Contact: Jon-Michael Basile, jbasile@dataqualitycampaign.org, p:202-787-5718 c:202-360-2770
WASHINGTON—October 15, 2014 — The Council of Chief State School Officers and the Council of the Great City Schools today announced their commitment to high-quality assessments. Following are the remarks of Aimee Rogstad Guidera, founder and executive director of the Data Quality Campaign, a national nonprofit that works across states, advocating for the effective use of education data to improve student achievement:
“The major backlash against student testing is because teachers and families are getting little value out of it. If a test is to be worthwhile, it needs to be producing information that’s useful in classrooms and at kitchen tables. These new guiding principles are a good first step—they value meaningful assessments aligned with high standards, which will clearly articulate what we expect our kids to know and be able to do.
“But we need to have a conversation about how the information from those tests are used. While high standards and effective tests will empower teachers with data, we must also empower teachers with the skills to use that data. All the useful information in the world doesn’t matter if teachers aren’t properly positioned to use it to help kids.
“State policymakers must play a leadership role in promoting teacher data literacy so teachers can continuously, effectively, and ethically access, interpret, act on, and communicate multiple types of data to improve students’ success. And let’s not forget that useful data are so much more than test scores. They include information like attendance, behavior, interventions, course grades, teacher observations, and more.
“Effective data use does not mean putting the data on a shelf until someone asks for it. It means knowing which data are appropriate to use under the circumstances—and how—to answer questions that lead to student improvement. That’s the difference between frustrating teachers and empowering teachers with assessments, standards, and data.”
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The Data Quality Campaign (DQC) is a nonprofit, nonpartisan, national advocacy organization committed to realizing an education system in which all stakeholders—from parents to policymakers—are empowered with high quality data from early childhood, K–12, postsecondary, and workforce systems. To achieve this vision, DQC supports policymakers and other key leaders to promote effective data use to ensure students graduate from high school prepared for success in college and the workplace. For more information, visit dataqualitycampaign.org.
