All students deserve a great education, one that affords every opportunity for them to grow into knowledgeable and successful adults. To date, efforts to improve education have operated on a model of mass production, assuming--wrongly--that what works for some students must work for all. To change that model, students and their parents, teachers, and mentors need different information to collaborate, improve, and innovate. Now that every state in the nation has a robust longitudinal data system, it is possible for every student in this country to benefit from personalized learning that meets his or her needs. This vision can become a reality for every student in the next five years, and states have a unique and critical role to play in bringing it to life. In partnership with leaders from across the education field, the Data Quality Campaign has developed a set of recommendations to help states enact policies that are critical to ensuring that data is used to support student learning. The Four Policy Priorities to Make Data Work for Students presented in this paper are the following: (1) Measure What Matters: Be clear about what students must achieve and have the data to ensure that all students are on track to succeed; (2) Make Data Use Possible: Provide teachers and leaders the flexibility, training, and support they need to answer their questions and take action; (3) Be Transparent and Earn Trust: Ensure that every community understands how its schools and students are doing, why data is valuable, and how it is protected and used; and (4) Guarantee Access and Protect Privacy: Provide teachers and parents timely information on their students and make sure it is kept safe. Three appendices are included: (1) Getting Started; (2) 10 Essential Elements of Statewide Longitudinal Data Systems and 10 State Actions to Ensure Effective Data Use; and (3) Acknowledgements.