The New York Times’ Sam Dillon has a write-up of all the state action around changing laws in the hopes of qualifying for Race to the Top funds.
There’s not a whole lot of new news here if you’ve been reading this blog and Politics K-12. But buried near the end of the story is the tidbit that a key California state lawmaker is drafting legislative language to “clarify” the state’s position on the linking of student and teacher data.
Now, does that mean that officials are actively seeking to undo the state prohibitions on the use of the data? Or are they merely trying to strengthen their current argument that the law doesn’t prohibit districts from using student-achievement data in evaluation decisions regarding teachers?
As I’ve surmised before, the obstacles that prevent districts from doing this aren’t just political, but also practical: They would probably have to build or expand their own data systems in order to make use of the data, and that kind of infrastructure development doesn’t come cheap.