Forum Annual Report 2013-14
National Cooperative Education Statistics System
National Forum on Education Statistics
Summary
2013–14
Officers
Chairperson: Lee Rabbitt, Rhode Island Department of Elementary and Secondary Education
Vice-Chair: Thomas Purwin, Jersey City Public Schools (NJ)
Past Chair: Tom Ogle, Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education
Standing Committees
National Education Statistics Agenda Committee (NESAC)
Chair: Allen Miedema, Northshore School District (WA)
Vice-Chair: Jan Petro, Colorado Department of Education
Policies, Programs and Implementation Committee (PPI)
Vice-Chair: John Kraman, Oklahoma State Department of Education
Technology Committee (TECH)
Chair: Jay Pennington, Iowa Department of Education
Vice-Chair: Michael Hopkins, Rochester School Department (NH)
Completed Task Forces & Publications
Forum Guide to School Courses for the Exchange of Data (SCED) Classification System
Purpose: This guide was developed to accompany the release of SCED Version 2.0
Course Codes. It includes an overview of the SCED structure and descriptions of
the SCED Framework elements, recommended attributes, and best practices for new
and existing users on implementing and expanding the use of SCED. Information
included in the guide builds upon previous work, including the 2007 document, Secondary School Course Classification System: School Codes for the Exchange
of Data and the 2011 prior-to-secondary SCED expansion.
Kathy Gosa (Chair), Kansas State Department of Education
Bruce Dacey, Delaware Department of Education
Marilyn King, Bozeman Public Schools (MT)
Rachel Kruse, Iowa Department of Education
Zachary Mangold, Maryland State Department of Education
John Metcalfe, Formerly of Fremont County School District #1 (WY)
Allen Miedema, Northshore School District (WA)
Jan Rose Petro, Colorado Department of Education
Susan Williams, Virginia Department of Education
Consultants: Kristina Dunman and Beth Young, Quality Information Partners
Nicole Ifill, RTI International
Project Officer: Ghedam Bairu, National Center for Education Statistics
SCED Version 2.0
Purpose: School Courses for the Exchange of Data (SCED) is a voluntary, common
classification system for prior-to-secondary and secondary school courses that
can be used to compare course information, maintain longitudinal data about
student coursework, and efficiently exchange course-taking records. SCED
includes elements and attributes that identify basic course information and that
can be adopted and adapted to meet the specific needs of education agencies.
Version 2.0 includes
- new and updated course codes, titles, and descriptions in Subject Area 5: Fine and Performing Arts, renamed to Visual and Performing Arts;
- new and updated course codes, titles, and descriptions for Career and Technical Education (CTE) courses in multiple Course Subject Areas;
- new and updated Advanced Placement (AP) courses in multiple Course Subject Areas;
- new course attributes that are not part of the SCED Framework, but can be used to provide expanded course information; and
- new Course Subject Area codes for prior-to-secondary courses that match secondary Course Subject Area codes.
Kathy Gosa (Chair), Kansas State Department of Education
Bruce Dacey, Formerly of the Delaware Department of Education
Marilyn King, Bozeman Public Schools (MT)
Rachel Kruse, Iowa Department of Education
Zachary Mangold, Maryland State Department of Education
John Metcalfe, Formerly of Fremont County School District #1 (WY)
Allen Miedema, Northshore School District (WA)
Jan Rose Petro, Colorado Department of Education
Susan Williams, Virginia Department of Education
Consultants: Kristina Dunman and Beth Young, Quality Information Partners
Nicole Ifill, RTI International
Project Officer: Ghedam Bairu, National Center for Education Statistics
2013-14 Working Groups
College and Career Ready (CCR) Working Group
Purpose: States and districts are working to prepare students in their
organizations to be college and career-ready. In doing so, these organizations
are defining what readiness means, finding the data necessary to track and
report progress, and creating programs and resources to support students. The
CCR Working Group is tasked with identifying how the Forum can contribute to
state efforts to define these terms, and exploring how data might contribute to
the efforts, including how to measure, collect, store, report, and act on CCR
data. This work will be focused on practical and actionable information and will
be grounded in the needs of the Forum members.
