The Sacramento Bee

Another View: State needs student data

By Carl Guardino
Published 12:00 am PDT Sunday, June 15, 2008

Carl Guardino, president and CEO of the Silicon Valley Leadership Group, is responding to the June 2 Op-Ed article "Committed to better data on education."

At birthday parties, blindfolded children play "Pin the Tail on the Donkey." Amid the fun, they learn that when you cannot see where you are, it's hard to hit the target. We face the same challenge accurately gauging our children's success in school, as we are blindfolded by a lack of data to assess student performance over time. But, of course, education is no game.

California has created curriculum standards and a testing and accountability system. But it lags behind other states in the tools to gather information and measure progress. As business leaders, we are keenly aware that knowing which programs and practices are effective is critical to success.

The state cannot hope to close the gap between students who succeed and students who struggle, or to move forward with comprehensive reform without a robust information system and the resources to maintain it.
The governor's Committee on Education Excellence, the state superintendent's P-16 Council and the "Getting Down to Facts" research all call for the state to design, develop and implement a high-quality information collection system.

A system for following students over their years in school, called CalPADS, will become operational in 2009. It will provide access to student-level information on achievement, graduation, dropout rates and other essential performance indicators.

However, more will need to be done to ensure a comprehensive system that links student, teacher, school, district, regional and state data with higher education, work force and other information.
This type of system is essential:

• For educational leaders to determine the services, programs and interventions students need to improve academically.
• For policy-makers to make informed regulatory and legislative decisions.
• For researchers to evaluate effects of educational policy decisions, programs, etc., on K-12 schools, higher education and work-force development.
• Most of all, for parents, to know our kids are getting the best education possible.

The state will need to provide on- going funding to train personnel in the local districts to collect, maintain, report and validate student- and teacher-level data.

With a comprehensive and reliable data system, those accustomed to hunkering down in the dueling reform camps of "more money" and "more efficiency" will be prodded by the facts to leave their comfortable shelters.

The governor's leadership on this critical issue has been the necessary first step to getting our dedicated educators the tools they need. On one point, the data are completely clear: We've put this off far too long.

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