Potential inputs
- District spending
- Per-pupil spending
- Athletic spending where available
- Booster support
- Facility investment
- Enrollment
- Postseason output
- Multi-sport performance
CDA Athletic ROI Index
Which schools and departments generate the strongest athletic results relative to resources?
Athletic success relative to spending, enrollment, facilities, booster signals, public/private context, and community capacity.
Status:Methodology pilot. Future outputs stay labeled until source coverage and QA support validation.
What it measures
Athletic success relative to spending, enrollment, facilities, booster signals, public/private context, and community capacity.
Why it matters: Which schools and departments generate the strongest athletic results relative to resources?
What it does not measure: It does not assign blame for funding differences or assume every dollar is directly tied to athletic outcomes.
Example use case: A district with modest resource signals and repeated postseason output becomes a high-priority Athletic ROI review case.
Limitations
Input availability varies by public/private status, district disclosure, sport, season, and source quality.
Source plan
Athletic ROI depends on resource signals, not opinion.
Priority sources include ODEW, Ohio School Report Cards, NCES, OHSAA, Census/ACS, district financial reports, board minutes, booster sponsorship packets, and Form 990s where available.
Ohio School Report Cards data downloads
Enrollment, district profile fields, report card context, and expenditure-per-pupil downloads.
Ohio Department of Education and Workforce finance resources
District profile reports, expenditure-per-pupil context, and finance definitions.
OHSAA
Member-school context, sport divisions, tournament structure, enrollment figures, and postseason references.
OHSAA school enrollment figures
Sport classification and division context, with OHSAA-published enrollment notes.
NCES Common Core of Data
School identity, district identity, public/private normalization, enrollment, demographics, and finance datasets.
U.S. Census American Community Survey
County population, median household income, growth, household composition, and community context.
District annual financial reports, board minutes, and CAFR/ACFR materials
Athletic fund detail, facility approvals, capital projects, booster donations, and resource context.
School, athletic department, booster, and sponsorship pages
Sports offered, staff, facilities, sponsorship inventory, booster activity, and sponsor ecosystem evidence.
IRS Form 990 and nonprofit filings
Booster club revenue, fundraising scale, expense patterns, and nonprofit resource indicators where applicable.
County economic, chamber, business-pattern, levy, bond, and local media sources
Sponsor ecosystems, business density, public investment context, facilities, and historical community sports moments.
Pilot questions
The first Athletic ROI release should answer questions people will cite.
Which schools generate the strongest results relative to enrollment?
Enrollment is the first opportunity signal before finance data is complete.
Which counties show strong outcomes despite modest population size?
County intelligence can reveal small-community athletic value.
Which departments outperform available resource signals?
This becomes the bridge from single-sport rankings to department intelligence.
Which facility investments may change future performance?
Board minutes, bond records, and facility pages become important evidence.
Future outputs
Make Athletic ROI the most citable CDA product.
Athletic ROI Rankings
Publishes only after finance, enrollment, sports-output, and confidence checks are complete.
Best Value Athletic Departments
Publishes only after finance, enrollment, sports-output, and confidence checks are complete.
Most Overachieving Programs
Publishes only after finance, enrollment, sports-output, and confidence checks are complete.
Resource-Adjusted County Rankings
Publishes only after finance, enrollment, sports-output, and confidence checks are complete.