Five years ago, California's education data lagged far behind the systems in most other states. However, state leaders and education advocates undertook a purposeful engagement and design process to build a data system that represents the state's values and meets different stakeholders' needs. This case study on California's P-20W Cradle-to-Career…

State legislators have the opportunity to create and support legislation that positions data as a tool to help decisionmakers at all levels take action to support student success. This checklist can serve as a guide to crafting legislation that addresses education data. It applies specifically to education data legislation which includes bills…

If our destination is improved student achievement, we cannot get there without valuing and effectively using data in education. Central to reaching this goal is building trust among all those who have a stake in education that individual student data, such as attendance, course taking, grades, and test scores, are being collected for meaningful…

Schools use data for different purposes, which have different degrees of impact on a student's educational experience: administrative, instructional, assessment and measurement, and optional/noneducational. To the extent feasible, parental choice policies should be structured according to the use of the data in question. Parents should have more…

Many states collect data on students and teachers, but linking teachers to students by course--the teacher-student data link (TSDL)--at the state level is critical to understanding the connection between student academic growth and teacher training, qualifications, and practice. This roadmap discusses the six key areas DQC recommends focusing on…

Data are more than just test scores, and by effectively accessing and using different types of data--such as attendance, grades, and course-taking--teachers, parents, and school and district leaders can help ensure that every student is on a path for success every day, not just at the end of the school year. The 10 State Actions to Ensure…

The reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) provides an opportunity to transform how data are used in education. The 2002 ESEA requirement to disaggregate data and provide them to the public has made it possible to have greater transparency and more accurate measures of academic performance than ever. Congress now has…

States are making progress in supporting effective data use, but the hardest work remains. Although states collect quality data and have enacted policy changes, they have not yet focused on meeting people's needs. This report includes the following: (1) 10 State Actions; (2) Key Findings: Data for Action 2012; (3) States Are Making Progress, but…

While states have made tremendous progress building the capacity to collect longitudinal data, developing the systems and practices to tap into P-20W data remains a nascent effort in most states. This primer aims to provide policymakers with information and recommendations to propel states' progress toward using P-20W data to prepare…

This report presents survey results of the 10 State Actions including status of all 50 states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico. These State Actions include: (1) Link P-20/workforce data systems; (2) Create stable, sustained support for robust state longitudinal data systems; (3) Develop governance structures to guide data collection,…