Creating a statewide educational data system for accountability and improvement: A comprehensive information and assessment system for making evidence‐based change at school, district, and policy levels

Abstract

This article reports on one ongoing statewide effort to create a high-quality data reporting and utilization system (i.e., High-Performance Learning Community [HiPlaces] Assessment) to inform educational accountability and improvement efforts system. This effort has undergoing refinement for more than a decade. The article describes the features of this system, particularly how empirically based psychological theory and research informed both the development and the overall design of the assessment method. This system, unlike those used by other educational institutions, is unusual in that from the onset of the development and then the implementation, the assessment moved well beyond the simple assessment of the performance and achievement of students to include a comprehensive assessment of all aspects of the developmental, educational, fiscal, and policy conditions that comprise the ecology of the public education system, at all levels, as well as of the developmental and educational needs and attainment of students. The use of data was integral in guiding specific and ongoing, state-, district-, school-, and classroom-level improvement plans and efforts, including the development, monitoring, evaluation, and refinement of the program. The major goal that guided this system is, and always has been, the enhancement of schools and students' lives. C 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.Since the mid-1970s in the United States, districts, states, and the nation have been engaged in attempts to develop high-quality data reporting and utilization systems to inform educational accountability and improvement efforts. More recently, the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) act of 2002 (PL 107-110) has spurred such efforts. These efforts have been highly variable in their nature and focus. A significant proportion of the variation stems from the ways in which each educational entity has defined the goals for the use of the data that result. Some systems have been developed primarily for monitoring and ranking either schools or students (e.g., Arizona Department of Education). Others (e.g., Newmann, Smith, Allensworth, & Bryk, 2002) have attempted to provide at least some data that may be useful for guiding instruction, particularly at the level of the individual student. These initiatives draw heavily on student-level data obtained from performance and achievement tests. Still others (e.g., Porter & Snipes, 2006) have attempted to create systems that are useful both for assessing the progress of student achievement and for understanding the overall functioning of the school. These latter efforts provide for much broader, systemic improvement efforts.This article reports on one ongoing statewide effort to create such a system. This effort has been undergoing refinement for more than a decade. A unique feature of this system is that sound psychological theory and research informed both the development and the overall design. The core goals are relatively unusual for a statewide system because they extended well beyond the simple assessment...

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