VII–A

Albuquerque Public Schools (APS) decided to replace its legacy mainframe Student Information System with SchoolMax. The entire district, 150 schools, went live with SchoolMax for the 2006-07 school year. APS also purchased SchoolNet which will be implemented in early 2008. The mass conversion from the legacy system, and the subsequent retrieval of data for SchoolNet, has required a double check to ensure data integrity and quality. The challenge was to use SchoolMax and SchoolNet correctly. Flexibility and freedom within the systems sometimes cause problems relating to data integrity and quality. Attendees learned the strategies APS used to enforce data integrity and data quality as we moved from legacy mainframe to SchoolMax.

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• Data Integrity and Quality (729 KB)

VII–B

The Pennsylvania Department of Education's longitudinal data system project is now in production and the PIMS Executive Steering Committee and project team are looking forward and planning for the next several iterations of PIMS. This includes the potential expansion of PIMS to include Early Learning and Higher Education. This presentation provided an update on the PIMS project and discussed the role of the Executive Steering Committee and the planning process being used to identify future PIMS phases.

VII–C

Assigning a unique statewide student identifier (SSID) to every student in the state is the start of a process that requires ongoing maintenance activities. This session was a presentation of a technical solution that checks for students with multiple SSIDs, concurrent enrollments and exit reason discrepancies. In Part 2 of this presentation, attendees learned about the underlying technology and design strategies used in implementing California's online, dynamic anomaly detection and resolution software. We also shared state level tools for monitoring the quality of SSIDs and lessons learned.

VII–D

Recent improvements to state information systems have resulted in more diverse data being maintained within centralized data systems. In order to ensure that these systems are meeting the needs of business users across state departments of education and within local education agencies, information offices are putting into place systems of data audits and validation checks. These often utilize both periodic validation and use of the annual reporting to the U.S. Department of Education's EDFacts systems. In this session, representatives from both state and federal agencies discussed ways of ensuring data quality through data audits and external validation.

VII–E

The Maine Department of Education discussed the critical issues leading to the development and implementation of the Maine Education Data Management Financial System, its fundamental statewide financial data management and reporting component of the Statewide Longitudinal Data System. Vendor selection and a complete system overview were addressed, as well as key lessons learned throughout its conception.

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• Key Strategies and Challenges in Creating a Statewide Longitudinal Financial Data Management and Reporting System (2.67 MB)

VII–F

The State of Texas Education Research Center (ERC) was established at Texas A&M University in August 2007, one of three such centers created by the state legislature. Six research projects were funded by the ERC, focusing on educator preparation; school finance, facilities, and organization; and curriculum and teaching methods. Most of the studies are utilizing the data warehouse the ERC has developed in collaboration with the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board and the Texas Education Agency. This session focused on issues encountered in developing the center's infrastructure and research agenda and on lessons learned in addressing those issues.

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• The Development of the State of Texas Education Research Center at Texas A&M University: Lessons Learned About Formulating a Research Agenda to Impact Educational Policy and Practice (1.47 MB)

VII–G

The Jefferson County Public Schools has developed an on-line school planning application in which schools can enter their goals, associated strategies, and student achievement data as evidence of their progress throughout the school year. Some advantages to the new planning model include built-in tools and benchmarks to monitor their progress towards their goals. This new planning model was designed so that the school improvement plan can be a driving force for schools' continuous improvement. The application streamlines the process between planning (i.e., developing goals and strategies) and accountability (i.e., reporting on the implementation and impact of strategies on student achievement goals).

VII–H

Technology can and will go a long way in helping with data interoperability problems that exist in education, but technology is not the magic silver bullet. We discussed and looked at the discovery phase, data governance and processes needs, and best practices available to achieve true interoperability. In this session we highlighted the work done by Decision Support Architecture Consortium II and the Schools Interoperability Framework Association to provide valuable tools that are available now for you to use in your quest for interoperability. The Tennessee Department of Education also discussed how it is using these tools to inform decisions and develop plans moving forward to achieve interoperability for Tennessee.