Chicago - April 18, 2018 - The Council on Integrity in Results Reporting (CIRR) named a new CEO, as its coding school members released additional student outcomes data for January through June 2017.

“Students deserve to know which coding schools deliver results, so they can invest wisely,” said CIRR’s new CEO, Sheree Speakman. “CIRR members are the only schools publishing employment outcomes data on every student they enroll, every six months, in a common format. I'm proud to take on the leadership of this organization with our market-leaders in higher education and workforce training programs."

Speakman comes to CIRR with deep experience in education finance, access and employment. A former banker, principal with Coopers & Lybrand, and patent holder on an education finance model, she also sits on the USC Rossier School of Education Board of Councilors, and served as the first Evaluation Director for the Walton Family Foundation. Speakman succeeds interim CEO Michael Kaiser-Nyman, who led CIRR through its incorporation as a non-profit.

"The growing coalition of CIRR member schools are doing something unprecedented in higher education: reporting easy-to-understand, apples-to-apples audited student outcomes data,” said Rick O’Donnell, founder and chair of CIRR, and CEO of Skills Fund, a quality assurance and education financing platform. “Sheree brings deep experience in education, data, and standards setting, and we are excited for her leadership as CIRR continues to grow and set a new bar for higher education outcomes reporting."

CIRR is the only organization of schools whose members consistently provide employment outcomes data to prospective students, releasing this information every six months. The coalition has brought clarity, accuracy, and truth in advertising to what was previously a complex, incomparable, and self-serving marketing arm for accelerated learning programs. CIRR added five new reporting members in the first quarter of 2018 including Code Platoon, DigitalCrafts, HACKTIV8, New York Code + Design Academy, and The Tech Academy.

“Students don’t care about a piece of paper, they care about better careers,” stated Thinkful CEO, Darrell Silver “CIRR schools recognized this years ago and got to work.”

“I am proud to lead an organization that focuses on regularly releasing transparent outcomes data for higher education,” said Speakman. “While many colleges and universities – and some coding schools – face scrutiny and skepticism around their outcomes, CIRR members report in a simple way that all students can understand.”

CIRR outcomes summaries are publically available on the websites for CIRR, Course Report, SwitchUp, and individual schools for use and engagement by all interested parties.

CIRR members include: Code Platoon, Codeup, DigitalCrafts, Eleven Fifty Academy, Epicodus, Fullstack Academy, Hack Reactor, HACKTIV8, Launch Academy, New York Code + Design Academy, Sabio, Tech Elevator, The Software Guild, The Tech Academy. Thinkful, and Turing School of Software & Design; and stakeholder members Course Report, Operation Code, Skills Fund, SwitchUp, #YesWeCode, and Bob Shireman, Senior Fellow at The Century Foundation.

For more information on CIRR, as well as to view published data, please visit: http://www.cirr.org

Media Contacts:

Robin Olsen

• Head of Communications, Thinkful
• 720-891-8870

Lauren Bauml

• VP of Strategic Communications & Public Affairs, Skills Fund
• 512-923-6136