1.This Act may be cited as the
Measuring and Evaluating Trends for
Reliability, Integrity, and Continued Success (METRICS)
Act
.
2.In this Act:
(1)Curriculum
management system; instructional management system; learning management
systemThe terms
curriculum management system
, instructional management
system
, and learning management system
mean an
electronic software system used by educators to regularly assess students’
performance as compared to standards and align specific and individual
curriculum activities to students’ needs.
(2)The term early warning indicators
means
student data used to identify and intervene with students who are off-track to
graduation or postsecondary success.
(3)Integrated
statewide education longitudinal data systemsThe term
integrated statewide education longitudinal data systems
means 1
or more statewide data systems that house and link individual students’
longitudinal early childhood, elementary, secondary, and postsecondary
education and workforce data.
(4)The
term Secretary
means the Secretary of Education.
3.Improving the use
of statewide longitudinal data systems
(a)The Secretary is authorized to award grants of not
more than 5 years, on a competitive basis, to State educational agencies to
enable such agencies to improve access to, sharing of, and use of, education
data to improve student outcomes.
(b)
(1)To be eligible to receive a grant under this section, a
State educational agency shall have integrated statewide education longitudinal
data systems that includes the following:
(A)The required data
elements of a statewide education longitudinal data system described in section
6401(e)(2)(D) of the America COMPETES Act (20 U.S.C. 9871(e)(2)(D)).
(B)The following
design elements:
(i)Compliance with section 444 of the General
Education Provisions Act (commonly known as the Family Educational
Rights and Privacy Act of 1974
) (20 U.S.C. 1232g).
(ii)Ability to
generate data easily for continuous improvement and decisionmaking such as
timely reporting to parents, teachers, and school leaders about student
achievement.
(iii)Ability to
facilitate the exchange of data among agencies within a State and between
States utilizing standard data structures, standards, formats, and data
definitions.
(iv)A
data warehouse, data repository, or systemic capacity to link statewide data
systems that stores, organizes, and links student, school, and district
information over time with the ability to customize queries.
(v)A
State data audit process to ensure data quality, validity, and
reliability.
(2)A State educational agencies is deemed to
satisfy the requirement of paragraph (1) if it demonstrates that it has
developed and is implementing a plan that will result in the existence of
integrated statewide education longitudinal data systems described in such
paragraph.
(c)
(1)A State educational agency receiving a grant under this
section shall use the funds to—
(A)expand the ability of integrated statewide
education longitudinal data systems to link student-level data across the
prekindergarten to higher education and workforce pipeline and across State
agencies, through activities such as—
(i)linking State data
systems with early learning, postsecondary education, workforce, social
services, and other critical State agency data systems, and linking data across
programs and activities within State agencies;
(ii)identifying
processes to guide data collection, sharing, and use; and
(iii)improving State
data warehouses, repositories, or systemic capacity to link statewide data
systems across agencies;
(B)improve
opportunities to access, analyze, and use data from integrated statewide
education longitudinal data systems, through activities such as—
(i)creating portals
for teachers, leaders, parents, students, and the public to access data in a
way that respects student and educator privacy and is appropriate to each
stakeholder’s role;
(ii)creating progress
reports with individual student data that provide information educators,
parents, and students can use to improve student performance;
(iii)creating reports
that include longitudinal statistics on school systems and groups of students
to guide school-, district-, and State-level improvement efforts; and
(iv)making data
efficiently available to researchers, analysts, and evaluators, consistent with
student and educator privacy protections, to facilitate the identification of
effective programs and practices through data analysis; and
(C)build the capacity
of teachers, leaders, parents, students, researchers, and the public to use
longitudinal data for effective decisionmaking, through activities such
as—
(i)implementing
strategies to ensure that educators know how to access, analyze, and use data
appropriately, through activities such as—
(I)providing data integrity training at the
school and local educational agency levels to address technology maintenance
needs at the school and local educational agency levels, privacy policies
(including training relating to section 444 of the General Education Provisions
Act (commonly known as the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act of
1974
) (20 U.S.C. 1232g)) data integrity issues, report planning, and
processes;
(II)providing
professional development to teachers, office personnel, and school and local
educational agency administrators about how to collect, verify, report, access,
and use data;
(III)embedding data
and assessment literacy skills into credentialing requirements; or
(IV)developing
partnerships with pre-service educator programs to improve educators’ data and
assessment literacy;
(ii)raising public
and policymaker awareness of available data and how to access, analyze, and use
it;
(iii)collaborating
with universities, researchers, organizations, intermediaries, or other experts
to conduct research using longitudinal data;
(iv)training
dedicated personnel to support the collection, submission, and public reporting
of data requirements under this Act and the Elementary and Secondary Education
Act of 1965 (20 U.S.C. 6301 et seq.); and
(v)building State
agency capacity for research, analyses, and evaluation using longitudinal
data.
