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DATA IN EDUCATION MATTERS. It can help state leaders make decisions as to what works and what doesn’t in public policy. It can help district and charter network leaders see what’s working in their schools and what might need improvement or replacement. Principals deserve information that helps support students, families, and educators while making informed decisions about how to best utilize resources. Finally, data can help parents and taxpayers better understand what’s happening in their schools and with their children.
At Bluum, we use data to determine which school partners to support and to make determinations on where to allocate resources for things like professional development opportunities for school leaders. We use data to help school operators and funding partners decide where to open new schools or expand existing options. Lenders in Idaho also use data to determine which public charter schools or school district buildings to finance and at what sort of interest rate.
To help the end-users of education data in Idaho we asked the experts at Redfish Metrics in Boise to compile the most relevant data in one easy to access and read source. They did an outstanding job with this report Idaho by the Numbers. Garnering and synthesizing education data is time consuming and challenging work because there are many different sources from which to pull data and some of these sources require public records requests to get.
Redfish Metrics has done the heavy lifting here and for that we are appreciative. Idaho by the Numbers was inspired by my former colleagues at the Thomas B. Fordham Institute in Ohio, that have published their report Ohio by the Numbers annually for several years now. We owe a debt of gratitude to Fordham for inspiring us out in Idaho. We also extend thanks to to the team at the State Board of Education in helping provide the data for this research and helping us navigate the public records request process and accessing the most recent data available.
Bluum is excited to share this report and to make it easier for Idahoans to access and use education data in their decision making, no matter what their role in education might be.
