policyspotlight: California
Learning What Works to Help Each Child Succeed:
Building a Statewide Educational Data System
Everyone who supports student success—from teachers to policy-makers—needs ready access to high-quality information to know what’s working for students and what’s not. When they have this access, each can make better decisions for kids on an individual level and on a daily basis. Toward that end, we must strengthen our state-wide educational data infrastructure so that it supports individual decision-makers every day, in every school, and at every desk.
Like a jigsaw puzzle with the pieces strewn randomly across the kitchen table, our current education data systems are scattered and fragmented, making it difficult to see the full picture clearly. In 2005, California began to make progress toward data systems redesign with the creation of the California Longitudinal Pupil Achievement Data System (CALPADS) and the California Longitudinal Teacher Data System (CALTIDES). Together, these systems will provide important data about graduation rates, student achievement, teacher qualifications, and credentialing programs.