Giving Compass' Take:

• Brennan McMahon Parton explains how states are supporting data use to achieve their education goals under ESSA. 

• How can funders support efficient and effective collection, analysis, and use of data? 

• Read about the importance of getting school data to work together


States have made big commitments in their plans for complying with the federal Every Student Succeeds Act to use data effectively to achieve their education goals — a major recognition of data as a powerful tool when it’s working for students. The Data Quality Campaign has dug into every state’s ESSA plan and found that while approaches to student success vary, the commitment to data use is clear.

Here are three major ways that states are deploying data to meet their education goals:

1. States are supporting districts and schools to use data.

  • 49 states committed to providing training and other supports to schools and districts in data analysis and use, to inform improvement.
  • 38 states committed to investing in data-based tools or developing monitoring processes that explicitly examine school data to support and continuously improve implementation.
  • 15 states committed to collecting data to continuously update the evidence backing school interventions.

2. States are using data at the agency level to monitor and foster progress.

  • 40 states committed to updating their long-term goals based on data.
  • 36 states committed to improving data quality.
  • 28 states committed to increasing the capacity of their state education agency to support accountability and school improvement.

3. States are increasing transparency.

  • 32 states committed to including measures beyond what is reported in their accountability system on state report cards, to provide a more complete picture of school and student performance.
  • 32 states committed to ongoing stakeholder engagement on implementation and outcomes.

Read the full article about states supporting data use by Brennan McMahon Parton at The 74.