III–A Meet Your Regional Educational Laboratory (REL)

Felicia Sanders and Elizabeth Eisner, National Center for Education Evaluation and Regional Assistance, U.S. Department of Education

During this “Meet Your REL” session, all 10 Regional Educational Laboratories (RELs) will be present to meet state education agency (SEA) staff in their region. SEA staff can learn specifics about ongoing REL projects in their state and discuss high leverage education problems that RELs might help them address through sharing or creating scientifically valid research. The current five-year cycle of the REL Program began January 3, 2017. RELs partner with SEAs and local education agencies to address high-leverage education problems through (1) applied research, (2) dissemination of scientifically valid research, and (3) technical assistance related to the application and use of scientifically valid research.

Complexity: Entry Level

III–B #CEDSCanHelp

Sonya Edwards, California Department of Education
Dean Folkers, Nebraska Department of Education
Karl Pond, North Carolina Department of Public Instruction
Jim Campbell, Common Education Data Standards, AEM Corporation

Join Common Education Data Standards (CEDS) and a panel of states discussing the many ways #CEDSCanHelp. From something as simple as defining an element for transparency to something as complex as building an entire data system, states are using the tools and resources CEDS provides. This panel of states will briefly discuss the various ways they are using CEDS, and then the moderator will take questions from the audience for the panel. Come see how #CEDSCanHelp your state.

Complexity: Intermediate Level

III–C Student Data Privacy Consortium: Operational Resources to Address Privacy Issues

Steve Smith, Cambridge Public Schools (MA)
Laura Hansen, Metropolitan Nashville Public Schools (TN)
Stephen Carr, Ventura County Office of Education (CA)
Mark Williams, Fagen Friedman & Fulfrost LLP

Come learn how the Student Data Privacy Consortium (SDPC) is assisting state education agencies (SEAs), local education agencies (LEAs), and vendors in addressing day-to-day operational issues around meeting student data privacy concerns and requirements. The SDPC is growing quickly with thousands of LEAs, SEAs, and vendors represented and with alliances being formed in more than 16 states. Current projects include a Common Contracting Framework, Digital Tools Governance, and Application Profiles. Participants will learn first hand how the Contracting Framework Tool Set is streamlining the Privacy Contracting process in multiple states.

Complexity: Intermediate Level

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Student Data Privacy Consortium: Operational Resources to Address Privacy Issues (5.01 MB)

III–D Analyzing the Civil Rights Data Collection: Data Quality and Educational Research

Stefanie McDonald, Office of Civil Rights, U.S. Department of Education
Stephanie Miller, National Center for Education Statistics
Julia Bloom-Weltman and Lauren Jetty, AEM Corporation

The Civil Rights Data Collection (CRDC) is a universe collection of school districts on key education and civil rights issues in our nation’s public schools. In this session, the presenters will discuss the strategies the Office for Civil Rights implements to examine and improve the quality of this large dataset. The presenters will review information on how to access the dataset, including an overview of the survey design and tools for accessing and analyzing CRDC data. They will also share an applied example of a research study that utilizes the CRDC dataset to investigate equitable access to science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) coursework.

Complexity: Intermediate Level

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Analyzing the Civil Rights Data Collection: Data Quality and Educational Research (1.25 MB)

III–E The Value of Running on a District Longitudinal Data Structure

Jack Byrd, Rafi Nolan-Abrihamian, and Aaron Gernhardt, Fort Wayne Community Schools (IN)
Shawn Bay, eScholar

See how Fort Wayne (Indiana) Community Schools has run on data for the past 20 years. In this presentation, Fort Wayne will share stories about how its educators and administrators run on data, starting with how data are extracted from various data systems into its longitudinal data warehouse. With its system, Fort Wayne generates visualizations and reports for educators, such as longitudinal student profiles, school improvement accountability tracking, and balanced scorecard measures. Additionally, Fort Wayne uses the data for state accountability reporting and, as a Teacher Incentive Fund (TIF) grant award winner, teacher evaluation.

