Foreword

The National Forum on Education Statistics (Forum) is pleased to present this Guide to the Education Data Model: Version 1 (PK-12). One of the main goals of the Forum is to facilitate the sharing of knowledge among experts from local education agencies (LEAs) and state education agencies (SEAs) nationwide in order to improve the quality of education data gathered for use by those making policy or program decisions about education. An approach to furthering this goal has been to pool the collective experiences of Forum members to produce "best practices" guides in areas of high interest to those who collect, maintain, and use data about elementary and secondary education. One area of high interest has been to develop a model of education data that could be used to improve interoperability and quality of, and access to data, as well as provide a standard for the meaning and use of data in education software systems.

In This Guide

• Chapter 1 discusses the objectives of this publication, explains how the Data Model was developed, and introduces the Data Model and additional supporting products.
• Chapter 2 provides an overview of and rationale for the Data Model, along with a discussion of the benefits and risks associated with the conceptual approach to data modeling used in this project.
• Chapter 3 discusses how to navigate the Data Model.
• Chapter 4 discusses the core concepts and content structure of the Data Model. It also introduces two open source tools for manipulating the Data Model.
• Chapter 5 provides examples for how to use the Data Model and its accompanying tools.
• Appendix A presents questions and answers about the Data Model.
• Appendix B is a glossary that defines key terms associated with the Data Model.

The National Cooperative Education Statistics System

The work of the National Forum on Education Statistics is a key aspect of the National Cooperative Education Statistics System. The Cooperative System was established to produce and maintain, with the cooperation of the states, comparable and uniform education information and data that are useful for policy making at the federal, state, and local levels. To assist in meeting this goal, the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), within the U.S. Department of Education, established the National Forum on Education Statistics to improve the collection, reporting, and use of elementary and secondary education statistics. The Forum focuses on issues in education data policy, sponsors innovations in data collection and reporting, and provides technical assistance to improve state and local data systems.

Development of Forum Products

Members of the Forum establish task forces to develop best practices guides in data-related areas of interest to federal, state, and local education agencies. They are assisted in this work by NCES, but the content comes from the collective experience of the state and LEA task force members, who review all products iteratively throughout the development process. Documents prepared, reviewed, and approved by task force members undergo a formal public review. This public review consists of focus groups with representatives of the product's intended audience, review sessions at relevant regional or national conferences, or technical reviews by acknowledged experts in the field. In addition, all draft documents are posted on the Forum website prior to publication so that any interested individuals or organizations can provide feedback. After the task force oversees the integration of public review comments and reviews the document a final time, publications are examined by members of the Forum standing committee sponsoring the project. Finally, the entire Forum (approximately 120 members) reviews and formally votes to approve all documents prior to publication.

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