Turning Data Into Direction for Schools

In Episode, Paul Dio sits down with Dr. Nicole Aliotto, founder and CEO of Alla Breve Consulting, for a conversation about what good education actually looks like — and why the easiest metrics to measure are rarely the ones that matter most. With nearly three decades of experience spanning higher education, K-12, and the private sector at IBM, Nicole has spent her career helping schools turn data into direction. Nicole walks Paul through her journey from internal practitioner to founder, the early uncertainty of stepping off on her own in 2017 with no clients lined up, and the leap of faith that turned into a thriving consulting practice. She also shares how the pandemic forced her to diversify her clientele almost overnight, and how she's now rebuilt the K-12 work that first lit her up. The heart of the conversation is what she calls the "in-between" measures — trust, morale, belonging, staff voice, educator well-being — the indicators that schools often ignore in favor of the easier outputs. Nicole explains how she designs survey work that actually surfaces those nuances, why most school measurement efforts go awry, and what changes when an entire district finally starts talking about success in the same language. The episode closes on legacy. Nicole reflects on the clients who've taken her frameworks and used them to secure millions of dollars in grant funding, the second book she has releasing at the end of May 2026, and why, after thirty years, she still gets choked up when a team tells her they're finally all moving in the same direction.