As state and local education agencies increasingly focus on serving educators with their data systems, a common challenge has arisen: identifying the critical knowledge, skills, and behaviors needed by teachers and administrators to use data effectively. Many states are creating data literacy and data use training programs for pre- and in-service…

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…

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…

This report describes the methods and procedures used for the full-scale data collection effort of the Beginning Postsecondary Students Longitudinal Study First Follow-Up 1996-98 (BPS:96/98). These students, who started their postsecondary education during the 1995-96 academic year, were first interviewed during 1996 as part of the National…