(1) The general assembly hereby finds that: (a) Pursuant to state statute and rules of the state board, school districts are required to submit extensive and duplicative data at different times throughout the year or to different divisions within the department of education; (b) Reporting requirements are frequently placed in statute or rule and are not revisited after their initial adoption. Often, these requirements cease over time to have a relevant use or purpose but are still required to be reported to the department. (c) School districts recognize the value of collecting and submitting data that will be used to track student achievement, to qualify for state funds, or to support accountability for student achievement or compliance measures but often find that the staff time required to prepare reports and submit required data under federal and state statutes and rules takes human and capital resources that could be better spent on providing student instruction; (d) The department works to make data reporting productive and meaningful but faces its own internal challenges in terms of funding, adequate staffing levels, and the ability to overhaul antiquated data technology systems; (e) The elementary and secondary education system in Colorado spends considerable amounts of money maintaining multiple, often out-of-date, computer systems for data collection and transmission. Due to the lack of a single statewide data system, data often cannot be accessed, even when acting in compliance with federal privacy restraints, by others within the department, school districts seeking comparisons with other districts for best practices, or researchers and foundations seeking to conduct research on the Colorado public school system and its students. (2) It is therefore the intent of the general assembly in enacting this part 3 to achieve the following purposes: (a) To improve the collection of data by streamlining the submission and reporting of data; (b) To create shared goals and shared expectations for data collection and technology for elementary and secondary education in Colorado; (c) To require school districts and public schools to submit data that is relevant to student achievement and will enhance and improve the manner in which school districts and public schools provide and evaluate student instruction; (d) To explore the possibility of implementing a single statewide education data collection system with the purpose of reducing the manpower and cost of submitting required data to the department; and (e) To deploy the single statewide education data collection system as a system of data exchange that is based on automatic file exchanges rather than manual processes requiring personnel to upload electronic files via messaging, web uploads, or other file transfer methods requiring human intervention.
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