The Sacramento Bee

Committed to better data on education

By David Long - Special to The Bee
Published 12:00 am PDT Monday, June 2, 2008

Throughout our great state of California, exceptional teachers, principals and administrators continue to demonstrate remarkable progress in raising student achievement. As a lifelong educator, I understand the daily challenges that each of our educators face. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and I, as well as all Californians, are proud of the excellent work of our educators.

Yet we can still do more to learn from and build upon their success. We need a robust education data system that helps educators at every level use relevant information to further improve student achievement across California.

It is surprising to learn how minimal California's education data system has been in recent years. Parents could not easily access existing information about their local schools. Policy-makers did not know exactly how many students dropped out of our high schools. While the system has improved during Schwarzenegger's time in office, it still does not go far enough.

The governor and I believe we can go further for our students, and the governor's vision moves us in this direction.
The vision that the governor and I share is to see an education data system that goes beyond the minimal reporting that we have now. We want a dynamic system that provides accurate, accessible and transparent information so that parents will be able to make better-educated decisions about where to send their children to school; administrators and teachers will be able to more effectively meet the needs of their students; and policymakers and elected officials will be able to craft better policy and make more informed decisions.

Building an education data system is another important step to getting our state on the right path, a path that will lead us to new ways of better understanding our students and the ways in which they learn, and how we can help ensure they are successful in our schools.

Collecting and using good data is not a partisan issue; it is a common sense issue. In undertaking such an important venture, it will take time to make sure we do it right the first time. The governor directed me and Chief Information Officer Teri Takai to use the resources of the administration to prioritize and coordinate the effort. Moreover, the governor wanted to make sure that this effort was accurate and collaborative. For this reason, we were glad to partner with Superintendent of Public Instruction Jack O'Connell to ensure we get the best recommendations on how California should build such a system.

Using funding from philanthropic foundations, a private consulting firm has been contracted to engage a broad set of stakeholders in the education, business, policy-making and nonprofit communities to recommend a shared vision for how California's education system can become a continuous learning environment in which student outcomes improve more rapidly over time.

Obviously, there are many details on which we will work together to implement a cost-effective data system. We anticipate and know that many challenges come when you take on a project of this magnitude.

Acknowledging this reality, the governor has instructed us to stay focused on what really matters. The primary focus should always be on our students and how this educational data system can work best for increasing student achievement in the classroom.
The base line work of building this framework is scheduled to be done by the end of July, at which time we will use it as a guide in working collaboratively with the Legislature and education community. Even in these difficult financial times, we will continue planning for a robust quality education data system that builds on the progress we have already made. It is the obligation of the state of California to provide parents with information and to provide our hard- working educators with the best tools available, and the governor and I are committed to doing just that.

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