North Carolina is among one of the top-performing states regarding educational data usage, according to a recent report by the Data Quality Campaign.
The campaign released the results of its ninth survey looking at the use of data in education across 49 states and Washington, D.C. Monday. The report analyzed the steps that states have taken to collect, analyze, use and communicate educational data. Specifically, the report looked at 10 actions states could take to make the best use of data—such as linking data systems and raising awareness of available data—and which states had taken these actions. North Carolina has taken action in eight out of the 10 areas, according to the report.
“We have to focus on what people’s questions are if we truly want to make sure that data is not just data sitting on the shelf, that it is actionable information that meets people’s needs,” said Aimee Guidera, Data Quality Campaign founder and executive director, in a media conference call discussing the report.
Some of the action areas in the report included linking K-12 data with college and career data and providing teachers and parents access to data on students, as well as promoting research based on educational data. The Data Quality Campaign claims that states that take these actions are most likely to reap benefits from educational data.
“What we’ve really seen this year as one of the biggest changes is focusing on getting the appropriate access of the right data to the right people at the right time with the end goal of improving student achievement,” Guidera said.
According to the report, North Carolina still needs to take further action to provide good support for its data systems and allow broad access to data while protecting privacy. But overall, North Carolina appears to be doing a good job collecting and leveraging educational data.
North Carolina has high-quality data resources available to researchers and others interested in improving education said Jacob Vigdor, professor of public policy and economics.
“North Carolina has some very good resources,” he said. “We of course have things like standardized test scores, which are tracked over time, but there are a lot of other resources which are linked.”
For example, Vigdor said, researchers can correlate North Carolina educational data with student location data at birth or student career data.
Vigdor also pointed out that Duke plays an important role in supporting the state of North Carolina’s educational data resources.
“A lot of the data resources are archived right on campus at Duke in the North Carolina Education Research Data Center,” he said.
Kristen Stephens, associate professor of the practice of education, said the way data is used in education is changing from a focus on determining student proficiency in subject areas to a focus on determining student growth. As a result, collecting “longitudinal data,” or data on individual students over long periods of time, is becoming more important.
“There is more of a need for longitudinal data sets so you can really see the trajectory that students follow and how they grow over time, rather than just where they are at any given point,” Stephens said.
States have become better at providing educators with data on individual students to create a personalized learning experience, Guidera noted.
“We’re now seeing this promise of personalized learning becoming a reality,” Guidera said. “This year, for example, we’re reporting that teachers in 35 states now have access to data about the students in their classroom. This is an increase from 28 states in 2011.”
Going forward, Vigdor said the emphasis will be on getting schools and teachers to use data which is already accessible to improve educational practices.
“There actually isn’t any kind of rule which says, once you have data you need to use it,” Vigdor said. “I suspect that there are a lot of school districts out there which don’t take advantage of data or the analysis of data.”
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