(2)A State educational agency receiving a grant under this
section may provide funds to local educational agencies, consortia of local
educational agencies, and institutions of higher education for activities to
improve capacity of educators to use longitudinal data for effective
decisionmaking.
(d)Each
State educational agency desiring a grant under this section shall submit an
application to the Secretary that includes the following:
(1)A
description of how the State’s data system currently meets the eligibility
requirements of subsection (b) through—
(A)a demonstration of
the State data system’s current capabilities; and
(B)a description of
plans and funding already in place to meet those requirements.
(2)A
description of the State’s integrated statewide education longitudinal data
systems’ current ability to match student-level postsecondary education data to
data from other State systems, including workforce development, unemployment
insurance, child welfare, juvenile justice, military services information
systems, and migrant students records system.
(3)A
description of previous Federal and non-Federal funds the State has received
for building and expanding integrated statewide education longitudinal data
systems, including funds received under section 208 of the Educational
Technical Assistance Act of 2002 (20 U.S.C. 9607) and section 6401 of the
America COMPETES Act (20 U.S.C. 9871).
(4)A description of how activities funded
under the grant will align, coordinate with, and advance related activities
funded through other Federal programs, including the programs under section 208
of the Educational Technical Assistance Act of 2002 (20 U.S.C. 9607) and
section 6401 of the America COMPETES Act (20 U.S.C. 9871), early childhood
education programs, and workforce development programs.
(5)A
description of how the activities funded under the grant will promote the
sharing of best practices related to data collection, access, and usage.
(6)A
description of how the activities funded under the grant will advance the
utility of integrated statewide education longitudinal data systems.
(7)A
description of how the State will coordinate the development of integrated
statewide education longitudinal data systems linking early childhood,
elementary, secondary, postsecondary, and workforce data with local educational
agencies using common data standards and definitions to ensure comparability
and interoperability throughout the State.
(8)A
description of how the State will enable the exchange of data with local
educational agencies by utilizing standard data structures, standards, formats,
and data definitions.
(9)A
budget that details how grant funds and other resources will be used to carry
out the activities described in subsection (c).
(10)If awarding
subgrants under subsection (c)(2), a description of the process for selecting,
monitoring, and evaluating subgrantees.
(11)An assurance that
the State has a long-term commitment to implementing and supporting its
integrated statewide education longitudinal data systems.
(12)A description of
the State’s governance structure that defines data collection, access, and
use.
(13)Other information
as reasonably required by the Secretary.
(e)The data system required by subsection (b)(1) may provide
for the disclosure of personally identifiable information from students’
education records, without written parental consent, between the system and
authorized representatives of State or local public agencies responsible for
early childhood education, postsecondary education, workforce development,
unemployment insurance, child health and welfare, mental health, juvenile
justice, or child protective services to address the education, employment, and
social welfare needs of individuals that they serve and to evaluate or audit
such program if interagency agreements or State laws or regulations provide for
the protection of that information in a manner which will not permit the
personal identification of students and their parents by other than
representatives of such agencies with a legitimate interest to carry out these
purposes.
(f)
(1)In awarding grants
under this section, the Secretary shall use a peer review process that—
(A)ensures that the selected proposals have
technical quality, validity, and reliability;
(B)promotes linkages across States; and
(C)protects student privacy consistent with
section 444 of the General Education Provisions Act (commonly known as the
Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act of 1974
) (20 U.S.C.
