The Forum Voice: Winter 2015 (Volume 17, No. 2)

the National Forum on Education Statistic’s e-Newsletter
NEWSLETTER INFORMATION | NEWSLETTER ARCHIVE

The Forum Voice: Winter 2015

(Volume 17)

Updates and Events

Forum Summer 2014 Meeting Recap
The 2014 Summer Forum Meeting took place July 28-30 in Washington, DC. Forum Chair Lee Rabbitt (Rhode Island Department of Elementary and Secondary Education) and John Easton, Former Director of the Institute of Education Sciences (IES), welcomed Forum members to Washington, DC. A wide variety of topics were discussed by members in the general sessions, breakouts, and working groups. John Easton’s discussion focused on new initiatives and ongoing data collections at the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES). Kathleen Styles, Chief Privacy Officer of the U.S. Department of Education (ED), highlighted recent developments around the importance of protecting the privacy of student data at the federal level. Joseph South, Deputy Director of the ED Office of Educational Technology (OET) discussed various technology trends that will fundamentally change how students learn and focused on the big picture of digital data and learning with a technology-focused perspective. Bob Balfanz and Jennifer DePaoli from the Johns Hopkins University School of Education Everyone Graduates Center discussed how collective efforts toward improving graduation rate measurements can help to identify ways to increase graduation rates for all students.

Other presentation and discussion topics included: the Forum Guide to School Courses for the Exchange of Data (SCED); updates and information on school climate indicators and surveys, teacher evaluation, Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, EdFacts, Civil Rights Data Collection, the U.S. Department of Education Data Inventory, Privacy Technical Assistance Center, Family Policy Compliance Office, Common Education Data Standards Connect tool, Assessment Consortia discussion, National Assessment of Educational Progress Assessments, and Race to the Top Assessments; and new and ongoing Forum work on SCED, alternative socioeconomic status measures, college and career readiness, and virtual education. The meeting concluded with a presentation from Peggy Carr, Associate Commissioner of NCES, who addressed how federally sponsored assessments plays a unique role in providing valuable information on student achievement. The 2013-14 officers were recognized for their service and a new slate of officers, led by Tom Purwin of the Jersey City Public Schools (NJ), was elected for 2014-15.

CRDC Updates and Discussions
In October 2014, the Forum held webinars with the Technology (TECH) Committee, Policies, Programs and Implementation (PPI) Committee, and National Education Statistics Agenda Committee (NESAC). Abby Potts, a representative of the Administrative Data Division: Elementary and Secondary Branch of the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), provided updates on the Civil Rights Data Collection (CRDC). Abby’s presentation to the Forum Standing Committees included an overview of the 2013-14 CRDC and a preview of the new online tool that will be used in the 2013-14 data collection. She highlighted unique functions within the tool and facilitated a Q&A discussion regarding resources on the CRDC GRADS 360 website (https://crdc.grads360.org/#program). Discussion topics included the flat file submission process, communications to LEAs and SEAs, vendor involvement, resources on the website, and the online submission timeline. Information from the pilot will be shared with Forum members.

Family Policy Compliance Office (FPCO) Update
On December 8, 2014, Dale King, Director of the Family Policy Compliance Office led a full Forum webinar presentation titled Update from the Family Policy Compliance Office on Privacy Issues and Recent Guidance. Dale’s presentation offered in-depth reviews of key issues and major questions on recent guidance. Topics included the Family Educational and Privacy Act (FERPA) and disclosures to community-based organizations; guidance on the Uninterrupted Scholars Act; protecting student privacy while using online educational services; letters of significance to the University of Massachusetts, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and the Nevada Superintendent of Public Instruction; the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) Part B and C crosswalk; and the health and safety emergency exception. Dale also encouraged participants to utilize the new FPCO Resources Website at http://familypolicy.ed.gov/. Dale and Forum members engaged in further discussion about FERPA exceptions. Presentation materials can be downloaded at http://nces.ed.gov/forum/upcoming_events.asp.