Lee Rabbitt (Chair), Rhode Island Department of Elementary and Secondary
Education
Justin Baer, Regional Educational Laboratory (REL) Appalachia
Laura Boudreaux, Louisiana Department of Education
DeDe Conner, Kentucky Department of Education
Dean Folkers, Nebraska Department of Education
Lisa Hudson, National Center for Education Statistics (NCES)
John Kraman, Oklahoma State Department of Education
Christina Tydeman, Hawaii State Department of Education
David Weinberger, Yonkers Public Schools (NY)
Consultants: Deborah Newby and Beth Young, Quality Information Partners
Project Officer: Ghedam Bairu, National Center for Education Statistics
Virtual Education Working Group
Purpose: In 2006, the Forum published the Forum Guide to
Elementary/Secondary Virtual Education, which examined the role of virtual
education in the K12 environment, provided a review of terminology, discussed
the importance of high-quality virtual education data, and suggested ways of
modifying traditional data elements and systems to better capture relevant data.
The Virtual Education Working Group is tasked with reviewing and updating the
2006 document to ensure that it is comprehensive, up-to-date, and accurate.
Laurel Krsek (Chair), San Ramon Valley Unified School District (CA)
Noralee Deason, Effingham County Schools (GA)
Jim Harrington, Oregon Department of Education
Allen Miedema, Northshore School District (WA)
Jay Pennington, Iowa Department of Education
Adrian Peoples, Delaware Department of Education
Joyce Popp, Idaho Department of Education
Consultant: Kris Dunman, Quality Information Partners
Project Officer: Ghedam Bairu, National Center for Education Statistics
Alternative Socioeconomic Status (SES) Measures Working Group
Purpose: The potential loss of the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s
student-level National School Lunch Program (NSLP)-eligibility indicator is an
important issue to state and local education agencies. The Alternative
Socioeconomic Status (SES) Measures Working Group is tasked with identifying
alternative measures of SES that meet the needs of the education community.
Matt Cohen (Chair), Ohio Department of Education
Chris Chapman, National Center for Education Statistics
Lily Clark, U.S. Department of Education
Sonya Edwards, California Department of Education
Francie Gilmore-Dunn, Mississippi Department of Education
Jim Harrington, Oregon Department of Education
Michael Hawes, U.S. Department of Education
Mike Hopkins, Rochester School Department (NH)
Tom Howell, Michigan Center for Educational Performance and Information
Tom Ogle, Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education
Robert Rodosky, Jefferson County Public Schools (KY)
Ross Santy, U.S. Department of Education
Marilyn Seastrom, National Center for Education Statistics
Todd Stephenson, U.S. Department of Education
Marie Stetser, National Center for Education Statistics
Charlene Swanson, New York State Education Department
Christina Tydeman, Hawaii State Department of Education
William Ward, National Center for Education Statistics
Consultant: Tom Szuba, Quality Information Partners
Project Officer: Ghedam Bairu, National Center for Education Statistics
School Courses for the Exchange of Data (SCED) Review Panel
Purpose: Course offerings and course descriptions evolve over time. SCED must
reflect up-to-date course offerings to remain relevant, and updates must be
implemented in a manner that maintains the structure and integrity of the
established SCED standard. This Review Panel is tasked with continuing the work
of the SCED Working Group and developing SCED Version 3.0.
Lee Rabbitt (Chair), Rhode Island Department of Education
Marilyn King, Bozeman Public Schools (MT)
Rachel Kruse, Iowa Department of Education
Zachary Mangold, Maryland State Department of Education
Raymond Martin, Connecticut Department of Education
Allen Miedema, Northshore School District (WA)
Jan Rose Petro, Colorado Department of Education
Susan Williams, Virginia Department of Education
Consultants: Kristina Dunman and Beth Young, Quality Information Partners
Nicole Ifill, RTI International
Project Officer: Ghedam Bairu, National Center for Education Statistics
Member Activities
The Forum welcomed a representative from the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) and approved NEA’s request for federal membership. The NEA was established by Congress in 1965 as an independent agency of the federal government. To date, the NEA has awarded more than $4 billion to support artistic excellence, creativity, and innovation for the benefit of individuals and communities. The NEA extends its work through partnerships with state arts agencies, local leaders, other federal agencies, and the philanthropic sector. More information on the NEA is available at http://www.arts.gov.
