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New York City Schools Chancellor Joel I. Klein today announced the selection of IBM (NYSE: IBM) to develop the Achievement Reporting and Innovation System (ARIS), a first-of-its-kind data management system that will provide detailed information about student performance and progress to educators and parents and make innovations at one school available to all other schools with similar populations.

The Department of Education (DOE) chose IBM from a field of national leaders in data systems to create ARIS, which will help schools analyze, report, and manage information about student and school performance. IBM will provide software, hardware, consulting, and technology services for the system, which will give educators and parents access to achievement data from state standardized exams as well as from periodic assessments administered at the school level. The information will help teachers identify effective practices citywide and improve and individualize instruction in response to demonstrated student need during the course of the school year.

“ARIS will give the teachers, the principals, and the parents of New York City the critical tools they need to really understand what students know — and don’t know,” said Chancellor Klein. “Armed with this information, our educators will be able to tailor instruction to their students’ needs and parents will be able to get involved in their children’s education like never before.”

The DOE has engaged IBM in a five-year contract valued at approximately $80 million. Under the terms of the contract, IBM will develop ARIS and provide ongoing maintenance and support. A team from the law firm Reed Smith, led by Anthony S. Traymore of the firm’s Advertising Technology and Media Law practice, worked with the DOE at no cost to the city to develop the contract. Additionally, the Michael and Susan Dell Foundation committed $2.4 million to strategic planning and the development of the ARIS request for proposal and evaluation process.