II 

111TH CONGRESS 

2D SESSION S. 3204 

To authorize the Secretary of Education to award grants to improve access 

to, sharing of, and use of, education data to improve student outcomes, 

and for other purposes. 

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES 

APRIL 14, 2010 

Mr. BROWN of Ohio introduced the following bill; which was read twice and 

referred to the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions 

A BILL 

To authorize the Secretary of Education to award grants 

to improve access to, sharing of, and use of, education 

data to improve student outcomes, and for other purposes. 

1 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa2 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 

3 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 

4 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Measuring and Evalu5 ating Trends for Reliability, Integrity, and Continued Suc6 cess (METRICS) Act’’. 

7 SEC. 2. DEFINITIONS. 

8 In this Act: 


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1 (1) CURRICULUM MANAGEMENT SYSTEM; IN2 STRUCTIONAL MANAGEMENT SYSTEM; LEARNING

3 MANAGEMENT SYSTEM.—The terms ‘‘curriculum 

4 management system’’, ‘‘instructional management 

5 system’’, and ‘‘learning management system’’ mean 

6 an electronic software system used by educators to 

7 regularly assess students’ performance as compared 

8 to standards and align specific and individual cur9 riculum activities to students’ needs. 

10 (2) EARLY WARNING INDICATORS.—The term 

11 ‘‘early warning indicators’’ means student data used 

12 to identify and intervene with students who are off13 track to graduation or postsecondary success. 

14 (3) INTEGRATED STATEWIDE EDUCATION LON15 GITUDINAL DATA SYSTEMS.—The term ‘‘integrated 

16 statewide education longitudinal data systems’’ 

17 means 1 or more statewide data systems that house 

18 and link individual students’ longitudinal early child19 hood, elementary, secondary, and postsecondary edu20 cation and workforce data. 

21 (4) SECRETARY.—The term ‘‘Secretary’’ means 

22 the Secretary of Education. 


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1 SEC. 3. IMPROVING THE USE OF STATEWIDE LONGITU2 DINAL DATA SYSTEMS. 

3 (a) GRANTS AUTHORIZED.—The Secretary is author4 ized to award grants of not more than 5 years, on a com5 petitive basis, to State educational agencies to enable such 

6 agencies to improve access to, sharing of, and use of, edu7 cation data to improve student outcomes. 

8 (b) ELIGIBILITY.— 

9 (1) IN GENERAL.—To be eligible to receive a 

10 grant under this section, a State educational agency 

11 shall have integrated statewide education longitu12 dinal data systems that includes the following: 

13 (A) The required data elements of a state14 wide education longitudinal data system de15 scribed in section 6401(e)(2)(D) of the America 

16 COMPETES Act (20 U.S.C. 9871(e)(2)(D)). 

17 (B) The following design elements: 

18 (i) Compliance with section 444 of the 

19 General Education Provisions Act (com20 monly known as the ‘‘Family Educational 

21 Rights and Privacy Act of 1974’’) (20 

22 U.S.C. 1232g). 

23 (ii) Ability to generate data easily for 

24 continuous improvement and decision25 making such as timely reporting to parVerDate Nov 24 2008 01:57 Apr 15, 2010 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S3204.IS S3204

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1 ents, teachers, and school leaders about 

2 student achievement. 

3 (iii) Ability to facilitate the exchange 

4 of data among agencies within a State and 

5 between States utilizing standard data 

6 structures, standards, formats, and data 

7 definitions. 

8 (iv) A data warehouse, data reposi9 tory, or systemic capacity to link statewide 

10 data systems that stores, organizes, and 

11 links student, school, and district informa12 tion over time with the ability to customize 

13 queries. 

14 (v) A State data audit process to en15 sure data quality, validity, and reliability. 

16 (2) EXCEPTION.—A State educational agencies 

17 is deemed to satisfy the requirement of paragraph 

18 (1) if it demonstrates that it has developed and is 

19 implementing a plan that will result in the existence 

20 of integrated statewide education longitudinal data 

21 systems described in such paragraph. 

