SLDS

Education data report cards offer a variety of audiences essential information about education services and student outcomes at the school, district, and state levels. The metrics featured in state report cards reflect federal requirements and state and local interests that can change over time. Like many state education agencies, the New Hampshire Department of Education used new report card requirements from the federal Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) as an opportunity to review and redesign the key data it publishes for stakeholders.

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This guide describes the tools in the CEDS tech stack and how agencies can integrate them into a variety of data system environments—including on-premises and cloud setups—for more effective data management and use. It also describes how CEDS tools can help address common problems that agencies face when collecting, integrating, governing, and using data.

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The critical data issues process allows the data governance program to identify, prioritize, and address issues that impede the quality and use of an agency or SLDS program’s data. This guide provides an overview of the purpose, value, key steps, and tips for implementing the critical data issues process via a data governance program.

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Sustainability plans will look different across states and SLDSs due to their distinct scopes, maturity, goals, and resource needs. This guide draws tips for effective sustainability planning from several states at different stages of planning and implementing their sustainability plans.

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Beginning in spring 2023, EDFacts users will be required to upload and submit data files via EDPass. This guide provides an overview of EDPass as well as key steps and resources related to its rollout.

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Stakeholder engagement is key for a successful and sustainable statewide longitudinal data system (SLDS). To fully engage in the SLDS, stakeholders must understand how to navigate the system and correctly use the data within. This spotlight showcases how Minnesota’s Statewide Longitudinal Education Data System redesigned its tutorials web page into an online hub that allows users to follow customized learning paths.

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Using SLDS data to address educational equity starts with identifying questions that can be answered using SLDS data elements. This brief focuses on identifying indicators of equity to ensure that information shared with key stakeholders is clear and actionable.

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This brief describes several frequently used employment metrics, the data elements they require, and how they are calculated. It also discusses how states can use employment metrics to answer policy questions or meet reporting requirements related to workforce outcomes, as well as challenges and considerations to address.

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Setting standards and procedures for effective meetings at the beginning of an SLDS project helps the project run efficiently. Following the guidelines in this issue brief can help your team establish and maintain meetings that effectively support your SLDS efforts.

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As the demand to connect education and employment data grows, states are navigating the challenges of locating essential data across a number of sources as well as establishing agreements and technical processes. This brief describes common sources of workforce data and processes states use to link data across education and workforce programs.

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This guide provides an overview of documentation processes and deliverables frequently used for SLDSs. It covers best practices and pitfalls for creating SLDS documentation. It also offers examples of how SLDS programs in Kansas and Mississippi use documentation to support their data systems.

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As with any development of education data systems, it is important to know and articulate what is needed for the ongoing support and maintenance of the data system, and to have the capacity to make needed modifications and enhancements to ensure its long-term usefulness and relevance. To do this, a total cost of ownership (TCO) must be defined. States need to consider not only how to quantify TCO, but also how to use this information to market the SLDS as a whole.

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 Total Cost of Ownership: An Important Piece of Any Sustainability Plan (40.3 KB)

Data governance is necessary for creating clear roles and responsibilities for each member of any project team. This SLDS Best Practices Brief provides an overview of data governance and discusses the effective practices of states with experience in P-20W+ data governance.

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Whether states are in the planning stages, in the throes of dashboard design, or wrapping up their SLDS grant, it is important to keep in mind the objectives behind the work. This Best Practices Brief discusses the exercise of developing an "elevator speech" to explain SLDS projects to high-level, non-technical decisionmakers and policymakers. It includes state examples of elevator speeches created at a meeting of FY12 SLDS grantees in May 2013.

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 Elevator Speeches (964 KB)

Education data report cards offer a variety of audiences essential information about education services and student outcomes at the school, district, and state levels. The metrics featured in state report cards reflect federal requirements and state and local interests that can change over time. Like many state education agencies, the New Hampshire Department of Education used new report card requirements from the federal Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) as an opportunity to review and redesign the key data it publishes for stakeholders.

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Stakeholder engagement is key for a successful and sustainable statewide longitudinal data system (SLDS). To fully engage in the SLDS, stakeholders must understand how to navigate the system and correctly use the data within. This spotlight showcases how Minnesota’s Statewide Longitudinal Education Data System redesigned its tutorials web page into an online hub that allows users to follow customized learning paths.

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Postsecondary education and workforce programs are among the most critical partners for SLDS programs seeking to understand the long-term outcomes of education and training programs. This spotlight discusses how SLDS programs in Iowa, Minnesota, New Jersey, and Connecticut work with postsecondary and workforce agencies to share data, integrate and manage those data, and use their collective information to support state education and workforce initiatives and stakeholder priorities.

