A wide array of federal funding opportunities exists to help states build a secure infrastructure to support data use and ensure that students are prepared for college and careers. Because the reporting requirements for these programs are frequently developed without input from other programs and agencies, grantees are required to report data that…

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…

This document presents an interactive visual guide that explains what data are, how they help, and what people can do with them. It also offers ways to enact statewide policies that support effective data use.

Policymakers across the nation are leading efforts to ensure that every classroom has an effective teacher. Faced with the need to dramatically improve student outcomes, states have embraced a policy agenda that promotes and supports teacher quality in many ways, including developing evaluation and compensation policies, targeting professional…

Faced with the need to create a competitive workforce and improve the quality of our education system, states are pursuing policy agendas to better prepare students for postsecondary education and careers. To inform these agendas, statewide longitudinal data systems (SLDSs) have become an invaluable asset and serve as a tool to help states answer…

On April 8, 2011, the U.S. Department of Education (USED) published in the Federal Register new proposed amendments to regulations implementing the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA). The notice invites public comments on the proposed regulations, which are due no later than May 23, 2011. The proposed regulations are designed to…

While states have made tremendous progress building the capacity to collect longitudinal data, developing the systems and practices to tap into P-20W data remains a nascent effort in most states. This primer aims to provide policymakers with information and recommendations to propel states' progress toward using P-20W data to prepare…

As state policymakers strive to ensure that every student is taught by an effective teacher and is ready for college and 21st-century careers, they must also make drastic budget cuts. States cannot do more with less without collecting and using quality data to determine which programs and policies increase student achievement and the state's…

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…

As states work to meet the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) requirement to follow individuals through the P-20 pipeline and into the workforce by 2011, their progress will be expedited and supported by using the following processes to guide the development and implementation of their cross-agency data sharing efforts: (1) Prioritize,…

America can no longer afford an education system that fails to use data effectively to guide decisionmaking. The education sector is facing ever-increasing demands to improve student outcomes, reduce burden, increase efficiency, and improve transparency. These demands cannot be met without the strategic and effective use of data. Due to the…

Data are most useful when they are transformed into actionable information that people are able to access, understand and use. Thanks to both state and federal leadership, political commitment and investment of financial resources, states have made tremendous progress in the building of statewide K-12 longitudinal data systems. However, to ensure…

States are looking to leverage their longitudinal data systems, particularly the teacher/student data link, to inform the policies and practices that support educator success. It is essential that states bring critical stakeholders together in partnership to determine what teacher data the state should be collecting and matching to student data…

The Data Quality Campaign is a national, collaborative effort to encourage and support state policymakers to improve the collection, availability and use of high-quality education data and to implement state longitudinal data systems to improve student achievement. The campaign aims to provide tools and resources that will assist state development…

This report presents survey results of the 10 State Actions including status of all 50 states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico. These State Actions include: (1) Link P-20/workforce data systems; (2) Create stable, sustained support for robust state longitudinal data systems; (3) Develop governance structures to guide data collection,…