About

ESP Solutions Group provides extraordinary insight™ into P20W (pre-kindergarten through workforce) data systems and analytics. Our team of industry experts pioneered the concept of “data-driven decision making” and now helps optimize the management of our clients’ education/labor data.  Our team’s extraordinary insight comes from experience inside P20W as teachers in public schools, as senior-level employees of state and local education agencies, and as preferred contractors of the U.S. Department of Education and state inter-agency teams working on P20W longitudinal data systems.

Our insider understanding of local, state, and federal operations allows us to help our clients, who are typically state education agencies and their data trading partners, postsecondary institutions, and leading school districts around the country, make better data-driven decisions through:

  • Quality data collection and exchange
  • Strategic data management
  • Actionable data analysis
  • Accurate and timely data reporting

ESP’s management team includes the leading experts in understanding the data and technology implications of the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act, Education Data Exchange Network/EDFacts (EDEN/EDFacts), the Schools Interoperability Framework (SIF), Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA), Race to the Top (RTT), America COMPETES Act, and the Longitudinal Data Systems under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) of 2009.

ESP Solutions Group, Inc. (ESP) is a subchapter S corporation that has been successful managing significant projects for education agencies and organizations.   ESP’s strengths are our overall understanding of the P20W workplace and the requirements, best practices, and project management methodology for delivering a multifaceted project.  These are skills we have focused on, developed, and demonstrated over our 20 years in the business.

ESP (www.espsolutionsgroup.com) is a data consulting and technology firm specializing in education-related data systems and psychometrics.  During our history we have provided innovative leadership and insight into the most challenging education information technology projects.  Our team is comprised of education experts who pioneered the concept of data-driven decision making (D3M) and now help optimize the management of our client education institutions and agencies’ local, state, and federal information.

ESP is exclusively focused on education and education-related institutions. This is not a sideline business for our firm. We believe in what we do.  We are former teachers, administrators, and district and state education agency personnel.  ESP has a comprehensive view of the current state and future potential of the entire early-childhood/K-12/postsecondary/workforce data ecosystem. We understand how the technology of campuses, central offices, state agencies and boards, and federal education technologies are related.

ESP is focused on providing education institutions with expert services in the design of information systems in support of data-driven decision making.  Our early statewide systems integration projects were individual identifier systems for K-12 institutions, including statewide SIF student locator systems.  ESP implemented the first statewide SIF data collection, built the National Transcript Center (later sold to Pearson), and currently operates five statewide data collection systems.  In all, we have implemented more than two dozen statewide information system projects.  Our content experts have occupied leadership positions in education standards organizations such as the Schools Interoperability Framework (SIF), the Postsecondary Electronic Standards Council (PESC), the National Center for Education Statistics’ National Forum on Education Statistics, as well as in professional organizations such as the American Educational Research Association.

The ESP team has historical and deep understanding of both the technical maturation and evolving usage of longitudinal data systems.  Our diverse clients have provided us a rich opportunity for hands-on work experience with a full range of data sources.  We have reviewed the IPEDS reporting requirements by states of their postsecondary institutions to the USED.  Our ESP team has personally visited every state education agency multiple times.  Dr. Ligon has personally worked in 43 states, Dr. Clements in 30, and Dr. Mangino has worked in 25.  We have executed contracts in almost every state to gain a broader appreciation for the diversity and necessity to customize a solution to each environment and requirements set.

The products and our content experts’ involvement with the continuing development of national standards for education data and interoperability keep ESP at the forefront of this fast-paced industry.

DataSpecs, ESP’s premiere metadata management product that also creates and maintains statewide course numbering systems (CourseWalk™), has been used in 30 states with development projects and is in production in 11 state education agencies including Alaska, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Louisiana, Missouri, Arizona, Tennessee, and Maine.  CourseWalk has been used in Wyoming, Alaska, and Arizona.   No other company has developed a comparable product, particularly with the capability to manage statewide course numbering systems.  ISInsight accompanies DataSpecs as our discovery tool to document resources and provide a unique visual representation of an agency’s information systems.

Evaluation Software Publishing, Inc. was incorporated as a subchapter S corporation in 1993.  We conducted business under a DBA as ESP and officially changed our corporate name in 2005 to ESP Solutions Group, Inc.