VI–A

The panel presented an analysis of the analytical and technical challenges and successes encountered by the Center for Educator Compensation Reform team as it provides technical assistance to Teacher Incentive Fund grant recipients. Many districts have encountered substantial information quality problems, as well as core architectural problems, in existing IT systems. The panel discussed some lessons that can be applied to current system development work, as well as workarounds that seem to be cost effective.

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• Lessons Learned From Teacher Incentive Fund Proposals: The Social and Technical Demands of Pay for Performance Systems (307 KB)

VI–B

State or even locally developed standards are the basis for Nebraska’s one of a kind assessment collection and reporting system. This presentation focused on why Nebraska has no single statewide assessment, how Nebraska's collection and reporting system is designed, and how Nebraska copes with this unique challenge.

VI–C

Attendees came to this session to learn about the CSIS Best Practices Cohort Project—the project being conducted to help nearly 1,000 local education agencies in California improve their local data management practices. The session included a review of project requirements, an overview of the four required professional development sessions, and a review of the assessments and resources used by project participants during the project. The SharePoint site used by CSIS staff and participants to manage the project, collect assessment data, and share resources were demonstrated.

VI–D

Building centralized data systems that are useful to a variety of program offices requires a proper integration of the business needs of those offices. The challenges to making that integration effective are often both technical and cultural. At this session, representatives from both federal and state program offices and information offices spoke to some of the challenges that have arisen as disparate data usage needs have been addressed from one centralized data system.

VI–E

In an effort to increase the quality of data submitted to its statewide student data collection system, the Kansas State Department of Education (KSDE) unveiled data certification programs in June 2007. Now that the pilot programs have concluded, KSDE project directors shared lessons learned from the initial year including their strategies for gaining leadership support for the project, aligning data certification efforts with larger agency data objectives, and ensuring that program participants remain current with state and federal data reporting requirements. In addition they shared plans for evaluating the program. Session participants also previewed the plans for expanded certification curricula, which will debut in June 2008.

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• Kansas Data Quality Certification Programs (22 KB)

VI–F

As directed under the No Child Left Behind Act, the U.S. Census Bureau produces model-based estimates of poverty and population for use in allocating education funds. The multifaceted production process includes production of estimates at the state, county, and school district levels. This presentation provided an overview on how the model-based estimates that are used in Title I allocations are developed, focusing on recent improvements using the American Community Survey and aggregate tax information geocoded to the school district level.

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• School District Title I Estimates: An Overview From the U.S. Census Bureau (361 KB)

VI–G

The Office of Diné Science, Math, and Technology under the Department of Diné Education are currently working with 17 Grant Schools located throughout the Navajo Nation. The office staff is providing direct service to each school regarding the use of data process as a means to examine data to help staff of the schools make decisions about improving teaching and learning for all students in mathematics, science, and reading. The use of collaborative inquiry process as mentioned in Data Coach’s Guide to Improving Learning for All Students by Nancy Love, Katherine E. Stile, Susan Mundry, and Kathryn DiRanna of TERC and WestED, is critical when staff come together in looking at their data.

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• Data Intervention Strategy with Navajo Nation Schools (1.34 MB)

VI–H

The South Carolina Department of Education has partnered with several Schools Interoperability Framework (SIF) Association vendors to develop and put in place the ability to assign unique identification numbers to all students in South Carolina public schools. The Student Unique Numbering System (SUNS) project joins together sophisticated software for assigning identification numbers with the nationally adopted standards of SIF to automate assignment through a centralized database tied to all public schools. SIF has opened a whole new range of possibilities for transfer of student data between schools, districts, and across the country. This presentation highlighted South Carolina’s ongoing development projects and the role that SIF plays in these projects.