Idaho Education Official says Flaws in Student Tracking

BOISE, Idaho (AP) — An official with Idaho's State Department of Education acknowledged problems with a glitch-plagued, multi-million dollar software system meant to track and improve student performance but that's instead prompted frustration among teachers and administrators who are supposed to use it.

Roger Quarles, the newly appointed SDE official now tasked with making the "Schoolnet" system work, told an interim Legislature committee on Tuesday he's trying to steer it in a new direction. After joining the agency in August, Quarles said it became "blatantly obvious" those overseeing Schoolnet had forgotten it needed to be friendly for its end users.

Teachers have said the quality of data collected has been unreliable. Among other things, Quarles said he's trying to make sure small school districts with limited technology staff can download data easily and efficiently.