STATS-DC

12–A School Safety Databases: Detecting Threats, or Tracking Students?

Amelia Vance, Future of Privacy Forum
Whitney Phillips, Utah State Board of Education
Melissa Tebbenkamp, Raytown Quality Schools, Missouri
Ross Lemke, U.S. Department of Education

Protecting students from safety threats in school is important. Many districts and states are expanding their school safety practices to include building databases of information about potential threats — but these measures often do not take students' privacy into account. Discussants will weigh in on the difficult balance facing administrators working to ensure both a safe, and privacy protective, learning environment.

Complexity: Entry Level

12–B Transparency: It's Clearly a Good Idea

Eric Gray, U.S. Department of Education
Andra Williams, U.S. Department of Education
Frank Miller, U.S. Department of Education

Transparency is an important aspect of any data governance program. Join the Privacy Technical Assistance Center as we discuss best practices for increasing transparency in your organization. Come for the discussion, but stay for the discussion of the early findings from PTAC's district website transparency review project that is currently ongoing.

Complexity: Entry Level

12–C Strategic Marketing for Research and Data Products

Jeremias Solari, Utah Data Research Center (SLDS)
Britnee Johnston, Utah Data Research Center (SLDS)
Cory Stahle, Utah Data Research Center (SLDS)

Learn how to create more awareness of your research and data products through a strategic marketing plan. The Utah Data Research Center will share marketing tactics for developing a brand identity and improving communication with its stakeholders. This included the creation of a style guide to provide a consistent look of every Utah Data Research Center product. The guide sets the color palettes, typography, graph frameworks, technologies, and editorial style to ensure all staff are following the same brand. Other tactics included creating a standard report template in R Markdown and managing a blog and Twitter account.

Complexity: Intermediate Level

Download Zipped PowerPoint Presentation:

• Strategic Marketing for Research and Data Products (12.8 MB)

12–D Empowering Families with Data: How Washington, DC Engaged Stakeholders to Build Its School Report Card

Abigail Cohen, Data Quality Campaign
Chloe Woodward-Magrane, Office of the State Superintendent of Education
Kerry Savage, Parents Amplifying Voices in Education
Yolanda Corbett, Parents Amplifying Voices in Education

School report cards are the primary way that state leaders communicate information that families want and need about schools, but too often, these resources are difficult to find and understand. Leaders in Washington, DC capitalized on the opportunity presented by the Every Student Succeeds Act to strategically engage stakeholders in the development of their new report card to ensure the resource met the needs of families across the District. As states prepare for a new round of outreach related to their state Perkins V plans and continued outreach around their state report cards, hear directly from state education agency and community leaders to learn more about DC's unique approach and their lessons learned.

Complexity: Entry Level

12–E Balancing Data Privacy and Utility: Benefits and Challenges of Developing a Synthetic Version of the Maryland SLDS

Mark Lachowicz, University of Maryland College Park

State longitudinal data systems that house education and workforce data are indispensable for understanding the dynamics of student growth, and the influence of education on critical life outcomes. Data with such detailed information both raise concerns about security and privacy, and bring into focus state and federal laws limiting access. Synthetic datasets present a viable means of providing access that balance the data quality requirements of researchers and policymakers while meeting security and privacy laws and concerns. We describe a federally-funded project to develop a synthetic version of the Maryland Longitudinal Data System covering high school, post-secondary, and workforce data.

Complexity: Intermediate Level

12–F What Data Should I Be Collecting? A Framework to Identify Gaps in Data Collection for Statewide Initiatives

Jessica Bailey, Regional Educational Laboratory Northeast and Islands
Spencer Sherman, Rhode Island Department of Education
David English, Regional Educational Laboratory Northeast and Islands

Are you interested in comprehensively identifying and measuring outcomes of an initiative in your state to track its progress and outcomes? If so, join us to learn about a framework and process used to enhance Rhode Island’s data catalog for its college and career initiative called PrepareRI. The data catalog includes metrics that the state uses to track its progress toward PrepareRI goals. The Regional Educational Laboratory Northeast and Islands assisted the state in identifying gaps in metrics and creating new metrics using a framework that can be applied to other initiatives in other settings and states.

Complexity: Entry Level

12–G Balancing the Scale of Student Data Deletion and Retention in Education

Hannah Quay-de la Vallee, Center for Democracy & Technology
Marcia Bohannon, Colorado Department of Education

Retaining data longer than it is useful creates legal liability, increases the risk of a data incident, costs more money to search and maintain, and most importantly can be damaging to students if that information is leaked or misused. The session will include a presentation on the current state of deletion and retention in education followed by recommendations and a discussion of how Colorado is making progress on this issue.

Complexity: Entry Level

12–H CEDS Q&A: You Bring the Questions, We’ll Bring the Answers

Andrea Hall, AEM Corporation
Tyler Mills, Utah State Board of Education

Are you about to begin aligning your data sources to the Common Education Data Standards (CEDS), or are you already involved in the process but have questions? Are you mapping in preparation for implementing Generate but aren’t sure where to start? Do you have a research question or an idea for a CEDS Connection but don’t know where to begin? Come hear how the CEDS and CIID teams worked alongside Utah to further their efforts in data mapping. You will get face-to-face time with the CEDS and CIID teams, so bring your data dictionaries and research questions to this CEDS work session. If you bring the questions, we’ll bring the answers.

Complexity: Entry Level

Download Zipped PowerPoint Presentation:

• CEDS Q&A: You Bring the Questions, We’ll Bring the Answers (537 KB)

12–J Financial Transparency Reporting: Highlights from Early States

Katie Hagan, Edunomics Lab at Georgetown University
Bill Hurwitch, State Longitudinal Data System State Support Team
Vicky Dyer, Washington State Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction
David Stringfellow, State of Utah

In one year, all school and district report cards will include spending by school. Approximately 15 states have started publishing this data in some format, and there is much to be learned from these early releases. This panel of state representatives and subject matter experts will assess existing visualizations, share insights from early efforts to prepare for the requirement, and provide concrete steps for states still designing this element of report cards.

Complexity: Entry Level

12–K A Cost-Utility Analysis of Statewide Student Information System Implementation Models in Kansas

Kathi Grossenbacher, Kansas State Department of Education
Fiona Hollands,Center for Benefit-Cost Studies of Education, Teachers College, Columbia University
Yilin Pan, Center for Benefit-Cost Studies of Education, Teachers College, Columbia University
Julie Cook, Kansas State Department of Education

In 2017, the Kansas State Department of Education (KSDE) was tasked by the State Board of Education with creating a standardized, actionable, dynamic student data and reporting system to improve data access, timeliness and quality while reducing cost and burden on Kansas schools. KSDE collaborated with the Center for Benefit-Cost Studies of Education (CBCSE), Teachers College, Columbia University to conduct a cost-utility analysis of six possible models for implementing a statewide Student Information System. Our presentation will give a high-level overview of the project KSDE embarked upon with a deep dive into the utilization of the cost-utility analysis tool developed by CBCSE and how the tool may benefit other educational entities in decision-making processes.

Complexity: Intermediate Level