District outlines extra work to submit paper Acadience mid-year data to state; privacy and cost questions raised
Loading...
Summary
Officials said the State Department requires districts using the paper version of the Acadience (Cadence) screener to convert and submit mid-year data by March 27, prompting manual data import work, questions about software costs and parent data-privacy concerns.
Azra (district staff) informed the committee that on March 2 the State Department of Education told districts using paper Acadience (Cadence) that they must convert and import their mid-year reading benchmark results into a state data template and submit by March 27.
Azra said that because Cheshire uses the paper version, staff are hand-scoring and manually entering data into spreadsheets and then mapping it to the state template; the process is time-consuming. “We received a file outlay that we have to transport our current data into and then submit to the State Department,” she said.
Committee members asked about the cost trade-offs between the paper and digital versions. One member noted that the digital Acadience can cost “between 10 to $1,000” (the transcript phrase reflects a range noted by speakers) and asked about the man-hours required for manual import. Members also raised questions about data privacy and whether the state has a legal basis to request individual-level assessment data directly from vendors. Azra and an administrator replied that the state’s data-collection authority is part of the statute and that district staff must comply while ensuring secure transfer procedures.
Next steps: staff will complete the required data import and state submission by the deadline and will offer a follow-up estimate of staff hours and any potential cost implications for future years if the district continues to rely on the paper version.
