Data to be Used to Track Graduation Rates and Student Performance Over Time

SACRAMENTO — State Superintendent of Public Instruction Jack O'Connell today joined key legislators to urge passage of legislation he is sponsoring to improve the accuracy of student data used to track graduation and dropout rates, provide appropriate student services, and better measure student performance over time. The bill will be heard for the first time next week in the Assembly Committee on Education.

"Recent groundbreaking research on California's education system repeatedly cited the need for better data collection and use in our public schools," O'Connell said. "While we rely on data to make important education policy decisions and to hold our multi-billion dollar education system accountable, there is currently no funding in the proposed budget to support the quality of student-level data collection and reporting that we need. The legislation I am sponsoring will help our schools improve the quality of data collected and reported so that educators, policy makers, and the public can evaluate educational programs based on sound information."

O'Connell's sponsored bill, AB 1656, authored by Assembly members Mike Feuer (D-West Hollywood) and Mark DeSaulnier (D-Martinez), will provide $32 million – just $5 per student – to support the workload associated with collecting, maintaining, and submitting student-level data. The funding will help ensure quality student-level data are submitted to the state's longitudinal data system currently under development.

The California Longitudinal Pupil Achievement Data System (CALPADS) will become a principle source of information that California's public education system relies on to make future education and policy decisions. Its success, however, depends on local schools and districts submitting accurate and complete data in a timely fashion. AB 1656 is the vehicle that will help to ensure that our state is making informed decisions using reliable information that is both current and accurate.

Legislation signed in 2001 authorized the creation of CALPADS to track and monitor individual student data. As part of this system, each of the 6.3 million students attending a California public school has been assigned an individual, non-personally identifiable student identifier number that will follow the student throughout his or her K-12 career. When fully implemented in 2009, the CALPADS system will allow the state to more accurately track student graduation and dropout rates, as well as student achievement over time. The system will also help ensure that schools have up-to-date information about the educational history and needs of students who transfer between schools or districts.

Since the implementation of the student identifier system, many local education agencies have found it difficult to submit quality student-level data on time. Many other districts that were able to complete their submissions on time found it very difficult due to the lack of sufficient resources to support the new workload associated with CALPADS and the student identifier system. The $5 per student allocated in O'Connell's proposed legislation would minimally cover the actual local school site workload increase.

O'Connell's bill is supported by Senator Darrell Steinberg (D-Sacramento), chair of the Senate Select Committee on High School Graduation; Senator Jack Scott (D-Pasadena), Chair of the Senate Committee on Education; and Assemblyman Gene Mullin (D- South San Francisco), chair of the Assembly Committee on Education.

"As a former classroom teacher and mayor, and as the current Chair of the Assembly Committee on Education, I know how important quality information is to both educators and policy-makers," Assembly member Mullin said. "I support and look forward to the continued development and implementation of the state's longitudinal pupil data system. I know that the success of CALPADS will dramatically improve our ability to examine pupil achievement, student demographics, school dropouts, and other issues that are related to policy decisions made locally, as well as to those made in the State Capitol."