Data exchanges may be new to education, but other industries have been exchanging data for years. The Virginia Department of Education asked Virginia's Center for Innovative Technology to study data exchanges in other industries to identify best practices and lessons learned. Participants learned about the project's discoviers and plans to align the project's work with the recommendations in the report.

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Data Exchanges: Best Practices Across Industries (121 KB)

Sessions in LDS track:

I-A, II-A, III-A, IV-A, V-A, VI-A, VII-A, VIII-A, IX-A, X-A, XI-A, and XI-D

At their best, longitudinal student data systems benefit a variety of audiences, from educators to policymakers. Analyses of student data can inform decisions about state policy, district priorities, and teacher practice. But the ultimate usefulness of these systems requires that designers at the state level engage their users from the beginning, to solicit input, cultivate support, and to begin to educate users about how to best use the system. Presenters described the efforts seven states have made to involve end-users in system development, with a particular focus on California.

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Designing With the Ends in Mind: Data Systems and Their Users (16 KB)

Sessions in Statewide LDS track:

I-B, II-B, III-B, IV-B, V-B, VI-B, VII-B, VIII-B, IX-B, X-B, and XI-B

A consolidated federal collection of elementary and secondary education data from the States is now established. This session discussed the impact of the Department's regulations for the mandatory collection of specific elementary and secondary education data, enforceable under the grant making authority of the Secretary, and other data policy issues of interest. The presenter summarized the EDFacts accomplishments and lessons learned during 2007–08 from working with the states to transmit quality education data between the states and ED. This overview also described upcoming milestones in 2008 to fully establish EDFacts as the primary federal source of elementary and secondary education data. In closing, the presenter provided a quick overview of several EDFacts sessions.

Sessions in EDEN/EDFacts track:

I-C, II-C, III-C, IV-C, V-C, VI-C, VII-C, VIII-C, IX-C, X-C, XI-C, and XII-C

This was the opening session of a four-part strand on the application of GIS in educational research and policy analysis. The strand examined national, state, and local education data sets through their geographic underpinnings pointing to various insights that such visualization and analysis offer. The opening segment set the stage by exploring education data maps and the questions they invoke, discussing policy implications of geographic analysis through the eyes of the former Governor of Wyoming, and providing an overview on the continuum of geographic tools available for simple to sophisticated visualization and analysis.

Sessions in GIS strand:

I-F, II-F, III-F, and IV-F

Sessions in Federal track:

I-F, II-F, III-F, IV-D, IV-F, V-D, V-E, V-F, VI-D, VI-F,VII-D, VIII-E, X-E, and XI-E