Creating a statewide educational data system for accountability and improvement: A comprehensive information and assessment system for making evidence‐based change at school, district, and policy levels

This article reports on one ongoing statewide effort to create a high-quality data reporting and utilization system (i.e., High-Performance Learning Community [HiPlaces] Assessment) to inform educational accountability and improvement efforts system. This effort has undergoing refinement for more than a decade. The article describes the features of this system, particularly how empirically based psychological theory and research informed both the development and the overall design of the assessment method. This system, unlike those used by other educational institutions, is unusual in that from the onset of the development and then the implementation, the assessment moved well beyond the simple assessment of the performance and achievement of students to include a comprehensive assessment of all aspects of the developmental, educational, fiscal, and policy conditions that comprise the ecology of the public education system, at all levels, as well as of the developmental and educational needs and attainment of students. The use of data was integral in guiding specific and ongoing, state-, district-, school-, and classroom-level improvement plans and efforts, including the development, monitoring, evaluation, and refinement of the program. The major goal that guided this system is, and always has been, the enhancement of schools and students' lives. (Contains 6 figures and 1 table.)