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For SLDSs, branding can help raise awareness and recognition of the system and its role in informing the state’s education and workforce programs. This brief highlights the approaches that several states have taken to branding their SLDSs and the benefits and challenges they found in the branding process.

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This spotlight explores the North Dakota Information Technology Department’s use of blockchain technology to create a student wallet system to store, secure, and make accessible digital certifications, transcripts, and other data.

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Many factors affect how well students learn in the classroom, including student health and wellbeing at school and beyond. This spotlight explores the Hawai‘i State Department of Education’s work to incorporate student health data into its SLDS alongside indicators of students’ academic performance to give educators a fuller picture of students’ needs and outcomes.

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This spotlight highlights two states, California and Louisiana, with laws that strongly regulate data access. It describes how their state education agencies have adapted their data management and data use procedures to comply with state requirements while continuing to meet their reporting and operational needs.

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Research agendas help state agencies and data system teams identify and prioritize the questions they want to answer using integrated data. This spotlight describes how early childhood data and policy questions can be included in P-20W+ research agendas to help states measure the impact of early childhood programs and services. It highlights the work of two states—Utah and Mississippi—to identify and conduct research that traces the effects of early childhood programs into K12 education and beyond.

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As stakeholders of SLDSs become more adept at using data in their work and for decisionmaking, SLDS programs in many states are expanding and evaluating their use of data visualization to continue to meet their users’ demands for information. This spotlight examines the data visualization tools and processes used by SLDS programs in Michigan, Maryland, and Hawai‘i.

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In Hawai‘i and Illinois, SLDS teams are developing tools to help educators identify and address challenges facing high school students and keep them on track toward graduation, especially in the ninth grade. Their tools are designed to point educators toward interventions for students at risk of dropping out and, over time, to help evaluate and improve those interventions to help students succeed.

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Submitting data required for federal reporting like EDFacts is an important responsibility for state and local education agencies. This brief spotlights four states that are using their SLDSs and additional tools to complete EDFacts reporting requirements. Kansas, Michigan, Nebraska, and Nevada are taking different approaches to using their SLDSs to support their federal reporting processes and improving the quality of their data.

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In Texas, Education Research Centers (ERCs) offer researchers access to the state’s education and employment data that span nearly 30 years. Located at three universities across the state, ERCs provide researchers with individual-level longitudinal data. Researchers can use the data to explore questions about the state’s education system and outcomes and to inform education and workforce policy.

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This guide describes the tools in the CEDS tech stack and how agencies can integrate them into a variety of data system environments—including on-premises and cloud setups—for more effective data management and use. It also describes how CEDS tools can help address common problems that agencies face when collecting, integrating, governing, and using data.

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The critical data issues process allows the data governance program to identify, prioritize, and address issues that impede the quality and use of an agency or SLDS program’s data. This guide provides an overview of the purpose, value, key steps, and tips for implementing the critical data issues process via a data governance program.

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Sustainability plans will look different across states and SLDSs due to their distinct scopes, maturity, goals, and resource needs. This guide draws tips for effective sustainability planning from several states at different stages of planning and implementing their sustainability plans.

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Beginning in spring 2023, EDFacts users will be required to upload and submit data files via EDPass. This guide provides an overview of EDPass as well as key steps and resources related to its rollout.

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This guide provides an overview of documentation processes and deliverables frequently used for SLDSs. It covers best practices and pitfalls for creating SLDS documentation. It also offers examples of how SLDS programs in Kansas and Mississippi use documentation to support their data systems.

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This guide provides an overview and description of planning, processes, and components required for implementing the CEDS Data Warehouse platform and infrastructure. Additionally, it offers resources and a framework for state agencies to collaborate through the CEDS Open Source Community (OSC) for guidance in identifying and planning for the CEDS Data Warehouse.

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As states are modernizing their SLDS infrastructure to take advantage of newer technology, streamlined processes, and standards, they must consider what to do about the vast amount of data that have been collected and stored within older technologies and structures. This guide offers considerations for migrating historical data into new data systems.

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This guide discusses considerations that SLDS programs should make when crafting record retention and data destruction policies. It also covers common challenges related to record retention and data destruction that policies should address.

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This guide examines several challenges that SLDS project teams face in the areas of human and organizational capacity, project administration, communications and engagement, and vendor management. It offers solutions from state SLDS project teams for navigating those challenges.

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Through the CEDS Data Warehouse Expansion Project, state SLDS teams work together to plan and build the CEDS Data Warehouse model. The result will be a collection of use cases, architecture, code, and data reports that SLDS programs nationwide can adapt to their own systems. Learn more about the project and how to get involved.

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Onboarding new members presents an opportunity for the SLDS team to reflect on the SLDS program as a whole and identify needed enhancements in resources, process, structure, and outputs. This guide explains key aspects of the onboarding process, questions that should be addressed in the onboarding process and as best practices to ensure a smooth transition as new members and organizations are added to the SLDS program.

