California’s Fresno Unified School District is one such district experimenting with outcomes-based contracts. During the 2024-25 school year, Fresno USD entered into an agreement with Curriculum Associates for the district’s use of the company’s i-Ready tool, said Ann Loorz, the district’s executive director of procurement.
A multi-department district committee, which includes experts in data research and curriculum, meets weekly with the ed tech vendor to discuss what’s working and what isn’t with the tool’s use in Fresno USD’s classrooms. Loorz said that the district has been able to adjust according to the research regularly provided by Curriculum Associates.
“Instead of just waiting until the very end, when it’s like ‘Oh, that’s all we got and we owe you how much money?’ It’s like a partnership from the very beginning,” Loorz said.
Because of the conditions of the Curriculum Associates contract, Fresno USD did not pay for 100% of the negotiated services since some of the district’s expected student outcomes were not entirely met, Loorz said.