22 (c) USES OF FUNDS.— 

23 (1) REQUIRED USES OF FUNDS.—A State edu24 cational agency receiving a grant under this section 

25 shall use the funds to— 


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1 (A) expand the ability of integrated state2 wide education longitudinal data systems to link 

3 student-level data across the prekindergarten to 

4 higher education and workforce pipeline and 

5 across State agencies, through activities such 

6 as— 

7 (i) linking State data systems with 

8 early learning, postsecondary education, 

9 workforce, social services, and other critical 

10 State agency data systems, and linking 

11 data across programs and activities within 

12 State agencies; 

13 (ii) identifying processes to guide data 

14 collection, sharing, and use; and 

15 (iii) improving State data warehouses, 

16 repositories, or systemic capacity to link 

17 statewide data systems across agencies; 

18 (B) improve opportunities to access, ana19 lyze, and use data from integrated statewide 

20 education longitudinal data systems, through 

21 activities such as— 

22 (i) creating portals for teachers, lead23 ers, parents, students, and the public to 

24 access data in a way that respects student 


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1 and educator privacy and is appropriate to 

2 each stakeholder’s role; 

3 (ii) creating progress reports with in4 dividual student data that provide informa5 tion educators, parents, and students can 

6 use to improve student performance; 

7 (iii) creating reports that include lon8 gitudinal statistics on school systems and 

9 groups of students to guide school-, dis10 trict-, and State-level improvement efforts; 

11 and 

12 (iv) making data efficiently available 

13 to researchers, analysts, and evaluators, 

14 consistent with student and educator pri15 vacy protections, to facilitate the identifica16 tion of effective programs and practices 

17 through data analysis; and 

18 (C) build the capacity of teachers, leaders, 

19 parents, students, researchers, and the public to 

20 use longitudinal data for effective decision21 making, through activities such as— 

22 (i) implementing strategies to ensure 

23 that educators know how to access, ana24 lyze, and use data appropriately, through 

25 activities such as— 


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1 (I) providing data integrity train2 ing at the school and local educational 

3 agency levels to address technology 

4 maintenance needs at the school and 

5 local educational agency levels, privacy 

6 policies (including training relating to 

7 section 444 of the General Education 

8 Provisions Act (commonly known as 

9 the ‘‘Family Educational Rights and 

10 Privacy Act of 1974’’) (20 U.S.C. 

11 1232g)) data integrity issues, report 

12 planning, and processes; 

13 (II) providing professional devel14 opment to teachers, office personnel, 

15 and school and local educational agen16 cy administrators about how to col17 lect, verify, report, access, and use 

18 data; 

19 (III) embedding data and assess20 ment literacy skills into credentialing 

21 requirements; or 

22 (IV) developing partnerships with 

23 pre-service educator programs to im24 prove educators’ data and assessment 

25 literacy; 


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1 (ii) raising public and policymaker 

2 awareness of available data and how to ac3 cess, analyze, and use it; 

4 (iii) collaborating with universities, re5 searchers, organizations, intermediaries, or 

6 other experts to conduct research using 

7 longitudinal data; 

8 (iv) training dedicated personnel to 

9 support the collection, submission, and 

10 public reporting of data requirements 

11 under this Act and the Elementary and 

12 Secondary Education Act of 1965 (20 

13 U.S.C. 6301 et seq.); and 

14 (v) building State agency capacity for 

15 research, analyses, and evaluation using 

16 longitudinal data. 

17 (2) ALLOWABLE USES OF FUNDS.—A State 

18 educational agency receiving a grant under this sec19 tion may provide funds to local educational agencies, 

20 consortia of local educational agencies, and institu21 tions of higher education for activities to improve ca22 pacity of educators to use longitudinal data for ef23 fective decisionmaking. 


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1 (d) APPLICATIONS.—Each State educational agency 

2 desiring a grant under this section shall submit an appli3 cation to the Secretary that includes the following: 

4 (1) A description of how the State’s data sys5 tem currently meets the eligibility requirements of 

6 subsection (b) through— 

7 (A) a demonstration of the State data sys8 tem’s current capabilities; and 

9 (B) a description of plans and funding al10 ready in place to meet those requirements. 

11 (2) A description of the State’s integrated 

12 statewide education longitudinal data systems’ cur13 rent ability to match student-level postsecondary 

14 education data to data from other State systems, in15 cluding workforce development, unemployment insur16 ance, child welfare, juvenile justice, military services 

17 information systems, and migrant students records 

18 system. 

19 (3) A description of previous Federal and non20 Federal funds the State has received for building 

21 and expanding integrated statewide education longi22 tudinal data systems, including funds received under 

23 section 208 of the Educational Technical Assistance 

24 Act of 2002 (20 U.S.C. 9607) and section 6401 of 

25 the America COMPETES Act (20 U.S.C. 9871). 


