State set to track almost all students Thursday, September 06, 2007 • BY JOHN MOONEY • Star-Ledger Staff As most public schools open this week, New Jersey's 1.4 million students are being tracked more than they may realize. State officials announced this month that virtually every public school student has been loaded into a new central database -- each with a secure 10-digit identification number -- that will allow the state to follow enrollment, test scores and reams of other data. Dubbed NJSMART for "New Jersey Standards Measurement and Resource for Teaching," the database is a long time coming in New Jersey and could cost more than $10 million once completed. But for the first time, the system will allow the state and districts to get a better handle on the progress of their students and their programs from year to year, school to school and even district to district. That's something that previously wasn't possible in New Jersey's fragmented public education system of 600-plus districts, where children's progress couldn't always be easily tracked from school to school, let alone district to district. "We're down to less than 1 percent or even .1 percent of kids where the data is not yet all cleaned up," state Education Commissioner Lucille Davy said late last week of the system's start-up. "But we're ready to go." The tracking of student achievement is required under the federal No Child Left Behind Act, and a majority of states have responded in building statewide data "warehouses" of student information. New Jersey is among the last states to develop the system, first proposing one in 2002 but abandoning it after two years and $1.2 million. Eventually the program was launched anew as part of a wider state system to track schoolchildren for the recovery of unclaimed federal Medicaid dollars for special education. State officials said the new data system has cost about $5.9 million to develop over the last two years, and another $5 million is budgeted for this fiscal year. There were many early glitches in inputting student information, local officials said, but so far the reviews are encouraging. "The implementation was a hassle, but I think everybody is seeing the benefit in tracking how students are doing over time," said Barry Ersek, interim director of the state superintendents association. "Especially in districts with a lot of student mobility, this is a valuable new tool." The system still has its critics, mainly over the security of student information, which the randomly selected identification number is meant to protect. Within each file is an assortment of so-called "unique student identifiers" for each child, including name, birth date and birthplace. But when the system was first rolled out to districts this spring, some immigrant families worried that the questions about birth place could be used to pry into their immigration status. The American Civil Liberties Union said there could be other breaches of student privacy. Millburn board of education member Joel Reidenberg has been among the most steadfast critics, trying to persuade his board not to join the system. The district eventually did join, along with all other districts in the Garden State. "I have been a bit of a lone wolf on this," said Reidenberg, a Fordham law professor and privacy expert. "Unless you have enough of a groundswell, it's hard. But I just don't think it has been public enough as to what's happening." State officials called security a "top priority" and pointed out an array of measures in place to protect the data, from eight backup generators at the undisclosed host site to a system of physically weigh ing visitors both when they enter and exit the building. "While we have had no issues with privacy or security since the implementation began, we will immediately address issues as they arise," said Jon Zlock, a state Education Department spokesman. John Mooney may be reached at jmooney@starledger.com or (973) 392-1548. © 2007 The Star-Ledger. Used by NJ.com with permission.