Linking Student Data to Teachers a Complex Task, Experts Say

As more and more states push legislation tying teacher evaluations to student achievement—a policy incentivized by the federal Race to the Top program—many are scrambling to put data systems in place that can accurately connect teachers to their students. But in a world of student mobility, teacher re-assignments, co-teaching, and multiple service providers, determining the roster of students to attribute to a teacher is more complicated than it may sound.

At a conference in Washington on Thursday, representatives from the state departments of education in New York and Louisiana presented two very different systems for linking teachers and students for data collection. Together, the proposed systems highlight the challenges involved in this process.

The event was hosted by the Washington-based Data Quality Campaign, a nonprofit organization working to help states collect and use longitudinal education data. (Both DQC and Education Week 's nonprofit parent company have received funding from the Bill...