LESC give updates on new education data system, chronic absenteeism

Over the coming school year, the state Public Education Department aims to roll out a new, real-time data collection system that districts will feed their data into — with the hopes that it will bring more, and more accurate, data to the public and to decision makers faster.

The new system — dubbed Project Nova, and which has been years in the making — will automate the data entry and validation process, lightening the load on PED staff and speeding up the processing of education data like proficiency and graduation rates or attendance reports.

“We're automating the collection process, and we're automating the data quality checks,” PED Chief Information Officer Mary Montoya told the Legislative Education Study Committee on Wednesday. “So with this constant data checking and the constant data collection, we'll have cleaner data much sooner.”

That, LESC analyst Tim Bedeaux added, should also mean that the PED will be able to provide the public with data and reports that have “a greater level of granularity” than what the department currently makes available online.

The PED’s current Student and Teacher Accountability Reporting System, or STARS, has been around for about 15 years, and has proved onerous on both district and PED staff and has produced questionable data, Bedeaux said in his brief — areas the new system aims to improve.

But as with any new system, there will be bumps in the road over the coming year, he added.

Those may include a steep learning curve for districts as they adapt to the new system and the fact that districts and their staff — down to teachers taking attendance every day — will need to hold themselves more accountable for the accuracy of the data they’re collecting on a daily basis.

“There will be glitches, there will be hiccups. This is a new system, and things happen when you transition to a new system,” Bedeaux said. “Over time, some of those technical glitches will get ironed out. But expecting a fair amount of transitional hiccups is something that the stakeholders should be aware of.”

Chronic absenteeism

Also among the issues LESC staff presented to lawmakers this past week was the state’s ongoing struggles with students not showing up for school.

About 35% — just over a third — of New Mexico students were chronically absent during fiscal year 2023, which covered the last school year, analysts said in a presentation given to lawmakers on Friday.

That problem was exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic, and is seen with higher frequency among economically disadvantaged students, English learners and “unhoused students,” as well as those with disabilities — all of whom had elevated rates of chronic absenteeism.

Students who miss 10% or more days of school are considered “chronically absent.”

“The impact of chronic absenteeism often builds over time, with those showing chronic absenteeism in earlier grades having lower levels of success in later grades and also being more likely to drop out of high school,” analyst Jessica Hathaway wrote in a hearing brief.

That all being said, fiscal year 2022’s statewide chronic absenteeism rate was almost 3 percentage points lower than the year before.

Still, punitive measures — like suspending students for truancy — don’t tend to prove effective, said staff with FutureEd, a think tank aimed at improving educational opportunities for traditionally underserved students.

There are some fixes the state could try, though.

Possible solutions the think tank gave to lawmakers include providing reliable transportation for students and families who need it, improving schools’ health considerations for students — like those with asthma — and directly reaching out to families whose students aren’t showing up to school.

“Students become more engaged when they believe what they’re learning matters,” the think tank wrote in their presentation.