1232g).
(2)The Secretary and peer review process shall give a
competitive priority to—
(A)States that
propose coordinating efforts with local educational agencies; and
(B)States that
propose to coordinate efforts or work together.
(3)The Secretary shall award a grant under this section for a
period of not more than 5 years.
(g)Funds made available under this section shall be used to
supplement, and not supplant, other State or local funds used for developing
integrated statewide education longitudinal data systems linking early
childhood, elementary, secondary, postsecondary, and workforce data.
(h)Not
later than 1 year after the awarding of grants under this section, and annually
thereafter, the Secretary shall make publicly available a report on the
implementation and effectiveness of uses of funds under this section.
(i)Authorization of
appropriationsThere are authorized to be appropriated to carry
out this section $65,000,000 for fiscal year 2011 and for each succeeding
fiscal year.
4.Improving local
use of data to improve student outcomes
(a)The Secretary is authorized to award grants of not
more than 5 years of sufficient size and scope, on a competitive basis, to
eligible local educational agencies, or consortia of eligible local educational
agencies, to improve educators’ use of data to improve teaching, learning, and
student outcomes.
(b)
(1)To be eligible to receive a grant under this section, a
local educational agency shall be high need.
(2)In
this subsection:
(A)The term
graduation rate
has the meaning given the term in section
1111(b)(2)(C)(vi) of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 (20
U.S.C. 6311(b)(2)(C)(vi)), as clarified in section 200.19(b)(1) of title 34,
Code of Federal Regulations.
(B)The term high need
, when used with respect
to a local educational agency, means that the agency—
(i)is
eligible for assistance under part A of title I of the Elementary and Secondary
Education Act of 1965 (20 U.S.C. 6311 et seq.); and
(ii)serves at least 1
school that is—
(I)in corrective
action or restructuring under section 1116 of the Elementary and Secondary
Education Act of 1965 (20 U.S.C. 6316); or
(II)has a 4-year
graduation rate of less than 60 percent.
(c)
(1)A local educational agency receiving a grant under this
section shall use the funds to develop and implement a comprehensive plan for
using data to improve teaching, learning, and student outcomes. The plan must
include strategies designed to—
(A)provide teachers,
leaders, parents, students, researchers, and the public with access to student
education data in a way that respects student and educator privacy;
(B)coordinate with
State agency efforts to build the integrated statewide education longitudinal
data systems;
(C)regularly analyze
and share student education data with educators, counselors and school staff,
parents, and students, through activities such as—
(i)using key
indicators of progress, such as early warning indicators or the results on
local educational agency interim tests;
(ii)providing
school-based staff with school-level analyses and comparative performance
results for schools served by the local educational agency and other schools
enrolling students with similar demographic profiles to schools on a regular
basis;
(iii)publicly
reporting school-level data on school report cards;
(iv)embedding
additional key indicators, such as percent of students on-track to graduation,
into local accountability and improvement systems;
(v)sharing data to
guide school and classroom instructional decisions and practices;
(vi)regularly
discussing data and school improvement plans with school leadership teams;
or
(vii)using data to
communicate effectively with parents and other stakeholders;
(D)improve school
leaders’ use of data to guide school improvement efforts and support classroom
use of data through high-quality training and professional development
addressing issues such as—
(i)establishing a
culture of data use;
(ii)improving
teachers’ data literacy; or
(iii)data-informed
instruction, such as how results from interim or formative tests can be used to
re-configure small-group instruction.
(E)improve teachers’
effective use of data through on-going, sustainable, and high-quality
professional development activities that address issues such as—
(i)educators’ data
literacy;
(ii)use
of data to individualize instruction and interventions;
(iii)use of
technology to facilitate improved and personalized instruction; and
(iv)development and
regular use of formative assessment;
(F)ensure that source
data used at the local level is consistent with source data used to report
indicators as required by State or Federal law; and
(G)provide training to address use of data
collection software, privacy policies (including training relating to section
444 of the General Education Provisions Act (commonly known as the
Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act of 1974
) (20 U.S.C.
