Special Report
Federal

Stimulus Aid Eyed For Data Systems

By David J. Hoff — February 02, 2009 1 min read
  • Save to favorites
  • Print

As Congress debates an economic-stimulus package, state officials are starting to consider how they might spend more than $120 billion in new education money.

But every state has a specific plan ready to go in one area: building education data systems.

Over the past four years, each state has been working to improve its ability to collect, warehouse, and analyze a variety of education data, including test scores, coursetaking, and other relevant school information.

“Policymakers are recognizing this is something they’ve got to do ... to have the exciting conversations” about such major priorities as academic rigor and teacher quality, said Aimee Guidera, the executive director of the Data Quality Campaign, an Austin, Texas-based coalition of groups representing state officials.

The stimulus bill that the House passed last week includes $250 million to help states upgrade their education data systems through an existing federal program. Over the past four years, 27 states have received $122 million from the Statewide Data Systems program.

More importantly, Ms. Guidera said, every state has applied for money from the competitive-grant program. That means every state should be ready to spend any stimulus money set aside for that purpose.

Such funding is not guaranteed—the plan approved by the Senate Appropriations Committee last week doesn’t include money for data systems, for one thing. And critics of the stimulus process say the bills include too much money for programs that won’t be spent immediately.

But Ms. Guidera said that the data system money should be included in a stimulus package because such projects are in danger of being halted in the current lean fiscal climate.

“Some of the states that have made phenomenal progress are at risk for stalling completely or going backwards,” Ms. Guidera said. With such systems, she said, “we’re on the edge of transforming education by having access to real information that we’ve never had access to before.”

A version of this article appeared in the February 04, 2009 edition of Education Week

Events

This content is provided by our sponsor. It is not written by and does not necessarily reflect the views of Education Week's editorial staff.
Sponsor
Reading & Literacy Webinar
The Future of the Science of Reading
Join us for a discussion on the future of the Science of Reading and how to support every student’s path to literacy.
Content provided by HMH
Mathematics K-12 Essentials Forum Helping Students Succeed in Math
Student Well-Being Live Online Discussion A Seat at the Table: The Power of Emotion Regulation to Drive K-12 Academic Performance and Wellbeing
Wish you could handle emotions better? Learn practical strategies with researcher Marc Brackett and host Peter DeWitt.

EdWeek Top School Jobs

Teacher Jobs
Search over ten thousand teaching jobs nationwide — elementary, middle, high school and more.
View Jobs
Principal Jobs
Find hundreds of jobs for principals, assistant principals, and other school leadership roles.
View Jobs
Administrator Jobs
Over a thousand district-level jobs: superintendents, directors, more.
View Jobs
Support Staff Jobs
Search thousands of jobs, from paraprofessionals to counselors and more.
View Jobs

Read Next

Federal Trump Admin. Says Undocumented Students Can't Attend Head Start, Early College
The administration issued notices saying undocumented immigrants don't qualify for Head Start and some Education Department programs.
7 min read
Children play during aftercare for the Head Start program at Easterseals South Florida, an organization that gets about a third of its funding from the federal government, on Jan. 29, 2025, in Miami.
Children play during aftercare for the Head Start program at Easterseals South Florida, an organization that gets about a third of its funding from the federal government, on Jan. 29, 2025, in Miami. The Trump administration said Thursday that undocumented children are ineligible for Head Start and a number of other federally funded programs that the administration is classifying as similar to welfare benefits.
Rebecca Blackwell/AP
Federal How Medicaid, SNAP Changes in Trump's Big Budget Bill Could Affect Schools
The bill will stress a major funding stream schools rely on, leading to ripple effects that make it harder for schools to offer free meals.
6 min read
President Donald Trump signs his signature bill of tax breaks and spending cuts at the White House on July 4, 2025, in Washington.
President Donald Trump signs his signature bill of tax breaks and spending cuts at the White House on July 4, 2025, in Washington. The bill cuts federal spending for Medicaid and food stamps—cuts that stand to affect students and trickle down to schools.
Evan Vucci/AP
Federal Opinion A D.C. Insider Explains What’s Changed in Education Policy
The biggest thing that people don’t understand about federal education policy? How much the details really matter.
7 min read
The United States Capitol building as a bookcase filled with red, white, and blue policy books in a Washington DC landscape.
Luca D'Urbino for Education Week
Federal What Superintendents Think About a Steady Clip of Federal K-12 Changes
A state superintendent and two district leaders shared their thoughts on the latest changes coming from Washington.
4 min read
From left, Quentin J. Lee, superintendent of Talladega City Schools, Keith Konyk, superintendent of Elizabeth Forward School District, and Eric Mackey, Alabama's state superintendent of education, discuss the latest K-12 policy changes at the ISTELive 25 + ASCD Annual Conference 25 on July 2, 2025.
From left, Quentin J. Lee, superintendent of Talladega City Schools in Alabama; Keith Konyk, superintendent of Elizabeth Forward School District in Pennsylvania; and Eric Mackey, Alabama's state superintendent of education, discuss the latest K-12 policy changes at the ISTELive 25 + ASCD Annual Conference 25 on July 2, 2025.
Kaylee Domzalski/Education Week