Lesson: Types of Data Errors
Participants:
Data Steward/Coordinator
Description
This lesson explores the types of errors commonly found in Local Education Agency (LEA) data and their potential consequences for the organization and its students.
Objectives
- Define and describe types of data errors and problems.
- List possible consequences of inaccurate data.
Instructor Preparation
- Read over the Discussion Scenario and decide whether to use it for your initial discussion or to have participants use one of the discussion starters listed on the discussion starters.
- Make a copy of each of the following Lesson Resources (which can be found on the column at the top of this page) for each participant.
- Discussion Scenario
- Possible Data Errors
Essential Learnings
- Data errors are of many types and not always easy to spot until after a report is generated.
- What seems like an error (for example, a large increase in the number of students enrolled in a building from one year to the next) may not be an error, but the result of changes in the circumstances of the LEA (e.g., the opening of a large tract of houses in the building’s attendance area over the previous spring and summer).