FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE, SEPTEMBER 7, 2006

For More Information, Contact:

Jonathan Burman or Tom Dunn at (518) 474-1201

Internet:  http://www.nysed.gov

 

STATE EDUCATION DEPARTMENT UNVEILS NEW SYSTEM

TO TRACK AND REPORT STUDENT DATA,

SYSTEM WILL PROVIDE NEW TOOLS TO IMPROVE STUDENT ACHIEVEMENT

 

            The State Education Department announced today the details of a groundbreaking data collection and reporting system that will give schools, teachers, and parents new tools to improve student achievement while enhancing public accountability.

 

            Beginning this fall, test results will be delivered directly to schools in an electronic format, giving authorized school administrators and teachers instant access to data regarding individual student performance, performance by groups of students (including breakdowns by race, ethnicity, disability status, gender, English proficiency, economic status, and migrant status), and overall performance by school and school district.

 

This electronic system will give schools interactive reports on all this information.

 

            Parents will receive more detailed printed reports explaining their children’s performance on the tests. The reports will not only give the overall score but will also give a more detailed breakdown of a student’s performance on several indicators of achievement.

 

All individual student information will be protected during every phase of data collection and reporting.

 

            This year, all students in grades 3-8 were tested in English and Math for the first time. Previously, they were tested in English and Math in fourth and eighth grade only. The results of those grade 3-8 tests will be the first to be released using the new reporting system. Results of the English test will be delivered to schools in mid-September and the Math results will be delivered to them at the end of September. Results will be made publicly available one week after the schools receive the data and have the opportunity to review it.

 

            State Education Commissioner Richard Mills said, “These tools give parents and teachers new and better ways to pinpoint academic problems and improve student performance. The system is an integral part of the Regents strategy to close the gaps and lift the achievement of all students.”

           

            The new data collection and reporting system consists of three parts:

 

• The Student Information Repository System (SIRS):  SIRS consolidates the Department’s collection of individual student data in one repository system. In 2005-2006, all K-8 data was submitted through the repository system. This year, the system will be greatly expanded and all K-12 enrollment, program and assessment data will be reported through the system.

 

• The New York State Student Identification System (NYSSIS):  Through NYSSIS, every student in New York, pre-K through twelfth grade, will be assigned a stable, unique student identifier (a 10-digit number) when he or she first enrolls in a public school. More than 99 percent of students have already been assigned a unique identifier. NYSSIS will greatly enhance student data reporting, improve data quality, and ensure that students are tracked longitudinally as they transfer between districts.

 

• New York State Testing and Accountability Reporting Tool (nySTART):  nySTART provides teachers and administrators with the information they need to improve student achievement across the State. It includes web-based access to student records, including test scores, and enrollment, program, demographic, and other performance data. nySTART will provide three types of Assessment Reports:

 

• Individual Student Reports: These are print-ready reports that concisely explain students’ performance on State tests to parents and/or guardians and teachers. Translations of these reports are available in eight languages.

 

• Summary Reports:  These reports provide BOCES, district, or school performance in print-ready format for English and Math assessments in Grades 3-8, as well as the New York State Alternative Assessment (NYSAA).

 

• Interactive Reports: These reports allow authorized teachers and administrators to view and analyze the State test performance of students by a variety of factors. It will enable authorized users to create customized reports by selecting student group by race, ethnicity, gender, disability status, English proficiency, economic status, and migrant status, thereby helping to identify problem areas and target solutions.

 

These unique tools have been developed by the State Education Department, in a contract with the GROW Network, a subsidiary of CTB-McGraw Hill, and with the Erie I BOCES. More than 100 New York State teachers and parents helped develop the system.