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The Common Education Data Standards (CEDS) Data Warehouse is an open source model for storing P-20W+ (early childhood through workforce) data for a variety of uses. These templates provide example project plans for organizations implementing the CEDS Data Warehouse. The planning phase template and the development phase template cover tasks related to their respective stages in the CEDS Data Warehouse implementation process.

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Built on CEDS’s standardized schema of data element names and definitions, the CEDS Data Warehouse allows states to integrate data from source systems in numerous state and local agencies and programs. This guide outlines the process for operationalizing a CEDS Data Warehouse that integrates and manages data from state agency data systems in a standardized format to meet the state’s reporting and research needs.

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As states and schools increasingly use data to improve outcomes and drive decisionmaking, they turn to statewide longitudinal data systems (SLDSs) to store, manage, and use data. However, as more data continue to come into systems, efforts must be made to ensure that records are properly matched and linked and that the SLDS continues to produce high-quality data. To improve efficiency, some states are exploring master data management (MDM) principles. This guide explains MDM and offers perspectives from two states—North Dakota and New Jersey—on implementing MDM with their SLDSs.

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This guide describes the purpose and structure of a requirements traceability matrix (RTM) in relation to SLDS projects and how project managers use and maintain them. It includes an RTM template that SLDS teams can customize and use for their own data system projects.

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Many state agencies are eager to explore opportunities to support their data systems with cloud computing and to determine their needs and priorities for implementing cloud technology. This guide outlines how agencies can conduct a cloud computing needs assessment and questions to be answered during the needs assessment.

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The federal Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) made the collection and use of school finance data a priority for all states with its requirement that per-pupil expenditure data be included on public report cards. This guide describes some of the challenges and implications of new federal reporting requirements on states’ approaches to using school finance data. It also highlights the approaches that two states, Massachusetts and Illinois, have taken to developing district-level financial reports that meet federal requirements as well as state needs.

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This guide describes the differences between data policies and processes, their role in data governance, and common content areas for policies and processes. It also outlines steps for developing strong data policies and for implementing them effectively.

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Producing a sustainable SLDS is not a start-and-finish endeavor. There will always be more work to do to ensure that the system remains current and relevant. The SLDS Sustainability Planning Guide offers practical suggestions and resources for each step in the process of maintaining a sustainable SLDS.

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School readiness traditionally includes several factors that, when combined, indicate how prepared a child is to enter kindergarten and to succeed in school. These factors include the child’s early math skills; language and pre-literacy skills; cognitive abilities (including problem solving and reasoning); social, emotional, and behavioral development; and health and physical development. This School Readiness Reporting Guide offers an overview of the types of data frequently included in school readiness reports, provides suggestions for including school- and community-level data elements in those reports, and demonstrates how those data can be presented to inform key audiences.

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For SLDS data analyses to be useful for leaders and policymakers, they must be designed soundly and presented in ways that align with users’ information needs. This document offers tips for planning, conducting, and sharing education data analyses that can inform policy decisions and allow stakeholders to take action.

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Data governance includes establishing representative governing bodies that are responsible for developing and implementing data policies and processes. This publication describes the roles and responsibilities involved in a single-agency data governance program.

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Data governance includes establishing representative governing bodies that are responsible for developing and implementing data policies and processes. This publication describes the roles and responsibilities involved in an interagency data governance program.

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Managing vendors and contracted services for an SLDS requires a team effort and is a combination of project and relationship management. Project teams that work with vendors will take on a number of roles to ensure that the collaboration is successful and that project objectives are met. This guide describes the scope of vendor management activities an organization will undertake. It also identifies the management roles and responsibilities that personnel within the organization will assume once a vendor or contractor is selected.

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Critical success factors are the characteristics of an organization, its resources, and its project management approaches that affect whether or not the organization’s projects reach their intended goals. Having the critical success factors in place before initiating a project can help determine how prepared the organization is to undertake the project, lay the groundwork for engaging with vendors, and reduce risk. This guide introduces the nine critical success factors and describes strategies that organizations building SLDSs can take to strengthen each factor as they embark on new projects.

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Many states use—or are planning to use—community profiles to provide information to the public and interested stakeholders about early childhood programs and services in specific geographic areas. This guide offers an overview of the types of data frequently included in early childhood community profiles and how those data can be presented to inform key audiences. It also introduces the CEDS Early Childhood Profiles Connection, which contains data elements and analysis recommendations for creating an early childhood community profile.

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This guide helps SLDS teams develop messages about and communicate the benefits of an SLDS for stakeholders. It offers basic tips on developing simple, low-cost, effective communications regarding the SLDS. It also helps prompt important conversations and work among state education agency staff to help deliver SLDS messages to the right audiences.

