STATS-DC

4-A Next Steps for a Neighborhood Poverty Index

Doug Geverdt, National Center for Education Statistics

Educational research routinely confirms that socioeconomic conditions impact educational outcomes for students and schools. Unfortunately, researchers have few indicators available to measure socioeconomic conditions, and traditional measures are increasingly affected by changes in federal program requirements. This presentation briefly reviews challenges with existing economic indicators and discusses an experimental neighborhood poverty indicator that NCES is exploring as part of an on-going research program.

Complexity: Intermediate Level

Download Zipped Adobe Presentation:

• Next Steps for a Neighborhood Poverty Index (2.54 MB)

4–B Using Data to Bridge the Digital Divide in America's Schools

Benjamin Robinson, Universal Service Administrative Company
Spencer Rand, Universal Service Administrative Company
Amit Singh, Universal Service Administrative Company

Since its inception in 1996, the Federal Communication Commission's Schools and Libraries Program, commonly known as E-rate, has helped ensure that schools can obtain affordable, high speed broadband service. Recent efforts at program modernization have included publishing open data to increase stakeholder access to program data and enable the E-rate community to generate insights and increase transparency into program operations. This session will explore how USAC, as the administrator of the E-rate program, uses open data and publicly available data to investigate which communities benefit from E-rate funding and where gaps exist in connecting America's schools to digital learning opportunities.

Complexity: Entry Level

4–C Conquering the Challenges of Data Quality and Management through Collaboration

Fred Edora, IDEA Data Center
Anthea Brady, Center for the Integration of IDEA Data (CIID)
Susan Beck, West Virginia Department of Education
Renee Ecckles-Hardy, West Virginia Department of Education

West Virginia improved its data management and federal reporting processes for IDEA Part B data through collaboration with the IDEA Data Center (IDC) and Center for the Integration of IDEA Data (CIID). Working with TA providers from both centers, the WV Department of Education identified and improved data processes, using process improvements to facilitate special education and general education data integration. WVDE used the Common Education Data Standards data model and implemented CIID's Generate tool to develop EDFacts files for IDEA Part B. Join WVDE, CIID, and IDC to learn what it takes to improve data quality and data management.

Complexity: Entry Level

4–D The Data Use Maturity Model: Assessing Your Organization's Capacity for Data Use

Thomas Howell, Michigan Center for Educational Performance and Information
Kimberly Gondwe, Council of Chief State School Officers
Kathy Gosa, AEM Corporation
Carla Howe, AEM Corporation

Data use is difficult to measure, and states' have varying strengths and challenges in their capacity to use data. The CCSSO's EIMAC Data Network has created a Data Use Maturity Model for states to assess their strengths and gaps in this area. Join this session to learn about the Data Use Maturity model and how you can leverage it in your organization. Data Network participating states will share their plans, and how additional resources from the Statewide Longitudinal Data Systems program can help. You will learn about related artifacts that could help your organization understand more about its data use maturity and some necessary next steps to evolve further.

Complexity: Intermediate Level

4–E Study of the Title I, Part A Grant Program Mathematical Formulas

Thomas Snyder, National Center for Education Statistics
William Sonnenberg, National Center for Education Statistics
Rachel Dinkes, American Institutes for Research
Stephen Q. Cornman, U.S. Department of Education

The Title I, Part A Grant Program Mathematical Formulas responds to a congressional mandate under the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) (Sec. 9211) to examine the distribution of Title I funds to understand how the current formulas affect various types of districts, such as large or small districts, those in poor or rich areas, and those in urban or rural areas. The legislation directed the Institute of Education Sciences (IES) to respond to nine specific analytic tasks in a report. These analytic tasks specifically called for comparisons of districts across the 12 NCES geographic locales, ranging from large cities to remote rural areas.

Complexity: Advanced Level

4–F Using Data to Drive Racially Equitable Skill Attainment

Jenna Leventoff, Workforce Data Quality Campaign
Rachel Vilsack, Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development

By 2030, more than half of the workforce will be made up of people of color. Despite our nation's changing demographics, the United States has a persistent equity gap. People of color routinely fall behind their peers in completing college, credential attainment and earnings. However, Minnesota has created data dashboards disaggregated by race and ethnicity, that advocates have used to build support for programs that help a variety of people build the skills they need to successfully enter the workforce. This session will discuss effectively collecting, utilizing and making transparent demographic data to narrow the equity gap.

Complexity: Entry Level

4–G School Courses for the Exchange of Data (SCED)

Susan Williams, Virginia Department of Education
Rachel Kruse, Iowa Department of Education

The National Forum on Education Statistics developed the School Courses for the Exchange of Data (SCED) to meet the need among schools, districts, states, and National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) transcript studies for common, comparable course codes. Join this session to learn about the latest updates to SCED and to explore the many online tools available to help with SCED implementation and use. Session participants will have an opportunity to discuss different uses of SCED with representatives who have implemented the codes in state and local agencies.

Complexity: Entry Level

Download Zipped Adobe Presentation:

• School Courses for the Exchange of Data (SCED) (1.48 MB)

4–H Two States Stories: The Path from a Research Agenda to Actionable Outcomes

Julie Patton, Pennsylvania Department of Education
Yan Li, Mississippi Department of Education
Candy Miller, Pennsylvania Department of Education
Rhonda Johnson, Pennsylvania Department of Education
Brian Hutchison, Pennsylvania Department of Education
John Kramer, Mississippi Department of Education

Funded by SLDS (FY2015), both the Mississippi Department of Education (MDE) and the Pennsylvania Department of Education (PDE) have developed research agendas to shape and inform their work. In this session, each state will share their journey in establishing an actionable research agenda to build research capacity within the department for answering priority questions, and discuss their work and progress on current research projects being conducted which reveal insights practitioners can use to improve student learning and outcomes.

Complexity: Intermediate Level

4–J Collecting High Quality Data on the Suspension and Expulsion of Preschoolers

Kerry Friedman, SRI International
Lisa Backer, Minnesota Department of Education
Andrea Algatt, Office of Child Development and Early Learning, Pennsylvania

Preschool children are expelled at three times the rate of K-12 students with African-American children and boys expelled at disproportionate rates. States have been implementing strategies to address these troubling national statistics but collecting reliable data is challenging. There are no common definitions for what constitutes suspension or expulsions for young children and the issue of soft suspensions (e.g., asking a parent to pick up a child early) can be overlooked. Following an overview presentation on definitional issues, two states will discuss how they are approaching obtaining high-quality data on this important issue.

Complexity: Entry Level

Download Zipped PowerPoint Presentation:

• Collecting High Quality Data on the Suspension and Expulsion of Preschoolers (8.53 MB)

4–K Aligning the Education Pipeline to Employer Needs with Cross Agency Collaboration

Jessica Cunningham, Kentucky Center for Statistics
Scott Secamiglio, Kentucky Center for Statistics
David Mahan, Council on Postsecondary Education
Kiley Whitaker, Kentucky Department of Education

Kentucky was tasked to align educational pathways to the current and future workforce needs of the Commonwealth. KYSTATS (houses the state longitudinal data system) has connected data in K-12, postsecondary, labor market information, and employment/wages, with the cross-agency collaboration of experts at the Department of Education and the Council on Postsecondary Education, to help align Career and Technical Education Pathways and evaluate postsecondary programs to fulfil the projected demand of occupations in Kentucky. Together, this group will talk about the Career and Technical Education Feedback Report, the Postsecondary Feedback Report, and the future of connecting educators and employers in Kentucky.

Complexity: Intermediate Level