How do we know reform efforts are working?

How do we know what we're spending
the money on is working?

These are the two central questions of accountability.  The first relates to student achievement; the second to cost-benefit. 

How Minnesota decides to answer these questions, and the measures we develop to monitor student achievement and school performance in terms of tax dollars, will decide the fate of our public schools, including:

• School Report Cards - What they tell us and what they don't.
  
  
• High Stakes Testing - Are the tests valid and do they inform instruction?
  
  
• Raising Expectations - We want to have high expectations for ALL Minnesota students.  Learn about the federal and state education reform initiatives trickling down to your child's school.
  
  
• Or Lowering Them? - How is it that we're raising expectations of our students when we're being asked to lower our expectations of our schools?

November 2009 - Linking Data across Agencies: States That Are Making It Work - For policymakers, educators, parents and students to have the information they need to improve student and system performance, states must ensure that as they build and enhance state K–12 longitudinal data systems, they also continue building linkages to exchange and use information across early learning, postsecondary and the workforce (P–20/workforce) and with other critical agencies, such as health, social services and criminal justice systems (cross agency), to answer key policy questions, National Data Quality Campaign.