Each year, state legislators introduce hundreds of bills that generate new data collections, analyses, and resources, playing a crucial role in how people access and use data. Notably, in 2023 legislators introduced and enacted bills governing cross-agency data systems--the most important step that states must take to make robust access to data…

Every family deserves access to the information they need to understand the quality of their community's schools and to make the best decision about their child's education. School report cards are the primary way that states communicate the information that families want and need about schools, but too often, the report cards are more focused 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…

As a result of state, national and federal leadership and political will, states have dramatically increased their capacity to collect robust longitudinal education data. However, without an equally ambitious effort to ensure access and build stakeholders' capacity to use data to increase student achievement, these infrastructure investments…

Every state can create secure, robust linkages between early childhood and K-12 data systems, and effectively use the information from these linkages to implement initiatives to support programs and children, answer key policy questions, and be transparent about how the state's early childhood investments prepare students for success in school and…

Consider the high-priority challenges facing education stakeholders today, such as measuring teacher effectiveness, implementing the Common Core State Standards, aligning K-12 and postsecondary education efforts with workforce demands, efficiently allocating resources, and ensuring that students stay on track to success. These efforts all rely on…

States are working to ensure that every citizen is prepared for the knowledge economy. Achieving this goal requires unprecedented alignment of policies and practices across the early childhood; elementary, secondary, and postsecondary education; and workforce sectors (P-20W). Consequently, many policy questions require data from multiple agencies…

The Data Quality Campaign (DQC) has identified a common set of data that capture students' progress through the education pipeline at three key transition points: high school readiness, high school success/postsecondary readiness, and postsecondary and workforce success. For each of these transition points, key questions to be addressed by…

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…

High school feedback reports let school and district leaders know where their students go after graduation and how well they are prepared for college and beyond. This roadmap discusses the seven key focus areas the Data Quality Campaign (DQC) recommends states work on to ensure quality implementation of high school feedback reports.

There is increased demand from multiple stakeholders for information about K-12 students' success after high school. When this information is provided back to high schools, it is often referred to as "high school feedback" information. This working document captures knowledge about states' capacity to and progress in providing high school feedback…

There is increasing demand on the education sector to produce high-quality, actionable information to inform decisions aimed at improving student achievement. Unfortunately, every state currently lacks the out-of-state data necessary to follow individuals systemically and efficiently across state lines. The absence of appropriate out-of-state data…

Any policy proposal in education requires quality data to inform its development, implementation, and evaluation. In fact, the highest-profile education policy agendas currently discussed in states--ensuring that all students are taught by effective teachers and graduate from high school prepared for college and 21st-century careers--were…

The education sector is beginning to embrace a culture that values, demands and uses data to support improved decisionmaking at every level--in classrooms, at kitchen tables and in state capitols. This shift is due in large part to state policymakers' leadership over the last six years in building statewide longitudinal data systems that collect…

Current state and federal reform initiatives rely heavily on the ability of multiple stakeholders to access and use information from statewide longitudinal data systems (SLDSs) to improve student achievement. State policymakers have indicated through reform plans that states are best positioned to achieve this goal by developing and implementing…