Purpose: By facilitating the collection and use of detailed, high quality student- and staff-level data linked over time, longitudinal data systems (LDSs) hold the promise of revolutionizing the way we educate our students and vastly improving the way we do business from the policy level, to the school office, and into the classroom. The LDS Task force is currently developing Traveling Through Time: The Forum Guide to Longitudinal Data Systems to help state and local education agencies meet the many challenges involved in building robust LDSs, populating them with quality data, and using this new information to improve the educational system. With special emphasis on the business-level perspective, this document explores a broad range of issues involved in establishing an LDS that will have lasting and far-reaching impact.
Current Tasks: The LDS Task Force is developing a draft document (see below), which they hope to release by the Winter 2010 Forum Meeting.
Meeting Schedule: No meeting is currently scheduled.
Roster:
Nancy Burke, Century Elementary Grafton Public School District (ND)
Corey Chatis, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation
Laurie Collins, Mizuni (formerly of the SIF Association)
Thomas Cosgrove, Office of the State Superintendent of Education (DC)
Khaled Falah, Office of the State Superintendent of Education (DC)
Maureen Matthews, Council of Chief State School Officers
Pat Sherrill, U.S. Department of Education
Nancy Smith, NCES (formerly of the Data Quality Campaign)
Steve Smith, Cambridge Public Schools (MA)
Susan VanGorden, Lakota Local School District (OH)
Raymond Yeagley, Northwest Evaluation Association
E-mail: LDS@nceslistserv.com [Note that only registered members of a listserv (i.e., members of the task force) can send messages.]
Chair: Bruce Dacey, Delaware Department of Education
NCES Staff: Tate Gould
Support: Anthony Garofano, QIP
Traveling Through Time: The Forum Guide to Longitudinal Data Systems 
(5.8 MB)
This early draft of the guide (still under development) represents roughly three quarters of the content
anticipated in the finished product. The guide’s Introduction discusses its purpose, format, and intended
audience. Chapter 1 is a primer on LDSs, which defines and discusses overarching benefits, lays out key steps
to planning and implementing an LDS, and presents the technical components that generally comprise such a system.
Chapter 2 discusses in more detail the planning, implementation, and evaluation phases of an LDS project. It
guides readers through the process of engaging a wide variety of stakeholders to create a vision for an LDS,
building support for the undertaking, developing the system, and gauging how well it is meeting its
intended goals. Chapter 3 explores several fundamental challenges of data management, focusing largely on
defining and reviewing the benefits of strong data governance, and providing a basic model for establishing
a sound governance structure and process. Additional sections of the chapter address data quality,
privacy, and security issues. Chapter 4 will consider the effective use of LDS data, including ways in
which various stakeholders can benefit from the system, the importance of training and professional
development, the many potential uses of the data, and the various types of tools that can be used to
turn student-level longitudinal data into actionable information at all levels of the educational system.
Contact Anthony Garofano with feedback.
Publications of the National Forum on Education Statistics do not undergo the formal review required for products of the National Center for Education Statistics. The information and opinions published here are the product of the National Forum on Education Statistics and do not necessarily represent the policy or views of the U.S. Department of Education or the National Center for Education Statistics.
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