Other Activities
- 3/6/14 Forum Virtual Meeting: Ambient Positional Instability (API)
This virtual meeting featured research by Bob Boruch, University Trustee Chair Professor of Education and Statistics at the University of Pennsylvania. In his presentation, “Ambient Positional Instability in Education Systems: What We’ve Planned, What We’ve Learned in the First Quarter, and A Request,” Bob discussed the National Science Foundation (NSF)-funded research he is undertaking with Joseph Merlino, Andrew Porter, and the API Project Group on teacher API in schools. His presentation highlighted the project’s background, implications, and aims. Questions and observations from Forum members included topics such as options for gathering teacher attrition and mobility data; details about what’s needed from LEA project participants; and sensitivity concerns about making this finely grained data publicly available. - 3/11/14 TECH Virtual Meeting: School Climate Survey
NCES presented a new web-based data collection platform for the School Climate Surveys (SLCS) to the members of the Forum’s Technology Committee (TECH). The SCLS is a series of surveys measuring school climate for teachers, students, and parents in middle and high school. This is a free, standardized, web-based tool, intended to produce comparable results across schools, districts, and states. Questions from TECH members included topics such as customizing the survey, linking it to other surveys or assessment results, extracting responses for in-house analysis, the length of the surveys, and the survey field testing process. - 4/9/14 Joint Regional Educational Laboratory (REL) Appalachia and Forum WebEx:
Managing Research Requests in a Local Education Agency
This REL Appalachia WebEx featured three speakers. Christina Tydeman from the Hawaii Department of Education discussed the benefits of developing a data access framework and reviewed the core practices and operations discussed in the Forum Guide to Supporting Data Access for Researchers: A Local Education Agency Perspective. Robert Rodosky, Chief Executive Director, Office of Data Management, Planning, and Program Evaluation Services at Jefferson County Public Schools (JCPS), led a discussion on his district’s efforts to implement the ideas, tools, and resources provided in the Forum guide. Establishing a way to process data requests has led JCPS to create meaningful research partnerships with education stakeholders. Finally, Julie Kochanek, Director of Research at REL Northeast and Islands (REL NEI), highlighted the Toolkit for Districts Working with External Researchers located on the REL NEI website. Listeners asked questions of the presenters on topics including LEA Institutional Review Boards; requirements that might affect sharing data; and challenging aspects of data access management systems. - 4/10/14 Forum Virtual Meeting: Assessment Consortia Updates
This virtual meeting focused on the Race to the Top Assessments. Wes Bruce of the Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers (PARCC), Jessica McKinney of the U.S. Department of Education, and Brandt Redd of the Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium (SBAC) provided updates on the assessments to Forum members. Forum members asked several questions on a variety of topics connected to the assessments, such as: test retakes, planning for states as they transition to the new assessments, SBAC field tests, data reporting features for teachers and administrators, future support from the consortia to participating states, and anticipated challenges for districts and states in delivering the assessments. - 4/28/14 Forum Virtual Meeting: Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM)
Indicators
This Forum virtual meeting highlighted the recent work of the National Science Foundation (NSF) and the National Research Council (NRC) on STEM Indicators. Lee Rabbitt (RI) introduced the presenters, Jessica Mislevy and Barbara Means, both from SRI International. Barbara led the discussion to gather feedback on the STEM Indicators. Forum members offered comments on the process of parsing out information on STEM programs, the relevancy of STEM programs, incorporating School Courses for the Exchange of Data (SCED), and producing generalizable results. - 4/23/14 Forum LEA Virtual Meeting: School Climate Survey
This Forum LEA virtual meeting featured updates on the development of the School Climate Surveys (SCLS) research tool at the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES). Isaiah O’Rear, NCES, facilitated the discussion for Forum LEAs to offer feedback about the planned survey process, focusing on administration, implementation, and execution of the surveys. Forum members asked several questions about the SCLS on topics such as survey software, generating reports, research methods, cost to LEAs, survey length, and survey customizability.