FE Coalition Joins 13 Advocacy Groups in Recommendations to the Dept. of Education
As you may recall, a few weeks back the FE Coalition released our comments regarding the Data Quality Campaign’s (DCQ) findings from their recent Show Me the Data review of each state’s report card. We are incredibly grateful to those of the Department of Education (DOE) in the release of their proposed guidance on state and local report cards and for the opportunity they provide in inviting stakeholder review and comments.
Last week, we joined the DCQ and 12 other education advocacy groups from around the nation in sending a letter to the DOE with additional informed recommendations that we believe could make report cards more useful for policymakers and other stakeholders, especially as states will continue to refine and update their report cards in years to come.
Among other things, the DCQ, FE Coalition, and the 12 advocacy groups recommend that the DOE:
- Encourage states to make language on report cards easy for parents to understand, by translating content into other commonly spoken languages in the state and providing necessary context to help parents understand the data.
- Maintain recommendations for data such as postsecondary persistence and remediation, career and technical education data, kindergarten readiness), and add recommendations for other data points such as teacher diversity and information on other postsecondary pathways (e.g., students entering the workforce).
- Clarify requirements related to subgroup disaggregation, so that states are clear about which subgroups are required for which elements and are better able to understand and address inequities.
- Provide suggestions for continuous improvement, so states and districts can continue to enhance their report cards and make them increasingly useful for families, educators, and policymakers.
Below you can find the letter in its entirety.
Thank you, faith leaders, for your commitment to and prayers for Hispanic students in our nation!
For a Just education,
Rev. Girien Salazar
Director, FE Coalition