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1 (4) A description of how activities funded under 

2 the grant will align, coordinate with, and advance re3 lated activities funded through other Federal pro4 grams, including the programs under section 208 of 

5 the Educational Technical Assistance Act of 2002 

6 (20 U.S.C. 9607) and section 6401 of the America 

7 COMPETES Act (20 U.S.C. 9871), early childhood 

8 education programs, and workforce development pro9 grams. 

10 (5) A description of how the activities funded 

11 under the grant will promote the sharing of best 

12 practices related to data collection, access, and 

13 usage. 

14 (6) A description of how the activities funded 

15 under the grant will advance the utility of integrated 

16 statewide education longitudinal data systems. 

17 (7) A description of how the State will coordi18 nate the development of integrated statewide edu19 cation longitudinal data systems linking early child20 hood, elementary, secondary, postsecondary, and 

21 workforce data with local educational agencies using 

22 common data standards and definitions to ensure 

23 comparability and interoperability throughout the 

24 State. 


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1 (8) A description of how the State will enable 

2 the exchange of data with local educational agencies 

3 by utilizing standard data structures, standards, for4 mats, and data definitions. 

5 (9) A budget that details how grant funds and 

6 other resources will be used to carry out the activi7 ties described in subsection (c). 

8 (10) If awarding subgrants under subsection 

9 (c)(2), a description of the process for selecting, 

10 monitoring, and evaluating subgrantees. 

11 (11) An assurance that the State has a long12 term commitment to implementing and supporting 

13 its integrated statewide education longitudinal data 

14 systems. 

15 (12) A description of the State’s governance 

16 structure that defines data collection, access, and 

17 use. 

18 (13) Other information as reasonably required 

19 by the Secretary. 

20 (e) STUDENT PRIVACY.—The data system required 

21 by subsection (b)(1) may provide for the disclosure of per22 sonally identifiable information from students’ education 

23 records, without written parental consent, between the 

24 system and authorized representatives of State or local 

25 public agencies responsible for early childhood education, 


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1 postsecondary education, workforce development, unem2 ployment insurance, child health and welfare, mental 

3 health, juvenile justice, or child protective services to ad4 dress the education, employment, and social welfare needs 

5 of individuals that they serve and to evaluate or audit such 

6 program if interagency agreements or State laws or regu7 lations provide for the protection of that information in 

8 a manner which will not permit the personal identification 

9 of students and their parents by other than representa10 tives of such agencies with a legitimate interest to carry 

11 out these purposes. 

12 (f) AWARDING OF GRANTS.— 

13 (1) PEER REVIEW.—In awarding grants under 

14 this section, the Secretary shall use a peer review 

15 process that— 

16 (A) ensures that the selected proposals 

17 have technical quality, validity, and reliability; 

18 (B) promotes linkages across States; and 

19 (C) protects student privacy consistent 

20 with section 444 of the General Education Pro21 visions Act (commonly known as the ‘‘Family 

22 Educational Rights and Privacy Act of 1974’’) 

23 (20 U.S.C. 1232g). 


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1 (2) COMPETITIVE PRIORITY.—The Secretary 

2 and peer review process shall give a competitive pri3 ority to— 

4 (A) States that propose coordinating ef5 forts with local educational agencies; and 

6 (B) States that propose to coordinate ef7 forts or work together. 

8 (3) GRANT PERIOD.—The Secretary shall 

9 award a grant under this section for a period of not 

10 more than 5 years. 

11 (g) SUPPLEMENT NOT SUPPLANT.—Funds made 

12 available under this section shall be used to supplement, 

13 and not supplant, other State or local funds used for de14 veloping integrated statewide education longitudinal data 

15 systems linking early childhood, elementary, secondary, 

16 postsecondary, and workforce data. 

17 (h) REPORT.—Not later than 1 year after the award18 ing of grants under this section, and annually thereafter, 

19 the Secretary shall make publicly available a report on the 

20 implementation and effectiveness of uses of funds under 

21 this section. 

22 (i) AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS.—There 

23 are authorized to be appropriated to carry out this section 

24 $65,000,000 for fiscal year 2011 and for each succeeding 

25 fiscal year. 


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1 SEC. 4. IMPROVING LOCAL USE OF DATA TO IMPROVE STU2 DENT OUTCOMES. 

3 (a) GRANTS AUTHORIZED.—The Secretary is author4 ized to award grants of not more than 5 years of sufficient 

5 size and scope, on a competitive basis, to eligible local edu6 cational agencies, or consortia of eligible local educational 

7 agencies, to improve educators’ use of data to improve 

8 teaching, learning, and student outcomes. 

