FCAN Spotlights the CFEED Model and Midtown Consulting Group’s Role as Technical Partner
March 3, 2026
The Florida College Access Network (FCAN) has released a new report, SLDS Insights From the Ground Up: Lessons From the Central Florida Education Ecosystem Database (CFEED) Model, highlighting CFEED as a scalable regional approach to connecting education data across systems to strengthen student progress and transitions.
Read the report here: https://floridacollegeaccess.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/FCAN-SLDS-Insights-CFEED-Report-2026.pdf
What is the CFEED Model?
As FCAN describes it, CFEED is a regional data-sharing partnership that connects longitudinal student data across multiple institutions to generate actionable insight and predictive signals that help educators support students throughout the educational journey.
CFEED began with a partnership between two school districts and two higher education institutions to create a unified data system using historical and current data. Over time, the work has deepened into an operational model for collaborative research, shared milestones, and coordinated interventions across key transition points.
Why FCAN sees this as a blueprint for Florida
One of the report’s central themes is that connected, timely, and accessible data enables institutions to move faster from insight to action, particularly at transition points where students are most likely to get off track.
FCAN highlights how regional partnerships like CFEED can inform and complement state-level longitudinal data system efforts by demonstrating what becomes possible when partners can ask shared questions of connected data and act on evidence together.
What makes CFEED work
FCAN points to several components that help CFEED operate as more than a data repository:
- A unified, cloud-based architecture that integrates multi-institution data and supports scalability and security.
- A governance structure that includes leadership alignment and dedicated teams for security/platform oversight, communications, impact, and insights.
- A clear research agenda centered on student transition points and applied, partner-driven questions.
FCAN highlights how regional partnerships like CFEED can inform and complement state-level longitudinal data system efforts by demonstrating what becomes possible when partners can ask shared questions of connected data and act on evidence together.
Midtown Consulting Group’s role as technical partner
FCAN specifically notes that Midtown Consulting Group (MCG) serves as CFEED’s technical partner, providing:
- strategic direction
- data architecture support
- data analytics
- machine learning models to produce predictive insights
MCG also supports adoption by preparing and delivering professional learning and training so partner staff can locate, interpret, and use the data to create usable outputs that build internal capacity.
This combination of technical infrastructure, analytics rigor, and enablement is essential to making cross-institution insight operational, not aspirational.
The impact: turning insight into action
The report includes examples of how connected data can translate into institutional action, particularly for college readiness and transfer outcomes. For instance, FCAN highlights findings tied to transfer readiness and transfer success, where course alignment, consistent enrollment intensity, and avoiding common “shock events” can influence student progression.
More broadly, FCAN notes that partners report the integrated data has been valuable for identifying transition points where students struggle, improving advising and planning, and strengthening retention and graduation outcomes through better pathway alignment.
Looking ahead
For institutions exploring cross-sector data collaboration, the FCAN report offers a practical view into what it takes to build and sustain a connected data ecosystem—governance, security, architecture, and a shared commitment to using evidence to improve student outcomes at scale.
Midtown Consulting Group is proud to support this work as CFEED’s technical partner and to help partners translate connected data into reporting, predictive insight, and coordinated action.
Read the report: https://floridacollegeaccess.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/FCAN-SLDS-Insights-CFEED-Report-2026.pdf
If your institution is evaluating a regional data collaboration, modernizing your insights, building predictive analytics or transforming to a data platform that integrates AI, we welcome a conversation.