Building data systems not an elementary effort

Most people would think that states, given the funding levels and the resources available, would have a grip on pulling and aggregating data, but state educational departments across the country are finding that building data warehouses and data knowledge systems is tough going. Millions of dollars have been spent and more is being funneled into projects despite the crash and burn of quite a few. North Carolina's system is up to $250 million and years over schedule; California has already pushed $60 million and expects to add another $60 million to make its system workable. A major hurdle is integrating hundreds of school district systems to pull together data points. Another barrier is legacy systems that can't make it happen without huge overhauls.

For more on state data systems efforts:
- read this article at the New York Times