Regional Educational Laboratory Northeast and Islands (REL-NEI) College Readiness Data Catalog Tool: User Guide
On December 16, 2014, Julie Riordan, REL-NEI Director of Research, lead a Forum webinar on the REL-NEI Data Catalog Tool: User Guide. Julie provided Forum members with an overview of the REL-NEI research alliance topics and explained how the data catalog tool was developed in response to research questions posed by the U.S. Virgin Islands (USVI) College and Career Readiness Research Alliance. The tool is designed to identify college readiness indicators and determine the availability and reliability of data elements. It is adaptable and can be customized to meet the needs of other education agencies as well as other topic areas. Julie discussed the organization of the tool according to three overarching constructs and the indicators that accompany each construct: 1) High School Academic Performance and Engagement; 2) Postsecondary Access and Enrollment; and 3) Postsecondary Certification and Success. She noted that the tool is not intended to provide an exhaustive list of indicators, and she invited Forum members to suggest additional indicators for each construct or to share information on indicators collected in their state and local education agencies (SEAs and LEAs). Additional information on the work of REL-NEI, including the Data Catalog Tool, is available at http://www.relnei.org/.

Upcoming Events
Forum leaders are currently planning a series of webinars that will provide follow-up information on topics discussed at the Summer Forum. The current list of upcoming webinars includes:

  • a full Forum presentation from Bill Ward (NCES) on NAEP’s transition to Technology-Based Assessments on January 8, 2015, from 1:30-3:00 pm (EST);
  • a TECH presentation on the REL-West toolkit, “Speak Out, Listen Up! Tools for Using Student Perspectives and Local Data for School Improvement” on January 23, 2015, from 2:00-3:15 pm (EST); and
  • full Forum presentation from Joseph South of the Office of Educational Technology on January 27, 2015, from 1:30-3:30 pm (EST).

The Forum is also planning to release a new virtual tool for Forum use: Forum 360. Some Forum members are familiar with the GRADS/Communities 360 tool from work with other projects such as Common Education Data Standards (CEDS) or the Statewide Longitudinal Data Systems (SLDS) Grant program. The Forum Community site was developed in response to Forum member requests for opportunities for additional interaction and collaboration between Forum meetings. It provides an integrated Forum calendar as well as a virtual space to meet, share ideas and documents, and develop Forum resources.

The URL for the new tool is https://forum.grads360.org. Forum 360 is password protected and is only available to Forum members. Each Forum member will have a login that allows them access to the full Forum site and the webpages of any other Forum groups that they belong to such as their committee and any workgroups they are members of. For example, only NESAC members have access to the NESAC page and only SCED Working Group members have access to the SCED Working Group page. Members who have an existing GRADS/Communities 360 account for another site (e.g., EDFacts or SLDS) can use that account to log in to the Forum site. Members who do not have an existing account will receive login information prior to the release of the tool in January, 2015.

Editorial Board

Peter Tamayo, Washington State Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction
Kristina Martin, Macomb Intermediate School District (MI)
David Weinberger, Yonkers Public Schools (NY)
Dean Folkers, Nebraska Department of Education
Ghedam Bairu, National Center for Education Statistics, U.S. Department of Education

Letter from the Chair

Welcome to the Forum as it meets new challenges to continue its mission to improve the quality, comparability, and usefulness of education data.

The recent release of the Forum Guide to School Courses for the Exchange of Data (SCED) Classification System (2014) helps us to focus on a relevant topic near and dear to many of us. Many states have adopted SCED as a framework that is part of a process for reporting Teacher/Student Data Links (TSDL) as a back-office function of state coding reported to the state’s Longitudinal Data System. I want to talk about using SCED codes as a district course coding system in a district’s Student Information System (SIS).

Our district has implemented SCED Course Codes as a standard for K-8 classes in all district schools. While the K-12 courses have SCED codes in the state course code field, my staff and I have created K-12 course masters that identify every possible SCED defined course with its relevant code. The challenge will be to update the district’s high school course coding system, which currently uses a legacy numbering system with prefixes and suffixes that designate programs and/or smaller learning communities. Because we have established SCED high school course masters, our scheduling vice principals will migrate from the existing system to a SCED system using course section codes to identify programs and smaller learning communities.

This is a small example of the impact of implementing projects using Forum resources. Across the country, state, district, and school projects are benefitting from the use of Forum best practice publications and other NCES resources, such as the Common Education Data Standards. In addition, the Forum is currently developing new resources to address virtual education, college and career readiness, and alternative socioeconomic status measures. From the Halls of Protecting the Privacy of Student Information to the Shores of Planning for Maintaining School Facilities, you will find a Forum resource.

