In the 2023 report "Colorado's Longitudinal Data Landscape. Report to the Education Committees of the Colorado House of Representatives and the Colorado Senate. Statute: 23-1-141," the Colorado Department of Higher Education (CDHE) provided a detailed overview of Colorado's long history of efforts to support more connected, longitudinal…

In 2018, the United States Congress passed the "Strengthening of Career and Technical Education for the 21st Century Act." This legislation included the requirement to conduct a comprehensive local needs assessment, which must include input from community stakeholders. This project designed and evaluated a three-step process that…

Internationally, there has been increasing interest in the governance of educational technology (EdTech) in schools. While other nation states have legislative frameworks that address privacy and related concerns (often referred to as 'hard' regulation), Australia has largely depended on 'soft' regulation in the form of policy and guidelines to…

The purpose of this technical assistance paper is to assist education leaders and administrators in the consistent implementation of the Florida Career and Professional Education (CAPE) Act in Section 1003.491, Florida Statutes (F.S.). This technical assistance paper addresses questions on recent legislation, funding, and data reporting. [For the…

California is home to the fifth-largest population of Black people in the United States, approximately 2.8 million individuals. However, when Black Californians seek access to the state's colleges and universities, they face undue bureaucratic and financial barriers. This Equity Alert explores a legislative proposal to create a California…

This article is the second of a three-part series based on the book "Basic Guide to Financial Aid." The contents within are adapted from the publication, with additional emphasis on the impact federal student aid administration has on non-financial aid professionals in higher education today. It should be noted that this information is…

Nationally, students who are parents (known as parenting students or student parents) make up nearly 1 in 5 undergraduates. Though they earn similar grades to non-parenting students on average, student parents are much less likely to complete college credentials, even when controlling for personal characteristics and institution type. There is a…

Since 2013, DaSy has tracked the status of Part C and Part B 619 state data systems to understand states' technical assistance needs, provide stakeholders with a national picture of what capacities state data systems have, and to track how those capacities are changing over time. Most recently, in spring of 2021, DaSy collected comprehensive…

Student privacy is a critical area of higher education that deserves greater focus, particularly as student data digitalization increases. Many colleges and universities use data literacy as a way to prepare students, sometimes from different disciplines, to work with others' data postgraduation. Data literacy can be an avenue for helping all…

The "Individuals with Disabilities Education Act" (IDEA) requires state education agencies (SEAs) to establish a general supervision system for their local education agencies (LEAs), which includes making LEA determinations. In this resource, the IDEA Data Center (IDC) provides an overview of the annual LEA determinations requirements…

The restoration of Pell Grant eligibility in 2024 has catalyzed a new era for higher education in prison, opening doors for approximately 800,000 incarcerated individuals to pursue postsecondary education. Nearly 400 higher education in prison programs now operate across the US, yet basic data about these students at scale--such as enrollment,…

This report examines how states can use their Statewide Longitudinal Data Systems (SLDS) to better understand their teacher supply problems and assess initiatives designed to address them. It emphasizes two key actions: connecting existing data and collecting new data on the prospective workforce. Using research and real-world examples from four…

Each year, state legislators introduce hundreds of bills that generate new data collections, analyses, and resources, playing a crucial role in how people access and use data. Notably, in 2023 legislators introduced and enacted bills governing cross-agency data systems--the most important step that states must take to make robust access to data…

Over the past several years, schools across the nation have seen historic declines in student performance in reading, math, and other academic subjects due to the COVID-19 Pandemic. School closures adversely affected student groups at different rates and further exacerbated long-standing learning gaps. There has been a debate among scholars for…

The National Assessment Program for Literacy and Numeracy (NAPLAN) is intended to assess all Australian students in Years 3, 5, 7 and 9 to ensure equity and inclusion. This paper explores the extent to which equity and inclusion are achieved for students with disability through NAPLAN reporting. Document analysis of publicly accessible NAPLAN…