10 State Actions to Ensure Effective Data Use

Expand the ability of state longitudinal data systems to link across the P-20 education pipeline and across state agencies

Link state K-12 data systems with early learning, postsecondary education, workforce, social services and other critical agencies

By linking data systems across the P-20 /workforce spectrum, states will be able to evaluate whether students, schools and districts are meeting many states’ college and career readiness expectations. However, academic data and performance histories alone cannot provide a complete picture of the challenges students face and the programs and services they take part in outside the classroom that affect student achievement.

Linking data systems can help policymakers and educators determine whether:

• Students, schools and districts are meeting the state’s college and career readiness expectations.
• Students are receiving the services for which they are qualified.
• Students are receiving effective interventions.

State role:

• Define the purposes for linking and sharing data across agencies.
• Review and clarify state and federal privacy laws (including regulations and guidelines) on the role of the longitudinal data system.
• Clarify roles and responsibilities and enact practices for protecting individual privacy and security.
• Promote cross-system interoperability, including the development and adoption of common standards for data architecture and definitions.

Create stable, sustained support for robust state longitudinal data systems

Longitudinal data systems are not one-time investments but critical state infrastructure that require maintenance and enhancements over time to meet new stakeholder demands. A key factor in ensuring that state longitudinal data systems remain viable over time is stakeholder use and demand for these systems. States can help to foster this sustainability through codifying a state P-20 state longitudinal data system, as well as by providing maintenance and expansion funding.

State role:

• Ensure state budgetary investment for the maintenance and growth of statewide P-20/W longitudinal data systems.
• Create the political demand for data sharing – share the advantages of having information follow individual students, even across state and district lines, and to break down traditional silos.

Develop governance structures to guide data collection, sharing and use

Data governance, a critical aspect of data management, provides organizations and agencies an opportunity to define the roles and responsibilities needed to institutionalize their commitment to data quality and use.

Through a strong data governance structure, states are able to clarify:

• Data ownership and governance
• Business processes for collecting ,reporting, and sharing data
• Protection of privacy by ensuring appropriate collection, use, security, access and release of data
• Accountability for data quality
• Common data standards

State role:

• Establish memoranda of understanding outlining what data are shared and how, where they will be stored, how often they will be updated, who will conduct what analysis, how privacy will be protected, etc.
• Create a data sharing committee with representatives from relevant state agencies to oversee the governance policy and structure.
• Develop common data standards.
• Establish a governance structure within the state education agency to ensure consistent treatment of data.

Action 3 Policy Brief

Build state data repositories (e.g., data warehouses) that integrate student, staff, financial and facility data

Data warehouses are essentially storage facilities where detailed and reliable educational data from several areas that affect student performance are stored and integrated. A data repository is a location—analogous to a railroad switchyard—where data from multiple sources can be linked electronically to create customized datasets and reports. Facilities where integrated databases are stored are often referred to as data warehouses. A data repository can itself be used to store databases, and thus serve as a data warehouse, or can simply link data from multiple data warehouses but not itself be used as a long-term storage facility for data.

Data repositories allow data that have been traditionally stored in different silos to be linked and /or integrated in a manner that would allow states to inform various practices and policies.

State role:

• Engage in the planning process to ensure that stakeholders’ needs are addressed.
• Address security issues up front.
• Ensure that data can be accessed, analyzed and used, and communicate data to all stakeholders to promote continuous improvement.

Ensure data can be accessed, analyzed and used, and communicate data to all stakeholders to promote continuous improvement

Implement systems to provide all stakeholders with timely access to the information they need while protecting student privacy

Data are only useful if people are able to access, understand and use them. Without access to the right information, stakeholders are forced to make decisions based on anecdote, experience or instinct. For information to be useful, it must be timely, readily available, and easy to understand.

Different stakeholders need and are entitled to access to different types of information. For example, teachers and school administrators need access to individual longitudinal information on the students in their charge. Parents need information on their own children. Other users, such as members of the general public or parents seeking information on the performance of their children’s schools, need access to aggregate statistics based on longitudinal data that do not reveal information on individual students. By granting access to different types of users based on the kinds of information to which they are entitled, state data systems can provide access to information while fully protecting student privacy.

The DQC is not issuing an analysis on Action 5 because the survey instrument failed to collect adequate information. The DQC will be refining its questions, and this information will be provided in next year's analysis.

State role:

• Ensure all stakeholders have appropriate access to longitudinal data.
• Promote the effective use and timely presentation of this information.
• Protect statewide longitudinal data for research and improvement purposes.