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This guide offers information for SLDS teams and their partner agencies about establishing an appropriate process for making data available for education research. It describes how to implement a research request process based on best practices. Appendices include sample forms, letters, and documents that agencies can customize to set up a new research request process or to enhance an existing process.

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The SLDS Data Use Standards are a detailed set of essential standards required by educators to effectively use data to inform instructional and programmatic decisions. The master standards highlight the absolutely essential subset of standards that different educator roles need to know to use data effectively. This publication is the second of three resources describing how different educator roles can apply the Data Use Standards to their work. It contains the master standards for school and district data leads with examples showing how data leads can apply the standards in their work.

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The SLDS Data Use Standards are a detailed set of essential standards required by educators to effectively use data to inform instructional and programmatic decisions. The master standards highlight the absolutely essential subset of standards that different educator roles need to know to use data effectively. This publication is the third of three resources describing how different educator roles can apply the Data Use Standards to their work. It contains the master standards for school and district leadership with examples showing how they can apply the standards in their work.

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The SLDS Data Use Standards are a detailed set of essential standards required by educators to effectively use data to inform instructional and programmatic decisions. The Master Standards for Teachers highlights the absolutely essential subset of standards that teachers need to know and includes examples showing how teachers can apply the standards in their work.

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The SLDS Glossary defines common terms related to statewide longitudinal data systems, data use, and privacy.

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This resource contains three case studies that illustrate the essential knowledge, skills, and professional behaviors necessary to use data effectively being applied by educators in real-world settings. It is a companion publication to SLDS Data Use Standards: Knowledge, Skills, and Professional Behaviors for Effective Data Use.

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As state and local education agencies increasingly focus on serving educators with their data systems, many face the common challenge of identifying the critical knowledge, skills, and professional behaviors needed by teachers and administrators to use data effectively. This publication aims to provide a common foundation to inform and help states develop data literacy and data use training activities for educators. A companion publication, SLDS Data Use Standards: Standards in Practice, illustrates how educators can apply the standards in real-life situations.

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Using SLDS data to address educational equity starts with identifying questions that can be answered using SLDS data elements. This brief focuses on identifying indicators of equity to ensure that information shared with key stakeholders is clear and actionable.

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This brief describes several frequently used employment metrics, the data elements they require, and how they are calculated. It also discusses how states can use employment metrics to answer policy questions or meet reporting requirements related to workforce outcomes, as well as challenges and considerations to address.

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Setting standards and procedures for effective meetings at the beginning of an SLDS project helps the project run efficiently. Following the guidelines in this issue brief can help your team establish and maintain meetings that effectively support your SLDS efforts.

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As the demand to connect education and employment data grows, states are navigating the challenges of locating essential data across a number of sources as well as establishing agreements and technical processes. This brief describes common sources of workforce data and processes states use to link data across education and workforce programs.

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It is often challenging to communicate how user needs inform the design of the ECIDS and to describe the design to technical and nontechnical audiences. This brief presents two types of diagrams that can help communicate an ECIDS design: a presentation diagram and a conceptual diagram.

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Before determining how SLDSs use data to identify and address issues of educational equity, it is important to define equity for stakeholders. This brief presents considerations for defining equity in education and two states’ approaches to developing a definition.

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Strategic planning is the process of defining an organization’s future goals, determining the actions needed to reach them, and deciding how to use the organization’s resources to support those goals and actions. This brief describes the value of strategic planning for an SLDS, outlines four key aspects of an SLDS strategic plan, and highlights strategic planning approaches and outcomes from four states.

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Research agendas help SLDS teams and their states align SLDS work with state strategic goals and policy priorities, plan and prioritize research projects, and respond to data requests from researchers. This brief describes key steps and considerations for communicating and carrying out a research agenda that an SLDS can support.

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A research agenda is a plan that focuses on issues and ideas that are of greatest current interest or need. This brief and its accompanying worksheets provide a step-by-step process for developing or improving a research agenda that the SLDS can support.

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Knowing how many distinct children have been served by one or more early childhood programs and/or services is a foundational metric for a host of early childhood policy and programmatic analyses. This document defines "Distinct Count" and describes the factors contributing to a distinct count.

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The COVID-19 pandemic brought many changes to the education and workforce sectors, as well as the way in which state agencies collect data on these sectors. representatives from four states explain how the pandemic created new projects, research, and partnership opportunities, as well as what they have learned about COVID-19 impacts on readiness, enrollment, and more.

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NCES is exploring a new approach to estimating student poverty that may give education agencies and researchers more accurate information about student economic disadvantage. Representatives from Kansas, North Dakota, and Wisconsin share preliminary results from pilot testing the estimates and discuss how they potentially could supplement existing measures of school-level poverty.

