The Advocate December 2021: Data, Data, Everywhere

When it comes to federal education programs, a common element of these programs includes some portion of data reporting, whether to help illustrate how and where dollars were invest, what the dollars were invest in or who was involved. Ultimately, the data collected—whether via state education agencies, local education agencies or a combination of the two—at best, the data illustrate what a program was able to accomplish, provides a mechanism for transparency, reporting and evaluation, and informs future decisions related to the program. At worst, the data collection is cumbersome, clunky, disjointed from the realities of school processes and can be weaponized to fuel harmful narratives, often devoid of context, about schools and public education.

The infusion of funding via the Elementary and Secondary Schools Emergency Relief (ESSER) Funds (three rounds of federal funding for schools as part of Congress’ response to the COVID pandemic) is coming with two extensive rounds of data collection—one about ESSER in general and one focused on the Maintenance of Equity provision. These data collections are in addition to another extensive data collection, the USED’s Office of Civil Rights Data Collection (CRDC), which is actually being administered in back-to-back years for the first time in recent memory. You can read what’s in store for districts regarding data collection in the CRDC here.

The superintendents we represent and the public school systems and students they serve have endured a year and a half unlike any other in their careers or lifetimes. Faced with the unprecedented nature of the COVID-19 pandemic and how it up-ended everything considered normal meant educational leadership was vital. Related to this, the school superintendents remain grateful for the assistance provided to support local education agencies via the three appropriations of ESSER funds. School superintendents are putting ESSER funds to use in myriad ways focused on equity; learning recovery; safe reopening; COVID mitigation; and addressing community, family and student needs, among others. The important work of investing these dollars responsibly works in tandem with the effort to ensure detailed information on how and where those dollars are spent is collected and available to support evaluation of the policies and funding available from Congress, as well as the efficacy, equity and efficiency of the programs, supports and services schools access. 

We appreciate USED’s willingness to receive and incorporate some changes to their proposed data collections. Even with those tweaks, though, the collections remain problematic for state and local education agencies (SEAs/LEAs) alike. While the ESSER data collection largely rests at the state level, the reality of implementation means that the responsibility will be shared by state and local education agencies (SEAs, LEAs) alike. State data collection does not happen in a vacuum and the scope of data collection—that is, the extent to which the data collection requires LEA-level detail—means that the data collection form has a direct impact on LEAs. It is important these data collections avoid unnecessary burden, complication or overreach. 

AASA’s advocacy team has engaged with USED on three major data collections in recent months, working to strike a balance between a well-intentioned federal focus on transparency with the reality of how data is available and collected, and ensuring data is valid, reliable and can actually be useful as intended. You can read our more detailed comments on ESSER and Maintenance of Equity, and continue to follow for updates via the AASA Advocacy blog and app.