July 2005 — SETDA

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Making Strides with Educational Data

By Michael Golden

To help guarantee access to quality data and its meaningful interpretation, the PDE is developing a Data Dictionary of standard data elements and definitions to streamline and standardize data. A PDE Data Council representing most bureaus and divisions, data collectors,and program staff came together to establish a standard set of definitions based on National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) standards and the data initiatives of the Data Council. The result has been a reduction of data elements from 4,500 to 400, which represents the first steps in our commitment to focus on indicator data.

“Our work to establish systemic enterprise-wide leadership, systems, and resources will provide the tools through which we can help all of Pennsylvania’s students succeed.”

Development of an Academic Infrastructure

The SIMS. The Pennsylvania Information Management System (PIMS) is a statewide longitudinal SIMS being developed to let Pennsylvania’s 700 local education agencies maintain their current local student information systems and input record level data into Web-based systems, while maintaining the security and privacy of student data. The PIMS will relieve school districts from having to reconstruct or rebuild information in order to make statewide comparisons or follow individual academic progress over time and across districts. It will also facilitate an increased rate of feedback to the districts from the time of assessment.

Faster feedback and better quality of information at the district level can be the means to create a rapid implementation model of instructional design where continuous monitoring and assessment provide direction for classroom instruction. Data from general performance measures, diagnostic assessments, or annual assessments can be gathered, analyzed, authenticated, and interpreted in real time to describe learning trajectories for individuals, groups, grades, and schools. Decisions related to curriculum design and content procurement can then be linked to assessed needs and planned implementation.

Systemic planning and reporting.

PDE and the Schools Interoperability Framework Association (SIF) have created a partnership and share a common vision of enabling schools to better utilize data by creating interoperability between data systems at all levels of education. The PDE has been a pioneer in the development of the SIF movement, concluding three first-in the- nation pilots using SIF vertical reporting concepts, as well as mapping PDE reports and data elements to NCES elements. This includes developing a “crosswalk” that will serve as a key informational tool that can be shared nationwide. In addition, PDE’s Metadata Facility is a browser-based tool for organizing, navigating, comparing, and managing educational standards, data, reports, and processes, giving the Commonwealth a robust and flexible structure.

Another system benefiting from the development of the Data Dictionary and the design of a security framework is eSP, Pennsylvania’s comprehensive strategic planning tool. This Web-based tool is customized to integrate Pennsylvania’s multiple, disparate planning processes into one . The eSP tool provides online plan review and amendment, an authenticated approval process, and individual compliance reporting. The plans become living documents populated with the required data to support the sustained implementation of systemic planning. The first wave of Pennsylvania schools will begin using the eSP tool this fall.