States Get Better at Collecting Education Data, but Still Don’t Use it Well

Data can be a valuable tool in helping states and school districts implement effective policies and practices and teachers shape their instruction to meet the individual needs of their students. But how those data are used is just as important as the kind of information collected.

States are making progress toward building longitudinal data systems and implementing what the Data Quality Campaign (DQC) calls the 10 Essential Elements. For example, states have collected data on students’ standardized assessment scores and graduation status (for the list of the full 10, see the table below).  

According to DQC’s latest survey of states, however, most continue to struggle using their data systems to inform and guide policy decisions.

Thirty-eight states, for example, have not established policies around sharing data across agencies. And while 40 states provide access to student-level longitudinal data to principals and 28 to teachers, only 10 states have policies requiring data literacy for teacher and principal certification.

It’s great that teachers and principals have access to student data in so many states. But if they have not received training on how to use it most effectively, it’s unlikely that the data can inform school-based program decisions or instruction.

Below is how states say they are progressing on implementing important data system elements, according to the DQC survey:

When it comes to incorporating and effectively using data on children not yet in kindergarten – including the programs they attend and the educators who teach and care for them – there is still plenty of work to do. According to DQC, 36 states can match and share data between K-12 and pre-kindergarten programs. But what kind of data is an important question. Last year, the Early Childhood Data Collaborative (an effort spearheaded by DQC) reported that while many states collect quite a bit of data from some early childhood programs, few states collect data from all early childhood programs (such as child care centers, Head Start and preschools not affiliated with the public schools). We wrote about states’ challenges in our report Many Missing Pieces.

Below is a snapshot from the DQC’s report on which states say they are using data most effectively:

The states that appear to be making the most progress on these actions are Arkansas, Florida and Texas.

In the report, DQC discusses a few “speed bumps” slowing other states’ progress: turf, trust, technical issues and time. Turf refers to education being full of silos, especially in early education, which leads to state agencies not being comfortable with sharing or able to share data. Some education stakeholders simply don’t trust the quality of data and how it’s used. Technical issues are also a problem for many states, though solutions are emerging. And most states are contending with scarce resources and competing priorities – a tough environment for building and effectively using longitudinal data systems that take both time and money.

We hope states continue to make improving their data systems a priority as well as begin to make additional investments in how the data are used to inform policy decisions, practice and instruction. Data on the types of early learning experiences young children have before they enter school, for example, could make it much easier for kindergarten teachers to prepare for the cognitive and developmental needs of their incoming students.  Having the ability to answer questions such as “what are the features of effective early learning programs” or “which children have access to high-quality programs” would be helpful to policymakers making difficult resource decisions required during tough economic times like those that many states are facing now.