Students and teachers are held accountable for academic growth, so why not also hold vendors accountable? This was the guiding principle behind Ector County ISD Superintendent Dr. Scott Muri’s decision to try outcomes-based contracting for ECISD’s tutoring initiative for the 2021-22 school year.

ECISD engaged several different vendors, requiring each to agree to a base cost plus an added financial incentive if students met or exceeded benchmarks on the district’s formative assessment, NWEA MAP. If students did not meet the benchmark, a company’s payment would be reduced. MAP data was used to develop a student’s tutoring plan at the beginning of the year. Mid-year and end of year assessment data was used to measure academic growth against the agreed-upon benchmarks to “settle up” with the companies. Dr. Muri pointed out that this agreement also made the district more accountable to implement with fidelity. The district was responsible for scheduling students and monitoring attendance at the tutorial sessions, thus ensuring the project was a priority at the campus level.

Usually, when a company’s product or service does not meet expectations, a district may simply resolve to use another vendor in the future rather than working with the vendor to improve the service or product. But with outcomes-based contracting, both the district and the vendor have an incentive to communicate and modify services where needed. Dr. Muri found that companies were far more responsive to the district’s needs and willing to adapt their service models where necessary. For example, ECISD discovered that chat-based tutorials were much more successful at the secondary level than at the elementary. Conversely, face-to-face virtual tutors were more effective for elementary students. “We all learned—both the companies and us,” said Dr. Muri, as the vendors cooperated in fine-tuning their models for the most impact.

“We will absolutely continue outcomes-based contracting and actually expand that concept to other contracts and vendors in other areas besides tutoring,” said Dr. Muri. Communicating the advantages to vendors is a key to expanding this model. Outcomes-based contracts benefit vendors by helping them gather better feedback, develop stronger partnerships with districts, and improve client retention. There is also a financial incentive for companies, as they can make more money by exceeding the mutually agreed-upon success metrics. Any service or product where there are multiple competitors could potentially be considered for outcomes-based contracting, such as technology services or instructional resources. ECISD increased their budget for tutoring contracts from 3 to 4 million dollars for the upcoming school year. “We want to pay the full amount,” said Dr. Muri, “because that means that every student exceeded their learning targets.”

Learn more about Ector County ISD’s tutoring project at this link.