As Forum members we need to take advantage of every opportunity, existing or created, to disseminate information gathered from the Forum. We have a wide variety of free resources that are very relevant as schools, school districts, and state education agencies move forward in their goal to improve the quality, comparability, and usefulness of education data.

Thank you for this opportunity to serve as this year’s Forum Chairperson. With the continued work of the Steering Committee, Forum staff, and Forum members, we strive to meet the high standards set by prior Forums by having a productive year.

-Thomas Purwin, Jersey City School District (NJ)

Overview: Regional Education Laboratories (REL) Research Alliances

The Regional Education Laboratories (REL) Research Alliances are voluntary groups of state, district, or other education stakeholders who share a common challenge related to education and seek to use data and research to address that challenge. The REL, as a participant and sometimes as a convener of these groups, provides assistance in developing research agendas, articulating research questions, and answering those questions. Each REL has between 4 and 10 research alliances that it is working with at any given time. Some research alliances have long histories of collaborative work while others have developed more recently in response to a regional need. The group of research alliances that a REL works with may change over time or may last for years depending upon when each alliance’s needs have been fully met. New alliances may come into existence based on the identification of needs in a REL region. Eighty-five percent of REL work is required to be associated with alliances.

There are currently 72 research alliances across the 10 RELs, and each has a particular issue as their focus. Alliances may have members from a single state or from multiple states within the REL’s region. Thirty-one alliances are comprised of members from a single state, 40 alliances are comprised of members from multiple states in the REL’s region, and one alliance’s membership comes from a single school district.

Many of the research alliances across the REL Program are organized around similar topic areas, including college and career readiness, dropout prevention, rural education, teacher effectiveness, and early childhood education. Other alliances are focused on issues that are more regionally-specific, such as the Bureau of Indian Education High School Alliance with REL Northwest, the Native American Education Research Alliance with REL Central, and the Mid-Atlantic Historically Black Colleges and Universities Alliance with REL Mid-Atlantic.

Examples of research alliances include:

  • An Alliance between REL Midwest and the state of Ohio, known as the Dropout Prevention Research Alliance: Improving student graduation rates is a statewide priority in Ohio. This alliance focuses on increasing graduation rates and on reducing persistent disparities in graduation and dropout rates among student subgroups. Short-term goals of the alliance are to identify locally valid predictors of student dropout in a set of pilot districts and to build and implement comprehensive early warning systems based on those indicators. Work proposed in the upcoming year will serve the alliance’s longer-term goal of scaling up early warning systems in ways that allow evaluation of the efficacy of well-implemented early warning indicator systems. This alliance has recently expanded to include stakeholders from Indiana and Michigan who are interested in validating early warning indicators in their states. For more information, go to: http://www.relmidwest.org/research-alliances/dropout-prevention-research-alliance.
  • An Alliance between REL Pacific and the Freely Associated States (FAS), known as Optimizing Data Readiness in the Freely Associated States: This alliance is dedicated to mapping the ways in which data in the freely associated states flow through the educational system, how they are interpreted, and how they influence decision making. The alliance began and will continue its work in the FAS where these challenges are the most acute. For more information, go to: http://relpacific.mcrel.org/alliance5.html.
  • An Alliance between REL Pacific and the state of Hawai’i, known as the Hawai‘i Partnership for Educational Research Consortium: The Hawai‘i Partnership for Educational Research Consortium (HPERC) Research Alliance, is intended to bridge education data from Preschool to K–12 to college and career by identifying and filling critical gaps in the State of Hawai‘i’s Statewide Longitudinal Data System implementation plan and by assessing progress on the alignment and integration of student identifiers within early childhood educational centers, public and private K–12 schools, and the University of Hawai‘i system (including all state community colleges). To strengthen Hawai‘i’s data system implementation, this alliance will work toward improved communication, training, and technical assistance offerings to stakeholders throughout the state. For more information, go to: http://relpacific.mcrel.org/alliance6.html.
  • An Alliance between REL Northwest and the state of Alaska, known as the Alaska State Policy Research Alliance (ASPRA): ASPRA provides a forum for policymakers, researchers, and other constituents to collectively examine evidence-based solutions to education challenges in the state. Members are particularly focused on the priority need of preparing students for postsecondary success. ASPRA's goals are to build common awareness and knowledge of research evidence about college and career readiness; increase the capacity of Alaska Department of Education & Early Development (EED) staff to conduct high-quality research and to share the evidence with legislators and other stakeholders; and increase the use of evidence and research in making education policy decisions. For more information, go to: http://educationnorthwest.org/rel-northwest/rel-research-alliances/aspra.
  • An Alliance between REL Northwest and the state of Idaho, known as the Idaho System of Recognition, Accountability, and Support (ID SRAS) Research Alliance: REL Northwest is partnering with Idaho State Department of Education, state technical assistance providers, and school districts to conduct, interpret, and communicate research evidence relating to the priority need of school improvement. The ID SRAS alliance also seeks to build the capacity of its members to make more informed decisions about improving low-performing schools. For more information, go to:http://educationnorthwest.org/rel-northwest/rel-research-alliances/id-ssos.

