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A coalition of more than 70 Texas school districts has called on the Texas Education Agency to delay full implementation of a new data reporting system they say has led to thousands of unresolved errors that could pose grave consequences to their funding and accountability.
School district leaders sent the letter to the agency’s commissioner, Mike Morath, on Sept. 13 after dozens of them began sharing their concerns with one another about the transition to the new system used to collect student, staff, and financial data, which more than 300 districts piloted last school year. State officials use the information to determine whether schools are meeting performance standards and how much funding they receive each year. The Texas Tribune first reported districts’ concerns about the change last week.
In the letter obtained by the Tribune, the superintendents say they have not been able to verify the accuracy of the thousands of data points entering the new system created by the Ed-Fi Alliance. They warn that, based on their experiences during the pilot, the system is not ready to go live. School district leaders also request the agency “take the necessary steps to provide a safety net for districts this year” and delay the implementation until the system is fully vetted.
“The unfunded mandate to transition to the Ed-Fi system in the 2024-25 school year when no one is ready has dire consequences for districts in terms of funding, accountability, and reporting,” the letter states.
The Texas Education Agency did not respond to a request for comment on the letter, which offers the first comprehensive look at how widespread the problems with the upgrades are. More school districts have signed onto the letter since it was first sent.
Each of Texas’ more than 1,200 school districts is required to regularly submit data to the state, including information on attendance, enrollment, students who receive special education, children experiencing homelessness and the number of kids who have completed a college preparatory course.
The state launched the new system at the start of this school year. The goal was to make it easier for school districts and the state to share data and reduce the amount of manual labor required from school staff. Districts were supportive of the proposed changes.
Before the upgrade, school districts would submit data directly to the state after working with software vendors that would ensure the education agency didn’t have any problems interpreting the information. Under the new arrangement, the software vendors are now responsible for transmitting the data to the state, a change that school officials say leaves them without a chance to fact-check the information before it goes out.
They also say a litany of errors and inaccuracies surfaced during the pilot program. In some instances, thousands of student records — from enrollment figures to the number of students in certain programs — did not show up correctly.
“Understand the position we're in as a school district trying to work on this,” said Stephen McCanless, Cleveland school district superintendent, “along with all the other requirements and mandates that districts work on for the state and for the federal government during an entire school year.”
Still, agency officials expressed confidence this month that districts will have ample time to resolve any errors between now and the fall reporting deadline on Dec. 12. The agency noted that districts have until Jan. 16 — just days after winter break — to resubmit any data needing corrections. The agency also said it has resolved more than a thousand tickets submitted by school officials reporting problems with the new system.
But, to date, school district officials say their staff don't know how to solve some errors, nor are they clear on what steps the state has taken to resolve them. And state agency officials have not directly answered what would happen if the problems go beyond the deadlines.
“The amount of time to investigate even one error can be extremely lengthy,” said Lori Rapp, superintendent of the Lewisville school district, which helped prepare the letter.
Many school districts recently told the Tribune that they are still in support of the system. But they say they need more time.
“The accuracy of the information is so critical because it has so many implications across the system, with first and foremost being funding,” said Richardson school district Superintendent Tabitha Branum, who also signed the letter. “In the previous system, we had tools to help us do that. With this new system, right now, those tools don't exist.”
In addition to their calls to extend the pilot program, school district leaders are also calling for the state to provide more training to ensure their staff are prepared for the transition; to hire an independent firm to conduct an audit of the data submitted in the new system; and to provide transparency on data security with the system upgrade.
“The potential consequences for the state’s data accuracy and districts' financial health,” the letter says, “are too large to overlook.”