GothamSchools — daily independent reporting on NYC public schools

Elissa Gootman’s story in the Times today on the non-functionality of the $80 million ARIS data warehouse system is important because it lays bare what teachers have known for months: ARIS was supposed to give parents and teachers radically more access to student achievement data, but in practice it suffered from frequent malfunctions and currently is providing zero information.

I’ve been talking to people familiar with the new version of ARIS, slated to be released in November. They tell me this new software is a huge improvement over the ARIS released last year. Even with new software about two weeks away from debut, there remain two major unanswered questions about the Department of Education’s effort to build a massive data warehouse.

The first question is whether the contractor, IBM, made mistakes that could have been avoided — and whether some portion of the taxpayer dollars slated to go to IBM, which total $80 million, should be paid back. The second question is whether a program like ARIS is necessary at all. (more…)