When school and district administrators are empowered to lead a culture of data use, students do better. As states focus on improving overall school quality and ensuring success for all students, they need a workforce of school and district administrators who are equipped to use data to continuously improve. State leaders are uniquely positioned…

Every student, no matter where he or she lives, deserves a great teacher. States, educator preparation programs (EPPs), and K-12 leaders must work together to ensure that all teachers are learner ready on day one in the classroom. But too often, these actors do not have access to the necessary information to fully prepare teachers for the unique…

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,…

Local school board members need to be able to access and use high-quality data to make good decisions. Often this data is collected and stored locally, but information that is publicly reported by the state can provide additional value. Most state public reporting is designed to serve information needs, and are geared toward compliance with state…

Public reporting makes data about schools and districts--including enrollment, student performance, teacher effectiveness, and more--available to the public. These data never include information that could be used to identify individuals and are critical to meeting the information needs of parents, educators, administrators, policymakers, and…

Data are more than just test scores, and by effectively accessing and using different types of data--such as attendance, grades, and course-taking--teachers, parents, and school and district leaders can help ensure that every student is on a path for success every day, not just at the end of the school year. The 10 State Actions to Ensure…

Every state can create secure, robust linkages between early childhood and K-12 data systems, and effectively use the information from these linkages to implement initiatives to support programs and children, answer key policy questions, and be transparent about how the state's early childhood investments prepare students for success in school and…

The reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) provides an opportunity to transform how data are used in education. The 2002 ESEA requirement to disaggregate data and provide them to the public has made it possible to have greater transparency and more accurate measures of academic performance than ever. Congress now has…

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…

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…

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…

State education data systems have often been described as data rich but information poor. Historically, these systems were created for compliance purposes and, therefore, designed and managed as information technology projects, but a culture change is under way. Educators and other stakeholders are beginning to value data as a tool to inform…