America brims with education data and these days it seems everyone in education claims to be guided by data. In this book, leaders and scholars map the landscape of data providers and users and explores why what is supplied by the former but frequently fails to meet the needs of the latter. It documents the barriers to collecting good information, including well-meaning privacy laws and the maze of overlapping government units and agencies. It explores potential solutions, including a future system where a "backpack" of achievement information would accompany every student from place to place. Main points include: (1) America has made significant gains in education data; (2) Many education-data systems remain archaic, cumbersome and non-comparable; (3) Barriers to quality data are tough but surmountable; (4) There are data 'gaps' to be filled; and (5) Getting the education data America needs to the people who need it will not be easy, but it is doable. Following a Foreword (Marci Kanstoroom, Eric C. Osberg, and Robert D. Muller) and Introduction: Education Data Today (Paul Manna), the book is divided into three sections. "Why We Don't Have the Data We Need" includes: (1) Getting FERPA Right: Encouraging Data Use While Protecting Student Privacy (Chrys Dougherty); (2) Federalism and the Politics of Data Use (Kenneth K. Wong); and (3) Political Roadblocks to Quality Data: The Case of California (RiShawn Biddle). "Innovations and Promising Practices" includes: (4) States Getting It Right: The Cases of Kansas and Virginia (Nancy Smith); (5) The Student Data Backpack (Margaret Raymond); (6) Balanced Scorecards and Management Data (Frederick M. Hess and Jon Fullerton); (7) Circling the Education-Data Globe (Daniele Vidoni and Kornelia Kozovska); and (8) Cutting-Edge Strategies from Other Sectors (Bryan C. Hassel.) The final section, "The Way Forward", includes: (9) From Building Systems to Using Their Data (Aimee Rogstad Guidera); and (10) Education Data in 2025 (Chester E. Finn, Jr.). Contributor biographies are appended. (Endnotes, figures and tables are included by individual chapter.)