The education data Idaho collects on its students should be used to improve teaching, not just report things like graduation rates, according to an out-of-state analyst. But for Idaho legislators serving on an education interim committee, and in the 2014 Legislature, safeguarding this data will likely be of equal importance.
Analyst Paige Kowalski works for the Washington D.C.-based nonprofit Data Quality Campaign. Speaking to lawmakers Thursday, Kowalski listed several companies that know a lot about her, thanks to data collection. One example she uses is Amazon.com, which Kowalski says knows exactly what books she might like to read based on her purchase history.
But most teachers on the first day of school, she says, know almost nothing about the students sitting in front of them. The teacher doesn’t know what a student has struggled with and what he or she can already do well. Kowalski says this is how data can be used to improve education.
Committee co-chairman John Goedde (R-Coeur d'Alene) says data -- what Idaho collects, how its collected, how its used, and how its protected– will be among the main things this group deals with under its broad goal of recommending ways to improve education.
Kowalski told lawmakers Idaho has struggled more than most states implementing a system to collect and use longitudinal data about students. Last year, her group’s annual state assessment showed Idaho doing five of the 10 things it recommends for effective use of data. She says this year Idaho will have six of 10.
Student data use is one of the top concerns expressed by opponents of the Common Core standards that Idaho and most other states are now using. Lawmakers who have supported Common Core will no doubt try to assuage parent concerns about student privacy.
Idaho's 2014 legislative session begins in January.
Copyright 2013 Boise State Public Radio