomes make it possible for The Mind Trust to “roll up” venture-specific goals into organization-wide goals, allowing assessment of The Mind Trust’s overall success at producing positive outcomes for children.

Ventures backed by The Mind Trust benefit more than the students served directly by those projects. The Mind Trust helps serve as a catalyst for change within districts. As more Venture Fund and fellow projects get underway, they collectively will induce districts to reinvent how they deliver instruction to students, revamp their operations in support of student achievement and expand choices for families.