Create progress reports with individual student data that provide information educators, parents and students can use to improve student performance

Creating progress reports using student-level longitudinal data enriches the information that are available to parents and teachers by providing information on a student’s academic history, including courses taken, grades received, and scores on formative and statewide assessments.

Using student-level longitudinal data states can produce:

• Diagnostic reports to guide efforts by teachers and parents to provide timely and effective help to students and to make sure that the instruction challenges them appropriately.
• Early warning system reports provide information regarding whether individual students are at risk or in need of extra assistance.
• Readiness reports help identify whether and to what extent each elementary, middle and high school student is on track for college and career readiness by high school graduation.
• Predictive reports use information on the past performance of students to see whether students are likely to reach a particular performance goal.

State role:

• Ensure that on-line access to these reports are available to appropriate users while protecting student and teacher privacy by limiting access to appropriate users.
• Support the development of early warning systems, growth models and predictive analysis tools that use longitudinal student data to inform and improve teaching and learning.

Create reports that include longitudinal statistics on school systems and groups of students to guide school-, district-, and state-level improvement efforts

All stakeholders need information on school, district and state performance to gauge progress and make decisions to support continuous improvement at all education levels. Reports that include longitudinal statistics provide valuable information about the effectiveness of schools, programs, policies and interventions for students who start out at different academic levels.

Using aggregate-level longitudinal data, states can produce:

• Feedback reports from higher education to K-12, from high schools to middle schools, from middle schools to elementary schools, and from elementary schools to early childhood programs, provide educators and policymakers with information about how students from one particular school or program performs at the next level of education.
• Student academic performance and growth reports to assess whether students who entered middle school or high school at low performance levels are improving fast enough to get them on track to enter college or careers by the time they graduate from their current schools.
• Longitudinal graduation/completion reports disaggregated by student prior performance, allow states to determine whether some high schools are more effective than others in getting at-risk students to graduate.
• Reports based on the analysis of the relationship between course completion, course grades, exam results and later success, provides states with the ability to assess whether certain benchmarks or course taking patterns are accurate indicators of future success.

State role:

• Ensure that reports are available on-line.
• Support the development of reports that use aggregate-level longitudinal statistics to inform and improve system performance.
• Build the capacity of all stakeholders to use longitudinal data for effective decisionmaking.

Build the capacity of all stakeholders to use longitudinal data for effective decisionmaking

Develop a purposeful research agenda and collaborate with universities, researchers and intermediary groups to explore the data for useful information

To make full use of the longitudinal data states are collecting, states need access to individuals with high-level analytical skills and research training to mine the data and answer the multitude of policy and evaluation questions. Through the formation of strategic partnerships with universities and other organizations that conduct educational research and/or serve as advocacy organizations, states will be provided with information and analysis that could inform decision making and improve student and system performance.

State role:

• Encourage the development of strategic partnerships with universities, researchers, and intermediary groups to help establish a robust research agenda.
• Ensure that researchers have appropriate access to longitudinal data.

Implement policies and promote practices, including professional development and credentialing, to ensure educators know how to access, analyze and use data appropriately

To ensure that data is used to inform teaching in the classroom and to promote continuous improvement at the school and district levels, educators must be trained on how to access, analyze, and interpret the data. States can develop the capacity of educators to use data by implementing appropriate policies for both pre-service and in-service staff.

State role:

• Require educators seeking certification and certification upgrades to show competence in data analysis, interpretation and use.
• Promote and support educator professional development with regard to data access, use and analysis.
• Ensure that educator and leadership preparation programs have appropriate data to conduct analysis for programmatic improvement.
• Support the development of a culture of data at the district level by emphasizing the role of robust data systems in the school improvement planning process and professional development activities.
• Support district efforts to provide educators access to the appropriate technology to enable data access, analysis, and communication at the building level.

Action 9 Policy Brief

Promote strategies to raise awareness of available data and ensure that all key stakeholders, including state policymakers, know how to access, analyze and use the information

In addition to educators, other stakeholders including students, parents, policymakers, and community members need to know what data are available and be able to access, interpret and use data effectively. Very few stakeholders have had access to longitudinal education data; consequently, few will automatically know how to use the information effectively.

State role:

• Promote training on data use for parents, students, school board members, state executive and legislative staff, SEA personnel, education writers and journalists, community leaders, and the general public.
• Ensure that stakeholder training is provided in multiple formats.