WHAT IS COMET?
Assessments | Outcomes | Accountability | Collaboration
Partner Spotlight
COMET Informatics & United Way of Rochester, NY
“COMET easily complements our accountability work, program oversight, and investment analysis, in a cost- and time-efficient way.” - Patricia Leo, Director of Community Investment, United Way of Greater Rochester. To support data collection for their local after-school coalition, one community, Rochester, NY, and surrounding areas, with their local foundation for support, chose to work with COMET because of our experience and expertise. Utilizing COMET allows all their funded providers to enter their attendance data into a single place. They also complete pre-post assessments for their program kids. The coalition director can then login and monitor trends and response rates throughout the year to make sure programs are progressing as planned. Ongoing access to their data means it can be used to inform programs and practices throughout the year, no need to wait until the end of the program to understand if it's making a difference.
To watch the testimonial video, click here.
Patricia Leo, Director of Community Investment, United Way of Rochester (former)
Partner Spotlight
COMET has been used to support the following types of early childhood education programs:
State-funded Preschool: The primary program for four-year-olds in a majority of states.
Head Start: Funded by the Department of Health and Human Services, provides children from families with a lower-socioeconomic status or those with a specific at-risk category free access to early childhood education programs
Sponsored through Title I of the Elementary and Secondary Act: Local educational agencies apply to state agencies through Title I; those approved are then funded with federal money, supported through No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB).
Universal Pre-K (UPK): Early childhood education for all four-year-olds in the state; states with UPK include Georgia, New York, Oklahoma, and Florida.
Private Organizations: Programs run by private for-profit companies, by churches, or as part of a private school curriculum, often tuition-based.
Partner Spotlight
Vaccination Consent
A unique COMET team project in the health field was in partnership with an area university and medical center's department of pediatrics. We launched a program aimed at raising the number of students who receive the flu vaccination in schools by making it easy for parents to give their consent online. Initial reports show an increase in vaccination rates of 5%.
Partner Spotlight
Boys & Girls Clubs
Boys & Girls Clubs of Buffalo
“With COMET and Children’s Institute we can demonstrate outcomes and understand the impact we make. The staff finds COMET easy to use and is very pleased with how easily we can generate reports for funders and for ourselves.”
Boys & Girls Clubs of Woonsocket
“Being web-based, it is more user-friendly, flexible, and reliable. I have results at my fingertips to show funders that we are fulfilling our mission. I strongly recommend COMET.“
Boys & Girls Clubs of Northeast Florida
“I am excited...Until now, we have been unable to reasonably afford a tool that will empower us to assess our own programs.”
Partner Spotlight
Schools & Primary Project
With the support of COMET, one urban school district is able to track and report on lots of non-routine data. Whether it's in-school programs or from community partnerships, they collect data across schools and programs, even from community-based organizations, to support student success. Working with our partner, Children's Institute, this data is evaluated as part of a continuous improvement model, and today they boast one of the highest-ranked Pre-K programs in the country.
