K-12 Interactive Reports: In Washington State, the Office of the Legislative Evaluation and Accountability Program (LEAP) Committee makes available via the Internet several school district-specific interactive reports. The reports combine data for FTE student enrollment, other student measures, staffing, revenues, and expenditures. The reports provide interactive access to data for school districts that website visitors select. Designed by legislative fiscal staff and implemented by LEAP staff, the reports are widely used by legislators, fiscal analysts, school district staff, and staff from employee associations and organizations. LEAP has been making the reports available for more than 15 years.

Sessions in Washington State track:

I-I, II-I, III-A, III-I, IV-I, V-I, VI-I, VII-I, VIII-F, VIII-I, IX-I, X-I, XI-I, XII-I

With the current economic downturn, schools, districts, states and higher education entities are faced with higher rates of student mobility among families that are in financial crisis. In a recent news article, this was highlighted with a story of 50 students in one week who had become homeless because of foreclosures. Each family was struggling to keep the students in school, and student mobility was causing issues for the educational institutions as the students were now considered part of the transient mobile population and appeared on rolls of more than one school.

The Schools Interoperability Framework Association is working to provide a comprehensive collection of data elements that comprise a Student Record Exchange (SRE) to support appropriate and rapid placement to support continued student learning. Attendees joined presenters in a two-part working session. In Part One—they reviewed and worked on current PK-12 student record components, explore missing areas and encourage discussions on needed parts. In Part Two—they focused on the work between the PK-12 and the higher education community and identified data needs for student record movement.

Sessions in Schools Interoperability Framework (SIF) track:

I-B, II-B, III-B, IV-B, V-B, VI-B, VII-B, VIII-B, IX-B

This panel described work from two of the Regional Education Laboratories that have examined how the statewide longitudinal data systems (SLDS) are being used by state education agencies (SEAs) and local education agencies (LEAs), parsing out some of the challenges to and opportunities for data use. The presentations described how SEAs are reaching out to LEAs so that data can be used more effectively. Technology, human capacity, data use, resources, and other issues were discussed.

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How the SLDS are Impacting Data Use: Trends and Issues for SEAs and
LEAs (525 KB)

Sessions in Data Use/Data Standards track:

I-C, I-D, I-E, II-A, II-C, III-C, IV-C, IV-H, V-C, V-H, VI-C, VII-A, VII-C, VIII-C, VIII-H, IX-A, IX-C, IX-F, IX-H, X-A, X-C, X-F, XI-A, XI-D, XII-C, XII-D

Metadata, or "data about data," are a critical component of any data system. Given the different perspectives from which people view data—as something to be stored (the database manager), something to be catalogued and searched (the librarian), something to be maintained (the data steward), or something to be used and reported (the program manager)—it is not surprising that multiple definitions have arisen for the term. The National Forum on Education Statistics has developed a resource that explains what metadata are, why they are a critical component of sound education data systems, what value they bring to data analysis, and how to implement a metadata system in a state or local education agency. Attendees joined presenters to learn more about the "Forum Guide to Metadata" and its potential for helping to improve metadata systems in education organizations across the nation.

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The Forum Guide to Metadata: A Resource for the Education
Community (1.7 MB)

Sessions in Data Quality track:

II-H, III-D, V-D, VII-H, IX-D, X-D, XI-H

This session reviewed the accomplishments and future plans for providing federal elementary and secondary education program managers and analysts with all of the numeric data collected in the Consolidated State Performance Report (CSPR) through EDFacts. There was a discussion of current and future uses of these data, a study which compared data submitted to both CSPR and EDEN Submission System (ESS), and lessons learned from pre-population of data from ESS.

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CSPR: Now and the Future (394 KB)

Sessions in EDFacts track:

II-E, III-E, IV-E, V-E, VI-E, VII-E, VIII-E, IX-E, X-E, XI-E

Research both within the Minnesota Department of Education (MDE) and with postsecondary and workforce has typically been difficult as it required student records to be linked across data sets. Linking student information was tedious, error prone, and lacked consistent repeatable results. This presentation described the steps and processes used by MDE to create probabilistic record matches for one enrollment system, the Minnesota Attendance Reporting Student System (MARSS), which reports student enrollment at districts and schools. Techniques and examples, such as the Howard B. Newcombe record linking techniques, were described and several applications of the results were presented. The new methods of record linking will increase accuracy of data within the Minnesota Department of Education and facilitate linking across postsecondary and workforce data to expand the research capacity for the state.

Sessions in Longitudinal Data Systems (LDS) track:

I-G, II-G, III-G, IV-G, V-G, VI-G, VII-G, VIII-G, IX-G, X-G, XI-G, XII-G

The Iowa Department of Education (IDE) is building a comprehensive state longitudinal data system encompassing a multi-year product life cycle. IDE is implementing a series of projects to create a unified education data infrastructure, build interconnectivity with other entities for analysis and planning, and expand the data analysis to include a PK-20 focus. Iowa began this effort with limited resources but ultimately plans to provide the Iowa education community consistent and accurate longitudinal information on education outcomes and the analytical tools needed to improve decision making and student success.

Sessions in Statewide Data Systems (SDS) track:

I-A, III-H, IV-A, IV-D, V-A, VII-D, VII-F, VIII-A, X-H

Education Service District 113 is building a bridge between data systems and the type of information that can be used to identify students at risk of dropping out or not graduating. Presenters discussed the quality of data and the number of variables involved, and show the reporting behind identifying and engaging these students. Additionally, they discussed the following: What does it mean for a student to be at risk? How would a system track the intervention required for that student?

Sessions in Washington State track:

I-I, II-I, III-A, III-I, IV-I, V-I, VI-I, VII-I, VIII-F, VIII-I, IX-I, X-I, XI-I, XII-I