About

ESP Solutions Group (www.espsolutionsgroup.com) is a P20W data consulting and technology firm specializing in education data systems, analytics, and reporting. Since 1993, we have provided innovative leadership and insight into the most challenging education information technology projects.

As a company, ESP has built a reputation in multiple areas.

• Delivering major contracts on time, within budget.
• Building the capacity within the client agency to take over and manage their solution once implemented by ESP.
• Being the prime contractor overseeing teams of subcontractors from major companies with diverse expertise.
• Understanding the unique processes, policies, and practices that make education agencies different from other businesses.
• Developing effective data governance methodologies. ESP provides a comprehensive approach to managing an organization's data assets. We ensure that data assets are reliable and consistent, accessible to authorized users, and of high quality and usable for decision-making.
  • To that end we have developed Data Governance Planner™, a Software as a Service (SaaS) tool dedicated to assisting education agencies of any size with data governance policies and implementation. The tool creates for an education agency the structure and documentation necessary to govern the complex processes associated with managing educational data, ensuring compliance with legal standards; and enhancing data usability, security, and privacy.
• Understanding all levels of the education industry—classroom, school, district, postsecondary, state, and federal. ESP contributed to the foundation of the data standards in education from the origins of the NCES Data Handbooks, PBDMI (the predecessor of EDFacts), SIF, CEDS, and Ed-Fi. Our team is comprised of education experts who pioneered the concept of data-driven decision making and now help optimize the management of our client education agencies' local, state, and federal information. ESP is exclusively focused on P20W education. 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 P20W data ecosystem. We understand how campus, district, state, and federal education technologies are related. ESP is focused on providing education agencies with expert solutions in support of timely use of quality data. ESP designs into each information system and data exchange project protections of personally identifiable information. As a signatory of the Student Privacy Pledge, ESP ensures that not only

ESP contributed to the foundation of the data standards in education from the origins of the NCES Data Handbooks, PBDMI (the predecessor of EDFacts), SIF, CEDS, and Ed-Fi.

Our team is comprised of education experts who pioneered the concept of data-driven decision making and now help optimize the management of our client education agencies' local, state, and federal information. ESP is exclusively focused on P20W education. 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 P20W data ecosystem. We understand how campus, district, state, and federal education technologies are related. ESP is focused on providing education agencies with expert solutions in support of timely use of quality data.

ESP designs into each information system and data exchange project protections of personally identifiable information. As a signatory of the Student Privacy Pledge, ESP ensures that not only their systems, but their clients are compliant with FERPA, state laws, and best practices. ESP consulted with the State of Utah on their student privacy legislation HB358. ESP’s data governance consulting and expertise has helped develop plans, including privacy policies, for several state education agencies and districts.

We are nationally recognized as leading experts in understanding the data and technology implications of the current Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) as initiated by the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB), EDFacts, Schools Interoperability Framework (SIF/A4L), Ed-Fi, and individual state mandates. ESP’s experience with best practices for designing, building, and managing education data systems was a significant factor in our winning, along with our partner AEM Corporation, the U.S. Department of Education’s five-year contract for State Education Information Support Services to provide technical assistance to all states in support of their longitudinal data systems for the improvement of EDFacts federal reporting. EDFacts is a particular area of expertise for ESP. We have assisted numerous states directly in the preparation and submission of their EDFacts data to USED’s EDFacts system.

The ESP Team has a historical and deep understanding of both the technical maturation and evolving usage of longitudinal data systems in P20W. Our diverse clients have provided us with a rich opportunity for hands-on work experience with a full range of data sources. Our ESP Team has personally visited every state education agency multiple times. 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. We currently have active contracts with 12 state education agencies. We have been the prime contractor and project manager for five statewide student identifier implementations, two with the use of a SIF student locator framework. Another distinguishing expertise ESP offers is our depth of experience in specifying requirements for data systems. The Montana Office of Public Instruction, Texas Education Service Center Region 10 (737,000 students, 80 districts), Natrona Public Schools, Idaho Department of Education, Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education, and the Alaska Department of Education and Early Development all have longitudinal data systems with which ESP experts have partnered significantly in the development of requirements.

ESP’s State Report Manager™ (SRM) software collects teacher/student/class data for four states. Since 2005, SRM has been used by the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education, the Alaska Department of Education and Early Development, and the Idaho State Department of Education to collect data from school districts. SRM’s companion product, VRF (Vertical Report Framework), manages ESP’s state reporting contracts in three states: Connecticut, Ohio, and Utah.

DataSpecs®, ESP’s premiere metadata management product standardizes data elements, indicators, naming conventions, definitions, codes, and formats for improved data quality and increased reliance on collected data.

ESP’s CourseWalk™ has the ability to establish local to state course catalog links for teacher-student-course alignments and can map local or state course numbers to national course numbering systems. No other company has developed products that are comparable to either DataSpecs® or CourseWalk™, particularly with the capability to manage statewide course numbering systems. These 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. 

Most recently, ESP has launched MAP2 to assist SEAs in mapping to NCES’s current version of CEDS and their Align Tool. This maintains our ability to crosswalk an agency’s metadata with national standards for interoperability and seamless data exchanges. www.MAP2home.com

In January 2025, ESP launched Data Governance Planner™, a SaaS for education agencies to customize a comprehensive plan for oversight of mandates, collections, repositories, outputs/reports, confidentiality protection, cyber security, and assurance of timely data for decision making to support administration, policy, and student achievement.

ESP is committed to pro bono initiatives:

• We assisted the Military Child Education Coalition in accurately representing military-connected students in national EDFacts standards.
• Development of Arniedocs.info: A resource for non-journal research publications developed for Division H of the American Educational Research Association.
• Development of EDTECHTERMS: A mobile app providing access to thousands of educational technology terms for the National Directors of Research and Evaluation.
• Development of DefineTestTerms: A mobile app offering access to thousands of assessment terms for the National Association of Assessment Directors.

All of these efforts and initiatives reflect our commitment to advancing educational data standards while supporting national associations.