Californina has spent $70 million to almost be able to track students over time

So, $70 million doesn't buy as much as it used to. This article claims that state officials are knowingly underreporting dropout rates to avoid federal sanctions. California is no exception in its difficulties to build a longitudinal system for tracking students and their outcomes. As the author points out, only Florida and Texas have truly robust systems. Other states, such has North Carolina, have had hugely expensive failures. A new bill has been introduced for this year's legislative session that would fund the completion of the system. But, even some of that bill's backers - namely the teachers' union - does not support the next logical step of linking teacher IDs to students.

Chris