Ohio Sustainability Assessment Tool (OSAT)
What is program sustainability capacity?
We define program sustainability capacity as the ability to maintain programming and its benefits over time.
Many programs and initiatives are tied to soft money from grants or special projects funding and are not a line item in districts 5-year forecast. Because of this, staff needs to determine sustainable capacity early in the implementation to allow for long term success.
Why is program sustainability capacity important?
Programs and initiatives at district and building levels struggle with their sustainability capacity. Unfortunately, when programs or initiatives are forced to be discontinued, important school and academic improvements can be lost. With knowledge of the critical factors that influence sustainability, staff can build program or initiative capacity for sustainability and position their efforts for long term success.
What is the purpose of this tool?
This tool will enable you to assess your program or initiative’s current capacity for sustainability across a range of specific organizational and contextual factors. Your responses will identify sustainability strengths and challenges. You can then use the results to guide sustainability action planning for your program or initiatives.
How to Get Started
To complete the Ohio Sustainability Assessment Tool (OSAT), you will initiate and manage the process through the Teams section of the OLAC website. If you have not already set up a team for your district, you will follow these simple steps:
- Create a team for your district.
- Invite members to join the team. They will receive an email invitation.
- Create an OSAT assessment and assign it to your team members.
You can check on the progress of team members in the Teams section and send reminders, if needed, to members who have not yet completed the assessment. When all team members have completed the assessment, it will automatically close, and results become available.
What if I Already Have a Team?
If you have already conducted an OSAT assessment in the past, you can use that same team for a new assessment and add new members or remove members as needed.
If you have already set up an entirely different team for another assessment, such as the Building Leadership Team (BLT) Assessment or the Systemic Improvement Practices Review (SIPR) , you can set up a new team for this assessment. You can access all your teams in the “Your Teams” dashboard.