1232g)), data integrity issues, report planning, and processes.
(2)To enable grantees to implement strategies to meet the
requirements of paragraph (1), a local educational agency receiving a grant
under this section may use the funds—
(A)to build or
improve longitudinal student data systems that allow for management, analysis,
disaggregation, and State, Federal, and public reporting of student, teacher
and school data that—
(i)includes the data
elements and design features described in section 6401(e)(2)(D) of the America
COMPETES Act (20 U.S.C. 9871(e)(2)(D));
(ii)conforms and
aligns with statewide common data standards and definitions for linking data
systems and sharing information; and
(iii)includes
additional local data elements, such as—
(I)student-level
attendance, behavior, or other information;
(II)student
participation in programs or interventions;
(III)interim,
benchmark, or formative assessment information;
(IV)parental
educational and literacy status; or
(V)teacher attendance
and participation in formal professional development sessions;
(B)to use new
assessment tools that provide timely data to educators that can be used to
identify individual students’ learning needs and guide appropriate,
personalized instructional interventions such as—
(i)formative
assessment;
(ii)interim or
benchmark assessment systems;
(iii)curriculum
management systems, instructional management systems, or learning management
systems; or
(iv)other tools and
resources;
(C)to analyze and
disseminate best practices, strategies, and approaches regarding pedagogical
advancement that will leverage the data system to enhance teaching and
learning, including opportunities for individualized instruction; or
(D)to hire staff, at
the central office or school level, to support data use.
(d)Each local educational agency desiring a
grant under this section shall submit an application to the Secretary that
includes the following:
(1)A
description of how the local educational agency currently reports to, accesses,
and uses the integrated statewide education longitudinal data systems.
(2)A
description of the local educational agency’s current data systems.
(3)A
description of how activities funded under the grant will improve access to,
and use of, data provided by the current data systems at the local and State
level.
(4)A
description of how the activities funded under the grant will successfully
integrate with the design and functionality of the integrated statewide
education longitudinal data systems.
(5)A description of
how the activities funded under the grant will promote the sharing of best
practices related to data collection, access, and usage.
(6)A
description of how the applicant will use funds received under this section to
improve teaching, learning, and student outcomes and carry out the activities
described in subsection (c).
(7)A
description of how the applicant will solicit the feedback of educators, school
leaders, and parents in developing, revising, and implementing plans and
activities.
(8)A
description of how the applicant will align its use of funds under this section
to the local educational agency technology plan and to the local educational
agency plan for improving student achievement.
(9)An analysis of
current resources at the school and local educational agency level to ensure
participating jurisdictions have the technology, such as Internet connections,
bandwidth, computing power, software, servers, and hard disk space, and data
security necessary to successfully implement the data collection, reporting,
assessment processes, and content delivery the system demands.
(10)A description of
the indicators the applicants will use to determine if funds are effectively
used and their impact on improving teaching, learning, and student
outcomes.
(11)If applying as a
consortium of local educational agencies, the role of each.
(12)Such other
information as the Secretary may reasonably require.
(e)
(1)In awarding grants
under this section, the Secretary shall use a peer review process that ensures
technical quality, validity and reliability, promotes linkages across States,
and protects student privacy consistent with section 444 of the General
Education Provisions Act (commonly known as the Family Educational
Rights and Privacy Act of 1974
) (20 U.S.C. 1232g).
(2)The
Secretary shall ensure, to the extent possible, that grantees are diverse in
terms of geography, size, and location within an urban, rural, or suburban
area.
(3)The Secretary shall award a grant under this section for a
period of not more than 5 years.
(f)Not
later than 1 year after the date of enactment of this Act, and annually
thereafter, the Secretary shall make publicly available a report on the
implementation and effectiveness of the uses of funds, including efforts to
protect student and educator privacy, under this section.
(g)Authorization of
appropriationsThere are authorized to be appropriated to carry
out this section $65,000,000 for fiscal year 2011 and for each succeeding
fiscal year.