Oregon Awarded Grant for $10.5 Million for Data Systems

For immediate release
contact Susanne Smith, (503) 947-5637

May 23, 2010

Oregon Awarded Grant for $10.5 Million for Data Systems

Program Expanded To Address Early Ed, Postsecondary and Workforce Data Needs

Salem – Oregon State Schools Superintendent Susan Castillo announced that Oregon was awarded $10.5 million for the design and implementation of a statewide longitudinal data system. Oregon ranked second among the 20 states that were awarded the competitive federal grant to enhance education data systems.

“This is great news for Oregon students,” said Superintendent Castillo. This grant allows us to continue our momentum towards building a system to track student progress and help our teachers improve instruction. This is critical to our work in closing the achievement gap.”

The $10.5 million grant will aid the work already underway in the state to create better connections between teachers and student data and develop more partnerships to integrate and expand data collected on early childhood and college success. The funding through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) of 2009 supports the development and implementation of data systems to enable education stakeholders in Oregon to examine student progress from early childhood into career, including matching teachers to students, while protecting student privacy and confidentiality consistent with applicable privacy protection laws.

This is the third grant that Oregon has received to improve the quality of its data systems. In 2007, the state received a $4.7 million grant to help teachers use assessment data to improve instruction. In spring 2009, Oregon won a $3.7 million grant to integrate Oregon's assessment data with the University of Oregon's evaluation system easyCBM. This grant enables the Oregon Department of Education to expand upon the work it is doing with partners to create data systems that give school districts more information about how their students are performing so they can improve instruction, reallocate resources, and better track the progress of every student.

For more information on the statewide longitudinal data system grant go to: http://nces.ed.gov/programs/slds/index.asp

For more information on the data initiatives currently underway Oregon, go to: http://www.ode.state.or.us/search/page/?id=1991

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Susan Castillo, State Superintendent of Public Instruction
Morgan Allen, Interim Communications Director, Telephone (503) 947-5920
http://www.ode.state.or.us

Oregon Department of Education News Releases contain information that was originally released to the press as an official release. Refer to each News Release for the details.