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Gathering and sending data for research can be challenging for statewide longitudinal data systems. Standards such as the Common Education Data Standards (CEDS) can play a vital role in alleviating some of these problems because they provide a common vocabulary that is consistent across data systems and stakeholders, and they ensure consistent and comparable data throughout all education levels and sectors. The web-based CEDS Align tool lets users import their data dictionaries, align their data elements to CEDS, compare their data dictionaries with those of other users, and understand where their data may diverge from other CEDS alignments. This brief describes how CEDS alignment facilitates the research process for education agencies in Montana and Kentucky.

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Including Head Start data in early childhood integrated data systems (ECIDSs) helps states build a complete picture of existing early childhood services and identify service gaps and opportunities for partnerships. Head Start grantees often contract with IT vendors for data-related services, which can make obtaining Head Start data challenging. This brief provides tips for state ECIDS project staff members when partnering with Head Start grantees to obtain data from vendors.

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With a comprehensive cost analysis, an SLDS program can make informed decisions about IT investments, data projects, system operations and performance, and funding. This brief describes the types of expenses often included in an SLDS cost analysis. It also features examples of how SLDS programs in four states use cost analyses to make decisions about building or modernizing their SLDSs and secure funding from grants or their state governments.

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Most state education agencies use vendors in support of their education data projects. While what works in one state may not work in another, there are some key tips for developing RFPs, engaging with vendors, and managing vendor work that can increase the likelihood of producing a cost-effective, high-quality SLDS.

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This brief offers advice for state project leaders when planning for, conducting, and following up after monthly SLDS Grant Program monitoring calls. It also includes practices and recommendations from project leaders in Pennsylvania and Wisconsin for using monitoring calls to support the goals of their SLDS work.

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Data quality is essential to developing stakeholder trust in and use of an SLDS. However, achieving perfect data quality is not realistic, given finite resources and time. This publication describes attributes of data quality and strategies for improving it.

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Federal requirements such as the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA), which mandates that states and districts release public report cards with school-by-school per pupil expenditures, as well as growing interest from stakeholders, have led many states to invest in financial data reports and tools. Access to these data allows education stakeholders to explore the relationship between school spending and student outcomes, spending equity among schools and districts, and spending across the state. State education agencies in Delaware, Illinois, and Rhode Island have developed data visualizations to ensure that every stakeholder can understand and interpret ESSA report card data. Representatives from these agencies discuss their approaches to creating their data visualizations, challenges and solutions encountered along the way, and upcoming changes to the report cards and visualizations.

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This brief describes the initial, concrete steps to establish data governance for an early childhood integrated data system (ECIDS). It is intended to support states beginning the process of developing their ECIDS data governance programs. This brief builds on the information in SLDS Issue Brief: Early Childhood Data Governance in Action: An Introduction.

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Data governance provides a means to establish a common vision for early childhood data use in a state, with key policy and program decisions supporting that vision. This introduction defines data governance for an early childhood integrated data system, identifies who should be involved in a data governance program, and describes their roles and responsibilities.

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This brief offers best practices and strategies from several states related to setting goals for cross-agency data sharing, identifying requirements from data sharing partners, establishing technical solutions and processes to link data in a P-20W+ SLDS, and collaboratively governing interagency data collections.

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Successful education data systems depend on developing a comprehensive set of requirements covering how the system will be constructed, managed, and used. This brief provides guidance for data governance and IT teams on communicating effectively about the requirements for education data systems and tools, including relevant content, standards, protections, and use.

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In order to ensure that federally funded work related to statewide longitudinal data systems (SLDSs) adequately protects the privacy and wellbeing of the individuals whose data they contain, the U.S. Department of Education (ED) requires states to have their SLDS grant-funded projects undergo the same processes as other research grants to determine whether they require an institutional review board (IRB) approval. This publication describes ED’s IRB requirement for SLDS grantees and offers expert perspectives and tips for states approaching the IRB review process.

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To protect student and district data, SLDSs must develop robust privacy and security programs. This brief offers an overview of key concepts and content to be covered in privacy and security plans for state SLDS agencies as well as methods of developing and implementing these plans. It draws on best practices identified by the Privacy Technical Assistance Center (PTAC) and includes examples of privacy and security plans from Wisconsin and Kentucky.

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Investing in proper training can help SLDS programs address security threats proactively and substantially reduce the risk of data breaches and misuse of their systems. This brief offers an overview of key concepts and content to be covered in privacy and security training for state education agencies as well as methods of delivering that content to stakeholders.

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Demonstrating the value of SLDS data through effective data use—including reports, data tools, and research—can be a powerful way to gain ongoing support for an SLDS. This brief draws on the experiences of several state SLDS programs to identify common challenges to sustaining SLDSs as well as strategies for using data effectively to secure long-term support.

