Briefs

Schools have more data than ever, and there's a major push on to make better use of it to identify students who need help.

By Marianne Kolbasuk McGee, InformationWeek, October 25, 2008 12:02 AM

During the 2007-2008 school year, students in New York City weren't the only ones getting report cards. So did the city's 1,500 public schools.

New York City's Department of Education, responsible for 1.1 million children, began issuing annual "progress reports" to each of its schools last fall, with grades ranging from A to F. Principals of the top 20% of schools received bonuses from $7,000 to $25,000. Teachers at schools with high poverty rates qualify for a bonus program. And over time, schools receiving D's or F's face possible changes in leadership, restructuring, and even closure.

In New York City, the effort centers on an $80 million Web-based data mining and business intelligence project called Achievement Reporting and Innovation System. Beginning this year, all 80,000 of the city's public school teachers will have access to the ARIS system and get training in the analysis tools. Parents also will have Web access to data about their children this year.

The school-by-school grades are based on a complex analysis of an array of information about each school, including students' year-over-year academic progress, state test performance, and attendance, as well as surveys of parents. "Any metric we have in the progress report, you can drill down on," says Jim Liebman, who champions ARIS as the chief accountability officer for the city's schools. So a principal can see the school's grade on ARIS, which might indicate the school is lagging in math. The principal can drill down to find the school's math scores are in the bottom third of city schools, then look further to see the individual students who make up that bottom group. A step further shows what math skills they're weakest in. Principals can spot, for example, "these 10 kids" who are having trouble in math and English and need extra help, Liebman says.

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