The Sacramento Bee

Editorial: Baby steps on school data won't get job done.

Published 12:00 am PDT Wednesday, May 21, 2008

In this age of information, with Silicon Valley a leader in innovation, California is unable to follow students as they progress from grade to grade, from school to school and from school to job or college.

That is about to change – but only a little. California grudgingly is doing the minimum to meet federal No Child Left Behind reporting requirements. To that end, the state finally is creating a minimal statewide K-12 data system with a record for each student (CalPADs) and for each teacher (CalTIDES).

By July we'll all know, for the first time, dropout figures that reflect what really has happened with students. We'll know if a kid who dropped out of one school enrolled in another. We'll know why a kid dropped out. And by 2010, if a student moves from one school to another, her transcript – including grades, course completions and test history – will automatically transfer to her new school. Currently, it can take months for a school to get a transcript.

The good news is that the money for this is in Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's revised May budget.

But, as countless reports have concluded, these baby steps are not enough. This minimal system, designed only to meet federal reporting requirements, does nothing for local schools. It's just a one-way transfer of information from local districts to the state and federal government.

California needs a system that allows teachers, principals and district staff to access data immediately, so it can be used to help students. The current one-way information transfer results only in much-delayed reports that show only overall patterns. Test scores, such as the California Standards Tests, go to the state and are reported to the public months later, but teachers can't use the information to tell that a particular child is struggling with fractions.

Because California has done only what the federal government requires, noted the Governor's Advisory Committee on Education Excellence, it "has not taken the time to determine what it wants a data system to support and do." The committee concluded that a "long-term design and implementation plan is a crucial next step."

Such an effort has been under way. A consulting firm commissioned by the governor and education department (funded by the Gates and Hewlett foundations) now has preliminary ideas for design and implementation.

Yet before the public release, Schwarzenegger has seemingly torpedoed the effort with one line on page 69 of his May budget revision. Yes, the administration will get CalPADS and CalTIDES up and running to meet federal reporting requirements. But the administration now says it "believes it is necessary" to analyze this minimal system "before efforts are made to expand these systems or plan new systems." That, of course, could be forever.

The Governor's Office says that this is not its intention. It is clear, however, that those who have worked so hard to get California beyond a minimal reporting system will have to keep the pressure on.

Schwarzenegger promised an ambitious data system in his January State of the State address. He still has enough time in office to deliver, if he heeds his Committee on Education Excellence and takes the crucial next step in planning for the future.

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