Executive SummaryPrint

All States Could Empower Stakeholders to Make Education Decisions with Data—But They Aren’t Yet

The Data Quality Campaign’s (DQC) seventh annual state analysis, Data for Action 2011, shows that states have made incredible progress building their student data systems. More states than ever—36, up from zero in 2005—have implemented all of DQC’s 10 Essential Elements of Statewide Longitudinal Data Systems. Every state now has the capacity to empower all stakeholders—from parents to policymakers—to use data to inform decisions to improve student achievement.

Key successes:

• The majority of states (36) annually match and share data with a known match rate between K–12 and early childhood and between K–12 and postsecondary.
• 36 states have established both state education agency and cross-agency data governance entities.
• 40 states provide access to student-level longitudinal data to principals and 28 to teachers.
• 40 states provide role-based training to educators on state-created longitudinal reports (e.g., feedback or growth reports).

By and large, however, states continue struggle with the 10 State Actions to Ensure Effective Data Use, which create a culture where stakeholders use the rich data they now collect to increase student success. For example:

• Few states can inform conversations about preparing citizens for jobs, because 41 states do not link workforce data with K–12 and 38 states do not link workforce data with postsecondary.
• States have not empowered cross-agency governance bodies, as 38 states have not established policies around sharing data across agencies, and 36 states have not identified critical questions to guide cross-agency data efforts.
• 42 states do not require data literacy for both program approval and teacher and principal certification.
• 46 states do not share teacher performance data with teacher preparation programs.

“States have worked so diligently to build their capacity to collect and use quality education data, but this increased data capacity will only increase student achievement when all stakeholders—from parents to policymakers—use these data to make informed decisions,” said Aimee Guidera, executive director of the Data Quality Campaign. “The need is urgent: state policymakers need to allocate scarce resources based on what works to help students, and they cannot do that without data.”

Click here to read the full report.

View Data for Action 2011: DQC's State Analysis
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