Texas Districts Move to Web-Based Data Certification System
Three Texas school districts have recently moved to Certica Solutions' Certify software for internal data certification. Humble Independent School District (HISD) and Lamar Consolidated Independent School District (LCISD), both in the Houston area, and San Antonio Independent School District (SAISD) said they chose Certify to improve the quality of the data reported to Texas Education Agency (TEA) under state reporting laws.
Certify provides what it terms data certification "scorecards," a Web-based system of monitoring data on a daily basis for errors, which users can then correct immediately before they appear in reports.
In addition, the software allows users to monitor data for compliance issues, such as ensuring all requisite content is included, as well as for patterns exhibited by students (e.g., attendance rates, precipitous declines in certain subjects, etc.) that may require intervention.
Additionally, the software identifies patterns, exceptions, and inconsistencies in district data and alerts users to such potential problems that could lead to a district being labeled as non-compliant.
Texas districts must comply with TEA data verification and reporting standards, specifically those set by the state's Performance-Based Monitoring Analysis System (PBMAS), which evaluates district performance and program effectiveness through a combination of periodic reporting requirements of student assessment data.
Certica has built into the software pre-configured data validation rules for the Texas' Public Education Information Management System (PEIMS). In addition, the company offers data certification modules for compliance in areas such as attendance, discipline, course history, special education, PBMAS, and sub-population performance.
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Scott Aronowitz is a freelance writer based in Las Vegas. He has covered the technology, advertising, and entertainment sectors for seven years. He can be reached here.