9 (b) ELIGIBILITY.— 

10 (1) IN GENERAL.—To be eligible to receive a 

11 grant under this section, a local educational agency 

12 shall be high need. 

13 (2) DEFINITIONS.—In this subsection: 

14 (A) GRADUATION RATE.—The term ‘‘grad15 uation rate’’ has the meaning given the term in 

16 section 1111(b)(2)(C)(vi) of the Elementary 

17 and Secondary Education Act of 1965 (20 

18 U.S.C. 6311(b)(2)(C)(vi)), as clarified in sec19 tion 200.19(b)(1) of title 34, Code of Federal 

20 Regulations. 

21 (B) HIGH NEED.—The term ‘‘high need’’, 

22 when used with respect to a local educational 

23 agency, means that the agency— 

24 (i) is eligible for assistance under part 

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1 ondary Education Act of 1965 (20 U.S.C. 

2 6311 et seq.); and 

3 (ii) serves at least 1 school that is— 

4 (I) in corrective action or restruc5 turing under section 1116 of the Ele6 mentary and Secondary Education 

7 Act of 1965 (20 U.S.C. 6316); or 

8 (II) has a 4-year graduation rate 

9 of less than 60 percent. 

10 (c) USES OF FUNDS.— 

11 (1) REQUIRED USES OF FUNDS.—A local edu12 cational agency receiving a grant under this section 

13 shall use the funds to develop and implement a com14 prehensive plan for using data to improve teaching, 

15 learning, and student outcomes. The plan must in16 clude strategies designed to— 

17 (A) provide teachers, leaders, parents, stu18 dents, researchers, and the public with access to 

19 student education data in a way that respects 

20 student and educator privacy; 

21 (B) coordinate with State agency efforts to 

22 build the integrated statewide education longi23 tudinal data systems; 

24 (C) regularly analyze and share student 

25 education data with educators, counselors and 


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1 school staff, parents, and students, through ac2 tivities such as— 

3 (i) using key indicators of progress, 

4 such as early warning indicators or the re5 sults on local educational agency interim 

6 tests; 

7 (ii) providing school-based staff with 

8 school-level analyses and comparative per9 formance results for schools served by the 

10 local educational agency and other schools 

11 enrolling students with similar demo12 graphic profiles to schools on a regular 

13 basis; 

14 (iii) publicly reporting school-level 

15 data on school report cards; 

16 (iv) embedding additional key indica17 tors, such as percent of students on-track 

18 to graduation, into local accountability and 

19 improvement systems; 

20 (v) sharing data to guide school and 

21 classroom instructional decisions and prac22 tices; 

23 (vi) regularly discussing data and 

24 school improvement plans with school lead25 ership teams; or 


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1 (vii) using data to communicate effec2 tively with parents and other stakeholders; 

3 (D) improve school leaders’ use of data to 

4 guide school improvement efforts and support 

5 classroom use of data through high-quality 

6 training and professional development address7 ing issues such as— 

8 (i) establishing a culture of data use; 

9 (ii) improving teachers’ data literacy; 

10 or 

11 (iii) data-informed instruction, such 

12 as how results from interim or formative 

13 tests can be used to re-configure small14 group instruction. 

15 (E) improve teachers’ effective use of data 

16 through on-going, sustainable, and high-quality 

17 professional development activities that address 

18 issues such as— 

19 (i) educators’ data literacy; 

20 (ii) use of data to individualize in21 struction and interventions; 

22 (iii) use of technology to facilitate im23 proved and personalized instruction; and 

24 (iv) development and regular use of 

25 formative assessment; 


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1 (F) ensure that source data used at the 

2 local level is consistent with source data used to 

3 report indicators as required by State or Fed4 eral law; and 

5 (G) provide training to address use of data 

6 collection software, privacy policies (including 

7 training relating to section 444 of the General 

8 Education Provisions Act (commonly known as 

9 the ‘‘Family Educational Rights and Privacy 

10 Act of 1974’’) (20 U.S.C. 1232g)), data integ11 rity issues, report planning, and processes. 

12 (2) ALLOWABLE USES OF FUNDS.—To enable 

13 grantees to implement strategies to meet the re14 quirements of paragraph (1), a local educational 

15 agency receiving a grant under this section may use 

16 the funds— 

17 (A) to build or improve longitudinal stu18 dent data systems that allow for management, 

19 analysis, disaggregation, and State, Federal, 

20 and public reporting of student, teacher and 

21 school data that— 

22 (i) includes the data elements and de23 sign features described in section 

24 6401(e)(2)(D) of the America COM25 PETES Act (20 U.S.C. 9871(e)(2)(D)); 