Office of Educational Technology: Connected Educators

The mission of the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Educational Technology (OET) is to provide leadership for transforming education through the power of technology. OET also develops national educational technology policy and establishes the vision for how technology can be used to support learning. OET pursues its mission through a number of initiatives, including the Connected Educators project, which was designed to help educators thrive in a connected world. OET defines connected educators as individuals who “skillfully utilize social media and participate in online communities of practice in order to enhance their professional growth, as well as to increase their ability to integrate web-based tools and resources for their students’ learning.” The Connected Educators project facilitates connections and collaboration through the use of online communities of practice that focus on topics such as improving teacher and leader effectiveness and enhancing student learning. The project aims to promote more efficient and coordinated online participation so that educators are able to share practices, access experts, and solve problems that require systemic solutions in order to improve the opportunity to learn.

OET initiated Connected Educator Month as part of the Connected Educators Initiative in 2012 and continues to remain a core partner. Connected Educator Month is a month of activities and events devoted to the goals of getting more educators proficient with social media to improve their practice; deepening and sustaining learning among those already enjoying connection’s benefits; helping schools credential/integrate connected learning into their formal professional development efforts; and stimulating and supporting innovation in the field. The most recent Connected Educator Month in October 2014 focused on themes that were nominated and voted upon by education organizations, including

  • blended learning;
  • collaboration and capacity building;
  • diversity, inclusiveness, and global education;
  • educator professional development and learning;
  • leadership for change;
  • student agency, student voice, and the Maker Movement; and
  • whole community engagement.

The work of Connected Educator Month extends beyond the activities and events offered each year in October, and educators can find a wealth of information and new opportunities on the connected educators website at http://connectededucators.org/.

Forum Working Groups

Alternative Socioeconomic Status (SES) Measures Working Group
The Forum’s Alternative SES Measures Working Group continues with its work to consider alternative measures of socioeconomic status (SES). The document under development provides encyclopedia-type entries for 8 different SES measures: some are designed to replicate historical free- and reduced-price meals data (and preserve existing longitudinal trends); some are intended to reflect the multiple dimensions of SES more fully (e.g., family income, parent/guardian education, and parent/guardian occupation); and some provide additional community and geographic context (e.g., school and neighborhood SES). Because there is no single “best practice” recommendation, the document also includes a thorough discussion concerning how an education agency can evaluate, adopt, and implement alternative SES measures.

It is important to note that the document focuses on the needs and possible solutions for administrative records in education data systems and does not reflect the full spectrum of opportunities available to the research community. This new Forum resource is expected to be released in spring 2015. More information on the Working Group is available at http://nces.ed.gov/forum/alternative_ses.asp.

Virtual Education Working Group
The Forum convened the Virtual Education Working Group to review and revise the Forum Guide to Elementary/Secondary Virtual Education (2006). The virtual education environment has grown in ways unanticipated in 2006, and includes vastly different technologies and approaches to teaching and learning. At the same time, new developments in the field of data standards such as CEDS and SCED have made it easier for state and local education agencies to collect, manage, compare, and use education data to inform and improve education. After reviewing the 2006 document, the Virtual Education Working Group began development of a new resource that will assist state and local education agencies as they 1) consider the impact of virtual education on established data elements and methods of data collection, and 2) address the scope of changes, the rapid pace of new technology development, and the proliferation of resources in virtual education. This new Forum resource is expected to be released in spring 2015. More information on the Working Group is available at http://nces.ed.gov/forum/virtual_edu.asp.