Complexity: Entry Level

III–F Developing Statewide Capacity for Effective Data Inquiry Through Wisconsin’s WISExplore

Melissa Straw, Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction
Jim Lee, Cooperative Educational Service Agency 12/WISExplore
Mary Ann Hudziak, Cooperative Educational Service Agency 6/WISExplore

In its sixth year, the Wisconsin WISExplore team continues to develop statewide capacity for data inquiry focused on closing achievement gaps through coordinated school improvement planning. WISExplore has designed a dynamic structured inquiry process that guides educators to document data inquiry within the statewide data dashboard. WISEcoaches in each regional Cooperative Educational Service Agency (CESA) have been trained to facilitate effective data-inquiry processes in local school districts. In this session, learn how WISEcoaches network and coach leadership teams to sharpen the focus on disparities among student groups using Wisconsin’s public and secure WISEdash tools. This session will demonstrate how the WISExplore team, in partnership with the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction and 12 CESAs, collaborates to infuse data inquiry in all improvement initiatives.

Complexity: Intermediate Level

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Developing Statewide Capacity for Effective Data Inquiry Through Wisconsin’s WISExplore (6.53 MB)

III–G Toward Effective Measures of Local Education Agencies (LEAs), School Districts, Schools, and Education Programs

Carl Schmitt and Ross Santy, National Center for Education Statistics

The concepts “local education agency (LEA),” “school district,” “school,” and “education program” are core terms that can be widely used to characterize American education and are central to the EDFacts/Common Core of Data (CCD) data collection. These terms have been broadly defined and are applied differently across jurisdictions. This leads to ambiguities in the data that lead to questions about reliability and validity. Because of the broad definitions and different applications of the concepts, consistent data that are comparable across states and other jurisdictions are difficult to obtain.

This discussion began at the 2016 STATS-DC Data Conference to (1) create awareness that many of the experienced data problems are a by-product of a lack of effective definitions about the entities represented by the concepts; and (2) improve cross-state consistency in the data that are collected. To improve upon the reliability and validity of data collected by EDFacts/CCD, we hope to stimulate discussion about empirical measures of these concepts that can effectively distinguish among entities and also be applied across jurisdictions. This presentation will review examples of existing problems and propose the alternative paradigm of complex organizations as a way to collect more systematic, reliable, and valid data and, therefore, set the stage for more viable analyses of American education.

Complexity: Intermediate Level

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Toward Effective Measures of Local Education Agencies (LEAs), School Districts, Schools, and Education Programs (137 KB)

III–H School Courses for the Exchange of Data (SCED)

Susan Williams, Virginia Department of Education

School Courses for the Exchange of Data (SCED) provides voluntary, common, and comparable course codes that state and local education agencies use to manage and compare course information, develop course catalogs, and efficiently exchange coursetaking records. SCED is also used to facilitate education research, including National Center for Education Statistics transcript studies. The National Forum on Education Statistics regularly updates SCED to reflect the changing needs of federal, state, and local education agencies, while maintaining the integrity of the SCED structure. This session will present an overview of the forthcoming SCED updates and discuss SCED resources available to assist education agencies with SCED implementation and use.

Complexity: Entry Level

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School Courses for the Exchange of Data (SCED) (951 KB)

III–I Introduction to the Common Core of Data (CCD): America’s Public Schools

Mark Glander, National Center for Education Statistics

This session will provide an overview of the Common Core of Data (CCD) with a focus on how to access the data through the National Center for Education Statistics’ online tools.

Complexity: Entry Level

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Introduction to the Common Core of Data (CCD): America’s Public Schools (292 KB)

III–J Utilizing Labor Market Information (LMI) Data and Engagement of Local Workforce Areas (LWAs) in Longitudinal Education and Workforce Data Alignment and Reporting

Scott Secamiglio, Kate Akers, and Devin McGhee, Kentucky Center for Education and Workforce Statistics

The Kentucky Center for Education and Workforce Statistics (KCEWS) houses the Kentucky Longitudinal Data System (KLDS) and the Labor Market Information (LMI) data. KCEWS has engaged Local Workforce Areas (LWAs) to elicit feedback on Kentucky Future Skills Report (KFSR) metrics to show the historical supply and current employment outcomes of credential earners and the projected workforce demand for them. KCEWS will present the KFSR, present the utility of LMI data to produce projections that are relevant for the number of years recorded in the KLDS, discuss the alignment of education and workforce data from the KLDS, and summarize the feedback from LWAs on data use of this tool.

Complexity: Intermediate Level