Teaching Quality Data

Why It Matters
There is mounting evidence that teacher effectiveness is the single most powerful determinant of student achievement, and that poor children and those of color are less likely to have access to quality teaching and teachers. Now, policymakers are seeking ways to better identify quality teachers and ensure that new policies can support them in the best interest of the students they serve.

In order to design effective policies and programs that improve teaching quality, policymakers and program personnel must have access to high quality teaching data. Unfortunately, no state has invested sufficiently in their TQ data systems or in the people needed to generate the kind of useful and reliable analyses needed to assist state policymakers, preparation programs, or school districts in the efforts to improve teaching quality.

What We're Doing
The Center for Teaching Quality (CTQ), with support from the Carnegie Corporation of New York, developed a Teaching Quality Data Systems Roadmap (www.teachingdata.org). The virtual tool is designed to generate and effectively use a comprehensive system of teacher, student, and school information. The Roadmap, part of a larger set of technical assistance supports that CTQ has provided to state agencies, legislatures, business roundtables, school districts, universities, and local education funds, provides a virtual clearinghouse of cutting-edge resources and examples of exemplary Teaching Quality (TQ) data systems as well as a wide range of information and research findings. Designed for policymakers, district and university researchers, state agency data programmers, and administrators and teachers, the Roadmap will be updated regularly to inform and promote the development of comprehensive TQ Data systems.

The Roadmap provides guidance in creating an Ideal TQ Data System, revealing how states, districts, and universities can work collaboratively to link quality data about teachers, schools, and students. Specifically, the Roadmap addresses the following topics:

• The Need for better TQ data;
• Key principles in building TQ data systems;
• Popular misconceptions about TQ data;
• The Role of value-added methods;
• Setting realistic expectations in creating and using TQ data; and
• Elements of the ideal TQ data system.

In addition, the Roadmap includes the following elements:

• Discussion of the role of FERPA;
• Case studies of 10 states;
• Descriptions of real-life TQ data systems;
• Analyses of the strengths and weaknesses of different TQ data systems; and
• The use of standardized test results.

CTQ gratefully acknowledges the Carnegie Corporation of New York, which has funded the creation of the Roadmap and the range of accompanying technical assistance efforts. Carnegie, over the last several years, has supported a provocative and ambitious teacher education reform initiative, Teachers for a New Era (TNE), which demands that preparation programs track their graduates and assess their effectiveness. The Roadmap is a valuable tool that will provide assistance to the 11 TNE institutions and the other 1,089 colleges and universities that prepare teachers for our nation’s schools.

CTQ is also an endorsing partner of the Data Quality Campaign. We agree with significance of the Campaign's goal to improve the collection, availability, and use of high-quality education data. We believe our work can contribute to the Campaign's efforts to help states develop quality longitudinal data systems, and their laudable goal to provide a national forum for reducing duplication of efforts and promoting greater coordination and consensus among the organizations focused on improving data quality, access and use.