Five Things for States to Focus on with School-Level Spending Data
June 16, 2019
For the first time—thanks to ESSA—the federal government is requiring states to report school-level spending data this year. Writing in The 74, Data Quality Campaign Director of Policy and Advocacy Brennan McMahon Parton has five areas she thinks states should focus on when preparing to deliver this data in their upcoming report cards. “State leaders need to create a vision for why this information matters,” she writes. And the information “won’t be useful unless people can find it.” States must also “figure out who their target audience is, without shutting out other stakeholders.” And audiences “need help making sense of the data.” Finally, state “leaders, advocates and communities should take action informed by the data.”