Illinois' state legislature just passed the Longitudinal Education Data System Act, designed to allow tracking of student progress and results beginning with preschool and continuing through formal education (kindergarten through graduate school) and into the workforce. Federal stimulus dollars would help with the implementation.
The federal No Child Left Behind Act requires the collection of a great deal of data. Apparently P-20 (think K-12 only more so) longitudinal data systems are our future -- actually the present in Florida. According to that last link, Business Tools for Better Schools, "Florida’s data system is so comprehensive that the Data Warehouse currently is fielding requests from universities, research organizations and individual researchers and grant makers who all want access to this wealth of student-level data."
We can hope it works the way it is supposed to.
The federal No Child Left Behind Act requires the collection of a great deal of data. Apparently P-20 (think K-12 only more so) longitudinal data systems are our future -- actually the present in Florida. According to that last link, Business Tools for Better Schools, "Florida’s data system is so comprehensive that the Data Warehouse currently is fielding requests from universities, research organizations and individual researchers and grant makers who all want access to this wealth of student-level data."
We can hope it works the way it is supposed to.