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Demonstrating the value of SLDS data in decisionmaking helps garner buy-in from key stakeholders such as legislators, state agencies, and educators. To maintain and increase support for the SLDS, it is necessary to show that the knowledge gained from longitudinal data is worth the significant investment of time, money, and resources required to maintain a data system. Measuring and documenting return on investment (ROI) is a helpful way for states to communicate the value of the SLDS to stakeholders. Representatives from Georgia, Massachusetts, and Michigan discuss measuring and documenting ROI, as well as the many forms SLDS ROI can take.

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Statewide longitudinal data systems (SLDSs) support state programs and inform policy and instructional decisions by providing high-quality, longitudinal data from multiple sectors, including education, workforce, and social services. To achieve this purpose, SLDS teams must provide role-specific data use training in a format that responds to stakeholders' needs.

This brief describes how two states, Hawai‘i and Wisconsin, have evaluated and improved data use training programs to ensure that educators have the knowledge, skills, and professional behaviors to effectively use SLDS data to inform instruction.

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By partnering with researchers outside their host agencies, SLDS programs can expand their analytical capacity, extend their expertise, encourage research in specific areas, increase the use and impact of SLDS data to inform education practice, and promote the SLDS through multiple channels. This brief describes how state SLDS programs can find and build rewarding partnerships with external research groups.

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Although early childhood data can provide critical information on children entering K12 education as well as help evaluate outcomes of early childhood services when connected to K12 data, data from these two sectors often are kept siloed. Two states demonstrate their linked data systems and offer strategies and solutions for states interested in bringing early childhood and K12 data together.

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Educators rely on high-quality, impactful curricular support and instructional materials to help their students meet learning objectives. Even with the wealth of resources available from education agencies, vendors, and the Internet, it can be difficult to find effective materials. This brief describes two states’ approaches to identifying and sharing instructional materials that can support their teachers and students.

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In order to build useful early childhood integrated data systems (ECIDSs), states must start with a vision for how they would like the system to be used and, more specifically, a list of essential questions to be answered using the data. This brief offers examples of key early childhood policy questions and outlines why those questions are needed, how to create them, and who should be involved in developing questions that will guide ECIDSs.

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Minnesota’s Statewide Longitudinal Education Data System (SLEDS) combines information from state education and workforce agencies with national data to better understand Minnesota’s labor market. This brief describes the tools that Minnesota has developed to trace the occupational pathways of its citizens and how educators, workforce trainers, policymakers, and the public can use this information.

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Statewide longitudinal data systems provide information critical for informing policy, benchmarking student performance, and supporting other valuable initiatives integral to education. The data in them are usually rich and complex, but not all stakeholders are able to engage with those data equally. Data stories, which provide key findings in an attractive, contextualized format useful for sharing and decision-making, are one avenue that states can use to engage busy stakeholders. Representatives from Minnesota describe the creation of the MN Kids Explorer data tool and their first data story.

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Many states have started to combine data from local and state staff information systems as well as postsecondary educator preparation programs to gain greater insight into the qualifications and placement of their teachers. This brief describes three of the most common questions about teacher labor markets that state education agencies seek to answer with SLDS data. It also provides examples of how states are gathering, reporting, and using teacher labor market information.

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States have approached the challenge of maintaining and providing secure access to data linked across organizations through two predominate data models, each with its own challenges and advantages. This issue brief describes how federated and centralized models bring together data from agencies across a state’s P-20W+ environment and make those data useful for and accessible to education stakeholders.

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Statewide longitudinal data systems (SLDSs) support state programs and inform policy decisions by providing high-quality, longitudinal data from multiple sectors, including education, workforce, and social services. To achieve this purpose, SLDS teams must deliver data in a format that stakeholders can understand and will want to use. SLDS teams also must provide support to ensure that educators have the capacity to understand and use the data appropriately. This brief describes how three states have improved educator-focused data dashboards and reports to ensure that educators have the knowledge, skills, and support to effectively use SLDS data to inform instruction.

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The Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE) created a new set of reports for district administrators that draw on the state’s long-standing collection of historical financial data. This brief describes how DESE developed its Resource Allocation and District Action Reports, the impact the reports are having on district- and school-level funding decisions, and how the state plans to expand its financial reporting to meet new federal requirements and provide greater transparency around education spending.

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SLDSs support state programs and inform policy decisions by providing high-quality, longitudinal data that cross multiple sectors of education, workforce, and social services. To achieve this purpose, SLDS teams must solve the challenge of delivering cross-sector longitudinal data from their data systems in a form that stakeholders can use. This brief describes how two states, Hawai‘i and Washington, have developed products and processes to provide cross-sector longitudinal data to inform research and policy decisions.

