All Kids Alliance Joins Statewide Conversation on Data
  

​In early January, All Kids Alliance was invited to a “working summit” called Building Bridges in Texas.
 
Subject: a frank solution-oriented discussion about the need for data sharing and integrated data systems.
 
Ann McCoy, Director of Data Services and Research, met with Texas policymakers, funders, and local leaders at this meeting sponsored by AT&T, the National League of Cities, the Annie E. Casey Foundation, and the Data Quality Campaign.

After hearing about national trends and opportunities in data sharing, Melody Parrish, Chief Information Officer/Chief Data Officer at the Texas Education Agency informed attendees about use of the state’s data systems to support local initiatives and how Texas is expanding its Student Data System.

 

The Texas Center for Public Policy Priorities, E3 Alliance (Central Texas), and SA2020 (San Antonio) demonstrated the ways they used data to tell stories and determine local priorities. A couple of examples also focused on integrating education and health data to address chronic school absenteeism.
 
Audience members identified their limited access to student-level data as the primary factor that hampered their ability to measure outcomes and create comprehensive longitudinal student data sets (by adding information about out-of-school services students received).
 
Positive consensus emerged around the state:
 
- developing a common set of student indicators and outcomes that could be compared by school district, college, university,    nonprofit/community-based organizations or geographic region

 

- collecting data on early childhood readiness and making the data available to researchers

 

These discussions are expected to continue through small working-groups. The entire audience expects to meet again in the fall of 2014 at an anticipated third Texas CI Convening (that is, “CI” standing for “collective impact,” “continuous improvement,” and “common issues”).
 
Whatever the next steps will be, these important issues will be on our larger agenda at All Kids Alliance.