Moderator:
    Barbara Clements, National Transcript Center
Presenters:
    Bruce Marton, University of Texas at Austin
    Tom Stewart, Miami-Dade College (retired)

The Postsecondary Electronic Standards Council (PESC) released the XML Postsecondary (College) Academic Transcript Schema as a PESC Approved National Standard in April 2004. Since then, a PESC Workgroup has been holding regular meetings to develop an electronic XML version for the Secondary (High School) Academic Transcript. With broad-based participation and collaboration, the development work is complete and has been released as a PESC Approved National Education Community Standard in June 2006.

The purpose and scope of the PESC XML High School Transcript is to support the electronic exchange of the high school transcript with a postsecondary school, or to a state or other agency. Participants in the workgroup included secondary schools, postsecondary schools, state and federal agencies, and vendors involved in the secondary Student Information Systems market. In this session, we reviewed the considerations that were made to support a standard methodology and national standards while allowing for local flexibility and control.

This presentation included a discussion of the PESC XML Schema itself, a brief look at the Implementation Guide that accompanies the Schema, current plans for implementation of the Schema at states and schools, and usage of the Texas Internet Server, a free service of the University of Texas that authenticates and facilitates exchanges between educational institutions. We also reviewed technical specifications and features along with a review of how the National Standard references and interacts with National Center for Education Statistics standards, particularly the upcoming School Codes for the Exchange of Data code set. Finally, we discussed how this Schema and the work of the Schools Interoperability Framework Association can be integrated into a single standard process.

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PESC XML High School Transcript

(238 KB)

The power in longitudinal data systems lies in their ability to inform curriculum and classroom instruction to increase student achievement. The panelists discussed their efforts in using student data to improve student achievement. Poway Unified School District has put in place a customized web-enabled data system, paired with a benchmark-assessment tool, which guides the work of teachers in classrooms. Tennessee administrators and teachers use web-based data tools to inform curriculum and instructional strategies for accelerating student academic growth toward state learning standards and ACT college-readiness standards.

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Improving Educational Outcomes with Data-Driven Conversations: The Effective Use of Data to Improve Instruction - Cory Curl and Mary Reel	(784 KB)
The Effective Use of Data to Improve Instruction - Molly Schaeffer	(1.71 MB)

The Forum Guide to the Privacy of Student Information: A Resource for Schools is a toolkit that was written to help school and local education agency staff better understand and apply the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act, a federal law that protects privacy interests of parents and students in students’ education records. The Forum has developed full reports on student (and staff) privacy guidance but a more succinct document was needed for schools to provide them with quick resources and links to other resources. The document defines terms such as “education records” and “directory information” and provides guidance for developing appropriate privacy policies and information disclosure procedures related to military recruiting, parental rights and annual notification, the use of videotapes, online information, media releases, surveillance cameras, and confidentiality concerns related specifically to health-related information. The Forum members who developed the document were available to describe the school resource they developed.

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Forum Guide to the Privacy of Student Information: A Resource for Schools - Beth Young

(1.04 MB)

The presenter reviewed the current capabilities and strengths of the Comprehensive Exceptional Children Accountability System (CECAS) implementation, including planned enhancements for online Individual Education Programs and Medicaid reporting. Special emphasis was on ease of use, client participation, and features that eased system acceptance by districts. This system, created in partnership with the Michigan Compliance Information System project, was installed and operational within 12 months of the project start. This funded application continues to be improved with additional features at both sites being added annually.

The Office of Planning, Evaluation, and Policy Development published a Notice of Proposed Rule Making on April 28, 2006 that will enable the Secretary of Education to require that U.S. Department of Education sponsored and Office of Management and Budget approved collections be mandatory collections, enforceable under the grantmaking authority of the Secretary. This session discussed these regulations as well as the status of the development of agency guidance on the collection and reporting of race and ethnicity data on students and education staff.

New Jersey is on the leading edge of educational adequacy as a result of the landmark decisions of the State Supreme Court in Abbott v. Burke that go well beyond equalizing school funding to mandating their efficient and effective use to enable students to achieve to high academic standards. The presenter described the capacity-building approach to accountability that is embodied within the Abbott rulings and on-the-ground implications of this approach, including the needs for appropriate and sustainable accountability mechanisms; better and more accessible data; careful indicator selection; and deeper, broader public engagement. Finally, the presenter discussed in brief, the findings of a 2006 statewide progress report on the Abbott districts, entitled Progress and Challenges: The Abbott Districts in 2005-06.

Since its inception in November 2005, the Data Quality Campaign has been gathering state-specific and national research and policy initiatives that promote the building and use of longitudinal data systems, which are crucial to enabling informed policy decisions. The information documented thus far can be found on the Data Quality Campaign’s website, www.DataQualityCampaign.org. This session highlighted findings and reports about state and national longitudinal data initiatives identified thus far and provided an opportunity for states to share their progress towards creating and implementing longitudinal data systems and research based on that data.

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State and National Longitudinal Policy and Data Initiatives

(1.30 MB)

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