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Complex projects like SLDSs are often identified as “troubled” when there are extensive scope changes, the schedule is no longer meeting the deadlines defined in the project plan, or costs have increased beyond the planned budget. This brief outlines the steps that state SLDS teams can take to identify and address issues and get troubled projects back on track.

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Data governance is foundational to a sustainable statewide longitudinal data system (SLDS). When programs and organizations understand how data governance benefits their programs and organizations, they are more likely to participate in and provide ongoing support for the data governance program. This issue brief discusses common benefits that programs and organizations can gain from participating in data governance and how SLDS teams can define the value based on those benefits. It also covers how to craft messages that communicate the value and keep those messages relevant and central to the state’s work.

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Agencies that manage SLDSs may be subject to audits from state or federal inspectors to determine whether they are taking appropriate security and privacy measures to protect the data in their systems. This brief provides general information about audit processes and guidance to help SLDS agencies prepare for an audit. It identifies common issues that emerge from SLDS audits and offers steps that agencies can take to respond to audit findings.

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Formal communications plans help state SLDS teams increase the impact of their data work and keep key stakeholders engaged with the data system. This brief describes important considerations and steps toward developing a communications plan. It also highlights how SLDS teams in Hawaii, Kentucky, and Minnesota have created and used communications plans.

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As the collection and use of education data continue to grow, so do the chances for those data to be lost, inappropriately accessed, or stolen. This brief describes common threats to the security of education data systems, steps that education agencies should take to minimize the risk of a data breach, and strategies for addressing the effectiveness of data security measures.

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Continuous quality improvement (CQI) is a practice that early childhood decisionmakers can use to improve outcomes for young children and their families. Data products developed from early childhood integrated data systems (ECIDSs) are important tools for engaging in an effective continuous quality improvement (CQI) process. This brief will discuss how ECIDS reports and products can inform CQI and how ECIDS staff can help ensure that decisionmakers are aware of ECIDS data, including what data are available and how to use them for CQI in early childhood.

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The Common Education Data Standards (CEDS) initiative and its associated tools can assist SLDS programs with a variety of efforts throughout the lifecycle of their data systems. This publication spotlights how one state—Mississippi—leverages CEDS and its tools to support SLDS planning and building.

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Engaging stakeholders to expand data use in a P-20W+ (early childhood through workforce) statewide longitudinal data system (SLDS) helps to inform decisionmaking around data. Input from stakeholders should be considered when developing or refining a state’s SLDS strategy. This issue brief discusses the benefits of engaging stakeholders, strategies for engagement, and tips from Ohio and Mississippi, which have successfully engaged stakeholders in their P-20W+ strategies.

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The Maryland Longitudinal Data System Center (MLDS Center) is investigating the use of a synthetic data method to increase the amount of rigorous policy research conducted with MLDS data while protecting confidential individual data. The method would allow policy analysts and researchers to use synthetic data without going through the lengthy approval process required to use confidential data. In addition to increasing access to MLDS data and the data’s impact on policy and practice, the project could be a model for states seeking to protect confidential data while encouraging statewide longitudinal data system (SLDS) use for research, training, and evaluation.

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The Common Education Data Standards (CEDS) initiative and its associated tools can assist SLDS programs with a variety of efforts throughout the lifecycle of their data systems. This publication spotlights how one state—Michigan—leverages CEDS and its tools to support SLDS implementation and data governance.

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This issue brief is intended to help states and territories develop strategies for effective reporting and use of information from internal and external evaluation and research findings that use the statewide longitudinal data system (SLDS). States can use this framework to conduct effective research and evaluation projects. The brief also offers guidance for communicating results to stakeholders and using research and evaluation projects to support SLDS sustainability.

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SLDS programs will face numerous changes over time. This brief offers approaches to determining the likely impact of changes to SLDS plans and operations and developing strategies to minimize disruptions to SLDS work. It describes resources that can help SLDS programs navigate challenges posed by these changes. It also provides examples of possible strategies to address common changes that affect SLDS programs.

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Dynamic reporting tools allow users to interact with data in real time to answer questions that are specific to their needs. This brief explores what dynamic reporting tools are and how they can help both SLDS managers and users share and benefit from data. It also covers considerations for deciding which tool or tools to implement, and it features examples of states that are using dynamic reporting tools to engage a variety of audiences.

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Statewide longitudinal data systems (SLDSs) can provide state and local education agencies (SEAs and LEAs) with a wealth of research data. Historically, education agency expertise and resources were primarily focused on preparing state and federal reports and conducting analyses for state government, local school boards, and other stakeholders. However, SEAs and LEAs also value broader education research findings that result from the combined expertise of agency staff and interdisciplinary education researchers. This issue brief draws on discussions with SEA and LEA staff and applied researchers to share helpful advice on forming effective partnerships.

