Policy makers should not confuse useful indicators with useful goals. Indicators can help monitor progress toward useful goals but cannot make the goals useful. Furthermore, indicators of program effects are not the same thing as evaluations of program effects (that requires data designed and collected for that purpose). Finally, indicators are not a substitute for educational research because they only provide correlation information between variables and do not provide information about causal connections.
November 2007 - Chance Favors the Prepared Mind
American Institutes for Research.
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March 2008 - Technology Counts 2008 - Grades states in three core areas of state policy and practice: access to instructional technology, use of technology, and capacity to effectively use educational technology. Minnesota earns a C (Minnesota State Profile), Education Week.
February 2008 - Closing the Expectations Gap - An annual 50-state progress report on the alignment of high school policies with the demands of college and careers, Achieve, Inc.
January 2008 - Quality Counts 2008 - Grades states in six areas: chance for success; K-12 achievement; standards, assessments, and accountability; transitions and alignment; the teaching profession; and school finance based on data compiled on more than 150 indicators across the six distinct categories, (Minnesota State Profile), Education Week.
January 2008 - Mapping Educational Progress 2008 - State-specific NCLB statistics on state and NAEP test scores, graduation rates, schools making Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP), highly qualified teachers, parents taking advantage of choice and supplemental educational service options, state participation in flexibility options, and more, U.S. Department of Education (Minnesota Report).
Fall 2007 - Questioning Conventional Wisdom About Minnesota’s Public Schools - Describes the need to redefine the goals of public education in Minnesota and develop broader indicators of progress; provides summaries of eight model high schools, Rural Minnesota Journal.
April 2007 - Taking Minnesota Students From Nation-Leading to World-Competing - Sets benchmarks and goals for proficiency, college readiness, graduation rates, and college success. The indicators chart a course for Minnesota’s education goals and provide a framework for measuring progress toward creating 21st century opportunities for Minnesota’s children. This report will be published annually to track Minnesota’s progress, Governor’s Education Council, Minnesota Department of Education (Press Release).
August 2005 - Education: The State We’re In - A comprehensive, state-by-state snapshot of education today in America, Center for American Progress and Institute for America’s Future (Minnesota Report Card).
Higher Education
Minnesota Measures - Higher Education Accountability: Gauging the effectiveness of the higher education sector in meeting state goals, Minnesota Office of Higher Education.
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