College and Career Ready (CCR) Working Group
Many states are working to prepare students to be college and career ready (CCR). The Forum's CCR Working Group has identified five goals for using data to support state CCR efforts: (1) foster individualized learning through the use of student planning and self-monitoring tools; (2) support educators in identifying and addressing student-specific needs; (3) guide CCR programmatic decisions; (4) measure the progress made by education agencies in achieving CCR accountability and continuous improvement goals; and (5) maximize career opportunities for all students. The working group is preparing a new resource that presents data use cases related to these five goals. The document is intended to serve as a practical guide for determining the appropriate data elements, metrics, and reporting tools that would be of use in supporting specific CCR initiatives within SEAs or LEAs. The final publication is expected to be available in early 2015. More information can be found at http://nces.ed.gov/forum/college_and_career.asp.

School Courses for the Exchange of Data (SCED) Working Group
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. The Forum convened the SCED Working Group to review and update SCED in 2012. As part of its charge, the Working Group developed a schedule for managing and implementing SCED changes that includes reviewing user-recommended updates and working closely with subject matter experts and SCED users at the national, state, and local levels. The Forum recently released Version 3.0 on the Forum SCED webpage at http://nces.ed.gov/forum/SCED.asp Version 3.0 updates focus on three main priorities:

  1. Updating standardized courses, including International Baccalaureate and Project Lead the Way.
  2. Updating Family and Consumer Sciences courses and adding new courses in Course Subject Area 19.
  3. Identifying courses from National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) transcript studies to add to SCED in multiple Course Subject Areas.

The Working Group consulted with subject matter experts to develop course descriptions for all newly-added SCED courses. Representatives of the International Baccalaureate Organization, Project Lead the Way, the State Education Agencies Directors of Arts Education, the U.S. Department of Education Office of Career, Technical, and Adult Education, and the National Coalition for Family and Consumer Sciences Education assisted with the development of SCED Version 3.0 Course Codes. In addition, NCES supported mapping SCED to the Classification of Secondary School Courses (CSSC) in an effort to coordinate course classification systems. The results of the map as well as information from the 2009 High School Longitudinal Study transcript collection team provided data to inform the SCED Working Group’s decisionmaking for Version 3.0.

Forum Events

3/6/14 Forum WebEx: Ambient Positional Instability

This WebEx 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 ambient positional instability (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, states, and across the nation. 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 (LEA)

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 data sharing; 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. Tom Purwin, Vice Chair of the Forum, introduced the panelists and facilitated questions from attendees. 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.

4/23/14 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.

4/28/14 Forum Virtual Meeting: Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) Indicators

This Forum WebEx 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.

Upcoming: NCES Summer Forum and STATS-DC 2014 Data Conference, “Informed Decision-Making, Powered by Data”

The National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), in the U.S. Department of Education’s Institute of Education Sciences (IES), will sponsor a 2.5-day meeting of the membership of the National Forum on Education Statistics immediately followed by the 2014 NCES STATS-DC Data Conference.

The 2014 NCES STATS-DC Data Conference is an opportunity for professional networking, updates on federal and national activities affecting data collection and reporting, and information about the best new approaches in collecting, reporting, and using education statistics. The conference will include training and business meetings for state Common Core of Data (CCD) and EDFacts data coordinators. There will also be a range of informative sessions targeted toward interests in CCD, data collection, data linking beyond K-12, data management, data privacy, data quality, data standards, data use (analytical), data use (instructional), and fiscal data, as well as information about changes in how the U.S. Department of Education collects and uses data.

The meeting will be July 28 – August 1, 2014, at the Marriott Wardman Park Hotel in Washington, DC. For more information go to http://ies.ed.gov/whatsnew/conferences/?id=1204&cid=2.

Newsletter Information

The Forum Voice is released as an electronic publication. To contact the Forum, e-mail: Ghedam Bairu, fax: (202) 502-7475, or write:


NCES-Forum
1990 K Street, NW
Room 9095
Washington, DC 20006-5651.

IES    
NCES
National Center for
Education Statistics
Explore the Institute of Education Sciences