“Data submissions drive accountability and funding in our state. Bad data leads to false accountability results and lost state aid,” he said in the email.
What’s happening?
The state launched a new system under Ed-Fi Alliance at the start of the 2024-25 school year to make it easier for districts to upload data they’re required to report to the state, such as attendance and enrollment numbers and statistics on special populations.
According to TEA documents, the previous system had districts manually upload their data to the state’s system. Now, data uploads are automated through the software vendors districts work with.
But Killian said the district has “committed additional staff and spent more than $50,000 on programming and hardware” as part of this transition.
On Oct. 31, he sent Texas Education Commissioner Mike Morath a letter detailing several issues CFISD has seen with the new system, including data loss, slow publishing speeds, inability to monitor data as it moves through the system, unpredictable system performance and a lack of communication from the TEA.
What’s next?
Killian in the letter requested an extension to the first data reporting deadline of Dec. 12 and that districts would not be penalized when it comes to state funding and accountability.
According to the letter, other districts have had similar issues with the transition, and the TEA is aware of those, Killian said.
“Typically, at this point in the process, we would focus on verifying data quality. However, we are still in the midst of troubleshooting problems,” Killian said in the letter. “While we hope to continue collaborating to guarantee accurate and timely data reporting, it is crucial to discuss the core challenge. Data quality has been adversely affected through this transition.”
In a Nov. 7 email to Community Impact, TEA officials said postponing the timeline is “not feasible” since the software vendors districts work with don’t support the old files.
“Any comprehensive, large-scale system change can incur normal growing pains. That said, this transition will significantly assist school systems in collecting accurate information in a timely fashion so that they can best support their students. TEA continues to offer assistance to districts during the data upload process,” Jake Kobersky, director of media relations at the TEA, said in the email.
