Alabama Meets Data Quality Campaign Criteria in Effort to Use Longitudinal Data to Improve Student Success

MOBILE, Ala., March 2 /PRNewswire/ -- Partnering with STI, a leader in K-12 education data management solutions, the Alabama Department of Education has successfully met all the Data Quality Campaign criteria for improving the collection, availability and use of high-quality education data to ensure student success. Alabama is one of only 12 states that have achieved this goal.

The Data Quality Campaign was launched in 2005 by 10 founding organizations, including the National Center for Educational Accountability, to support state development of longitudinal data systems that provide policymakers and educators with information to help adjust policies and practices to increase student achievement. The Data Quality Campaign identified 10 Essential Elements for a comprehensive longitudinal data system, ranging from unique student identifier to student-level test data to graduation and dropout data.

States with all 10 Essential Elements have the capacity to answer key policy questions and obtain information critical for education reform. This questions might include: what middle school achievement levels indicate a student is on track to succeed in rigorous high school courses, and which high school performance indicators (e.g., enrollment in rigorous courses or performance on state tests) are the best predictors of student success in college or the workplace.

"Our participation in the Data Quality Campaign prompted the Department of Education to initiate accountability measures and standardization at the state level to collect accurate, reliable data effectively for stakeholders including policymakers, educators, and the public," said Assistant State Superintendent Mr. Craig Pouncey. "We moved to a single-source provider, STI, to help us achieve these goals while saving administrative time and money. As a result, we've improved education statewide and laid the groundwork for continuous improvement."

With the 10 Essential Elements in place, Alabama is able to link students to multiple data sets – such as discipline, assessment, and teacher training – across many years, for better analysis and data-driven decision-making. It's also easier for the state to meet the reporting requirements of NCLB and federally funded programs, such as those supported under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) and Race to the Top, to demonstrate progress.

The Alabama Department of Education has selected STI as the foundation of its K-12 longitudinal data system. STI's solutions serve as the vital link for 132 systems, 1,522 schools and 748,889 public school students, tracking students from the time they begin school until they graduate.

About STI

STI is a leading provider of Education Data Management solutions to the K-12 public and private school market.  STI's fully integrated suite of Web-based products addresses attendance, scheduling, discipline, grade reporting, state reporting, financial management, student health, parent/teacher communications, special education, formative assessment, and data mining.  Additionally, STI offers a comprehensive program of professional development services to help administrators and teachers with school improvement initiatives such as developing data-driven response-to-intervention and formative assessment programs.  More than 7,000 schools in 50 states and several countries use STI solutions.  The company was founded in 1982 and is headquartered in Mobile, Ala.  For more information, phone 800-844-0884 or visit www.sti-k12.com.

SOURCE STI