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1 (ii) conforms and aligns with state2 wide common data standards and defini3 tions for linking data systems and sharing 

4 information; and 

5 (iii) includes additional local data ele6 ments, such as— 

7 (I) student-level attendance, be8 havior, or other information; 

9 (II) student participation in pro10 grams or interventions; 

11 (III) interim, benchmark, or 

12 formative assessment information; 

13 (IV) parental educational and lit14 eracy status; or 

15 (V) teacher attendance and par16 ticipation in formal professional devel17 opment sessions; 

18 (B) to use new assessment tools that pro19 vide timely data to educators that can be used 

20 to identify individual students’ learning needs 

21 and guide appropriate, personalized instruc22 tional interventions such as— 

23 (i) formative assessment; 

24 (ii) interim or benchmark assessment 

25 systems; 


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1 (iii) curriculum management systems, 

2 instructional management systems, or 

3 learning management systems; or 

4 (iv) other tools and resources; 

5 (C) to analyze and disseminate best prac6 tices, strategies, and approaches regarding ped7 agogical advancement that will leverage the 

8 data system to enhance teaching and learning, 

9 including opportunities for individualized in10 struction; or 

11 (D) to hire staff, at the central office or 

12 school level, to support data use. 

13 (d) APPLICATIONS.—Each local educational agency 

14 desiring a grant under this section shall submit an appli15 cation to the Secretary that includes the following: 

16 (1) A description of how the local educational 

17 agency currently reports to, accesses, and uses the 

18 integrated statewide education longitudinal data sys19 tems. 

20 (2) A description of the local educational agen21 cy’s current data systems. 

22 (3) A description of how activities funded under 

23 the grant will improve access to, and use of, data 

24 provided by the current data systems at the local 

25 and State level. 


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1 (4) A description of how the activities funded 

2 under the grant will successfully integrate with the 

3 design and functionality of the integrated statewide 

4 education longitudinal data systems. 

5 (5) A description of how the activities funded 

6 under the grant will promote the sharing of best 

7 practices related to data collection, access, and 

8 usage. 

9 (6) A description of how the applicant will use 

10 funds received under this section to improve teach11 ing, learning, and student outcomes and carry out 

12 the activities described in subsection (c). 

13 (7) A description of how the applicant will so14 licit the feedback of educators, school leaders, and 

15 parents in developing, revising, and implementing 

16 plans and activities. 

17 (8) A description of how the applicant will align 

18 its use of funds under this section to the local edu19 cational agency technology plan and to the local edu20 cational agency plan for improving student achieve21 ment. 

22 (9) An analysis of current resources at the 

23 school and local educational agency level to ensure 

24 participating jurisdictions have the technology, such 

25 as Internet connections, bandwidth, computing 


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1 power, software, servers, and hard disk space, and 

2 data security necessary to successfully implement 

3 the data collection, reporting, assessment processes, 

4 and content delivery the system demands. 

5 (10) A description of the indicators the appli6 cants will use to determine if funds are effectively 

7 used and their impact on improving teaching, learn8 ing, and student outcomes. 

9 (11) If applying as a consortium of local edu10 cational agencies, the role of each. 

11 (12) Such other information as the Secretary 

12 may reasonably require. 

13 (e) AWARDING OF GRANTS.— 

14 (1) PEER REVIEW.—In awarding grants under 

15 this section, the Secretary shall use a peer review 

16 process that ensures technical quality, validity and 

17 reliability, promotes linkages across States, and pro18 tects student privacy consistent with section 444 of 

19 the General Education Provisions Act (commonly 

20 known as the ‘‘Family Educational Rights and Pri21 vacy Act of 1974’’) (20 U.S.C. 1232g). 

22 (2) DIVERSITY.—The Secretary shall ensure, to 

23 the extent possible, that grantees are diverse in 

24 terms of geography, size, and location within an 

25 urban, rural, or suburban area. 


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1 (3) GRANT PERIOD.—The Secretary shall 

2 award a grant under this section for a period of not 

3 more than 5 years. 

4 (f) REPORT.—Not later than 1 year after the date 

5 of enactment of this Act, and annually thereafter, the Sec6 retary shall make publicly available a report on the imple7 mentation and effectiveness of the uses of funds, including 

8 efforts to protect student and educator privacy, under this 

9 section. 

10 (g) AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS.—There 

11 are authorized to be appropriated to carry out this section 

12 $65,000,000 for fiscal year 2011 and for each succeeding 

13 fiscal year. 

Æ 


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