Mining the Data: What States Have and Where to Find It

1. Mining the Data: What States Have and Where to Find It Elizabeth Laird Director, Communications and External Affairs Data Quality Campaign February 7, 2012

2. The Current Education Landscape… Increasing expectations Decreasing resources Effective data use

3. Connecting Education Data and Decisions Increasing Teacher Effectiveness • Do my state’s policies ensure a measurably effective educator workforce? • With which students am I consistently most effective? Ensuring College and Career Readiness • Are my state’s policies and data systems aligned to ensure that expectations in P–12 support student success in postsecondary education? • Which courses should I take to ensure that I am prepared to take credit-bearing courses in college?

4. Data Defined: Moving Beyond Test Scores The most useful data are: • Longitudinal— follow individual students over time. • Actionable— timely, user friendly and meaningful to users. • Contextual— robust, comparable and presented as part of a bigger picture. • Interoperable— matched, linked and shared across systems and sectors.

5. About Data for Action: DQC’s State Analysis • Tracks states’ progress toward transforming education into a data-driven enterprise • Spurs dialogue in states and informs their planning efforts • Led by the governor’s office • 2011 marks the seventh annual release of DQC’s state analysis, and the final year for assessing states’ progress toward the 10 Essential Elements For state-by-state analysis and to view the state respondents, please visit: http://www.DataQualityCampaign.org

6. Data for Action 2011: State Respondents

7. 10 ESSENTIAL ELEMENTSof Statewide Longitudinal Data Systems • A unique statewide student identifier. • Student-level enrollment, demographic and program participation information. • The ability to match individual students’ test records from year to year to measure academic growth. • Information on untested students. • A teacher identifier system with the ability to match teachers to students. • Student-level transcript information, including information on courses completed and grades earned. • Student-level college readiness test scores. • Student-level graduation and dropout data. • The ability to match student records between the P–12 and postsecondary systems. • A state data audit system assessing data quality, validity and reliability.

8. Every State Has Capacity to Empower Education Stakeholders with Data 36 states have all 10 Elements, up from zero in 2005

9. Student-Level Test Data to Measure Growth (Element 3=52 states)

10. Statewide Teacher Identifier with a Teacher-Student Match(Element 5=44 states)

11. Student-Level Course Completion (Transcript) Data(Element 6=41 states)

12. Student-Level SAT, ACT, and Advanced Placement Exam Data (Element 7=50 states)

13. Student-Level Graduation and Dropout Data(Element 8=52 states)

14. Majority of States Collect High School Grades(based on Data for Action 2010) Element 2: Student Course Completion Data

15. States Have Made Incredible Progress • Better Data: Every state has robust longitudinal data that extend beyond test scores. • Improved Access: States are increasingly providing better data to appropriate stakeholders. • Increased Awareness: States are making this increased capacity known. • Long-term Sustainability: States are planning for the future. Every state has the capacity to empower education stakeholders with data.

16. Moving from the 10 Essential Elements to 10 State Actions to Support Effective Data Use Link data systems across P-20 and the workforce to answer key questions • Link state K-12 data systems with early learning, postsecondary, workforce, and others • Create sustainable support for the longitudinal data system (LDS) • Develop governance structures to guide LDS • Build state data repositories • Provide timely role-based access to data • Create progress reports with student-level data for educators, students, and parents to make individual decisions • Create reports with longitudinal statistics to guide change at system level Ensure that appropriate data can be accessed while protecting privacy • Develop a research agenda • Implement policies to ensure educators know how to use data appropriately • Raise awareness to ensure all key stakeholders know how to access and use data • Build capacity of all stakeholders to use longitudinal data

17. States Have Not Taken Action to Support Effective Data Use No state has all 10 Actions 10 State Actions Link P-20/W Data Systems (11 states) Create stable, sustained support (27) Develop governance structures (36) Build data repositories (44) Provide timely data access (2) Create individual student progress reports (29) Create longitudinal reports (36) Develop research agenda (31) Build educator capacity (3) Raise awareness of available data (23)

18. Data for Action 2011: Game-Changing Priorities • IDENTIFY, through broad-based input, and publicly document the state’s critical policy questions. • ESTABLISH decision-making authority of state P–20/W data governance bodies. • SHARE data on teachers’ impact on student achievement with the institutions that prepared them. • DETERMINE whether existing high school feedback reports meet local needs.

19. High School Feedback Reports: Providing Postsecondary Feedback to High Schools

20. Type of Information in HS Feedback Reports Of the 33 states that have made their high school feedback reports publicly available: • 33 states include college enrollment information • 28 states include remediation information • 14 states include degree completion information • 12 states include information about students who attended postsecondary in other state

21. State Example: Kentucky Source: Kentucky High School Feedback Reports (2004)

22. Continue the Conversation… • Does your state collect the necessary student-level data to answer your questions? • Does your state link student-level K-12 and postsecondary data? • Does your state produce high school feedback reports? • Are these reports publicly available? • Does your state have a formalized process through which you can submit information requests? Visit www.DataQualityCampaign.org to find out.

23. Contact DQC Elizabeth Laird Director, Communications and External Affairs, DQC Elizabeth@DataQualityCampaign.org (202)393-7192 www.DataQualityCampaign.org Our work is made possible by philanthropic grants and contributions from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the Michael & Susan Dell Foundation, the Lumina Foundation for Education, AT&T, and the Birth to Five Policy Alliance. Additional support has been provided by The Broad Foundation, The Pew Charitable Trusts, and Casey Family Programs.