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Linking college and workforce data through a statewide longitudinal data system (SLDS) can help states develop effective policies and provide resources to achieve their college, workforce, and economic development goals. This issue brief describes P-20W+ (early childhood through workforce) systems and the types of data to consider collecting for a P-20W+ system. It considers the national landscape behind the push to include college and workforce data in SLDSs. It also explores the value of communicating college and workforce data and offers state examples and recommendations for sharing information; funding sources; working with vendors; communicating with stakeholders; and solving data matching problems.

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One goal of SLDSs is to provide quality information to support student learning and help educators improve instruction in the classroom and in other areas of students’ educational experience. This brief covers strategies to identify educators’ highest priority data needs to support instruction, involve educators in developing and vetting data products on an ongoing basis, and ensure that educators have the capacity to use data appropriately and effectively.

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States can face many obstacles to sustaining statewide longitudinal data systems (SLDSs) after initial funding sources have run out and start-up project goals have been met. This brief presents three scenarios inspired by challenges encountered by many states as they work to maintain and enhance their data systems over time. For each scenario, the brief identifies root causes of the situation, strategies to address the situation and sustain the data system, and recommendations for avoiding similar circumstances in the future.

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In response to data security concerns, many states are considering ways to allow individuals to remove their personal information from certain statewide data collections or data products. These "opt out" regulations—and the variety of data-related activities they can cover—present challenges for statewide longitudinal data system (SLDS) teams, who need to ensure that personal data are collected and used appropriately. This brief provides an overview of the data collections and data uses that are often part of opt-out measures. It also examines strategies that states are developing to handle opt-out preferences in their SLDSs and ensure that data are properly managed.

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System design is the means by which the operational needs of data contributors and intended users are translated into a technical infrastructure that will meet those needs. One effective way of communicating the design of an early childhood integrated data system (ECIDS) is through a system design diagram, which provides a graphical representation of the data system so that audiences can visualize it more easily. This brief presents two types of diagrams that can be used for communicating a state’s ECIDS design: a presentation diagram and a conceptual diagram.

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For states building and maintaining a statewide longitudinal data system (SLDS), the process of choosing a vendor for the project can be a long and challenging one. Replacing a vendor once a project has begun may require a large number of resources—most notably money and time. However, recognizing possible problems with the vendor early on may make it possible to mitigate the problems before the relationship sours and the desired outcomes are imperiled. At an SLDS Grant Program-sponsored meeting in January 2015, states identified several common danger signs that signal that a vendor intervention is needed.

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Most state education agencies use vendors in support of their education data projects. While what works in one state may not work in another, there are some key 'dos and don'ts' for developing requests for proposals, engaging with vendors, and managing vendor work that may increase the likelihood of producing a cost-effective, high-quality statewide longitudinal data system.

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 Vendor Management: Dos and Don'ts (210 KB)

An Early Childhood Integrated Data System (ECIDS) collects, integrates, maintains, stores, and reports information from early childhood programs across multiple agencies within a state that serve children and families from birth to age eight. This document describes whom an ECIDS serves, what the purpose is, and how an ECIDS is connected to an SLDS system.

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These use cases highlight Kentucky's work in the SLDS priority areas of College & Career and Evaluation & Research. Kentucky’s Future Skills Report allows Kentuckians at all levels of data expertise to examine past, present, and future supply and demands needs in Kentucky’s Workforce. In the area of Evaluation & Research, the Postsecondary Feedback Report is enabling institutions and policymakers evaluate whether Kentucky graduates are meeting the state’s employment needs.

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These use cases highlight Minnesota's work in the SLDS priority areas of Early Learning and College & Career. Minnesota's Early Childhood Longitudinal Data System offers data about students' school performance through 12th grade that early childhood programs can share publicly with multiple audiences. In the area of College & Career, new outcomes data are helping Minnesota leaders and educators study students’ education and employment decisions in a variety of economic conditions.

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These use cases highlight Wisconsin's work in the SLDS priority areas of Evaluation & Research and Instructional Support. In the area of Evaluation & Research, Wisconsin is examining the predictive power of data to give educators a fuller and more nuanced understanding of how poverty affects student outcomes. In the area of Instructional Support, Wisconsin's SmartTeach app lets teachers collect, view, and use classroom data to support personalized instruction.

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These use cases highlight Hawai'i's work in the SLDS priority areas of College & Career and Instructional Support. In the area of College & Career, Hawai'i has boosted the number of incoming students passing college-level math courses by placing them according to their high school academic performance rather than traditional placement tests. In the Instructional Support priority area, Hawai'i's On Track Dashboard lets K12 educators spend less time identifying struggling students and more time supporting those students toward graduation.

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