Thursday, October 27, 2011

MassCUE Conference Happenings

Wednesday I attended Day 1 of the 2011 MassCUE conference at Gillette Stadium, and it was exciting as usual! Lots of great presenters, vendors, and opportunities to share ideas with colleagues made for a productive and engaging day.

The Spotlight Session entitled, "MA New Educator Evaluation Regulations: Opportunity and Challenges" presented by Karla Brooks Baehr provided an opportunity to learn more about the details in the developing story of the new educator evaluation regulations (with specific discussions about positions such as technology integration specialists that work with both staff and students). Two major takeaways from this session were that (1) both teachers and administrators should be taking time to become VERY familiar with the state's growth model, since this is one of the measures that will be used (where applicable) for educator evaluation; and (2) the Commonwealth's Model System is on target to be available for review on January 10, 2012. A variety of resources, including a version of the PowerPoint that was presented at the conference, are available on the ESE's Educator Evaluation web page.

Associate Commissioner Bob Bickerton and Director of Information Services Rob Curtin presented "Next Generation Supports for Teaching, Learning, and Student Success" which highlighted a variety of initiatives within ESE, including the new Curriculum Frameworks, PARCC, and many RTTT projects, especially the Teaching and Learning System which is currently under discussion. The ESE Showcase area provided an opportunity for conference attendees to learn more about initatives including the Education Data Warehouse, Thinkfinity Partnership, PBS LearningMedia Partnership, and the Teaching and Learning System.

The final session of the day entitled, "The Paperless Classroom: Tips and Tricks for the 21st Century Educator" was fascinating and introduced attendees to a wide variety of Web 2.0 tools I had not seen before. While these tools are not data-specific, I'd like to share some them here for those of you with an interest in staying current with educational technology. The presenter, Melissa Panchuck from the Fessenden School, was incredibly passionate and engaging about her use of Web 2.0 tools with her 5th grade students, including:
 So many new and exciting tools (both inside and outside the classroom!) that can be used to improve teaching and learning!

Thursday, October 20, 2011

New AP and SAT data posted to Profiles

The School and District Profiles area has been updated to include information related to the 2009-2010 AP and SAT exams (the latest available to ESE from the College Board). The following reports are available:
Schools and Districts may choose to use the DART tool to identify "like" organizations for comparison purposes as they explore this AP and SAT data.

Tuesday, October 18, 2011

EDW downtime and Thursday workshop cancellation

A notice in the Security Portal states that "Data Warehouse version 3.0 will not be available after 3:00pm Wednesday 10/19 until Friday morning 10/21 due to maintenance."

Unfortunately, this means that Thursday's EDW 3.0 workshop at Sharon Middle School needs to be cancelled, since there will be no access to EDW 3.0 at that time. There are still spots in the 11/10 Mattapoisett workshop for folks who would like to register. Thanks for your understanding!


Spots still available for EDW Workshop this Thursday

There are still spots available in the EDW 3.0 workshop this Thursday afternoon in Sharon (as well as 11/10 in Mattapoisett). Please share this information with colleagues who may need to get up to speed with the new Data Warehouse.

Please see previous post for information and registration.
http://southeastdata.blogspot.com/2011/10/regional-edw-30-workshops-october-20.html

Tuesday, October 11, 2011

Have you thanked your SIMS manager today?

A series of information sessions was held recently across the state to bring district information managers up to speed on changes to the state's data collection processes (SIMS, EPIMS, SCS). The complete 2011-2012 data collection schedule, including a detailed SIMS schedule and technical documentation can be found here: http://www.doe.mass.edu/infoservices/data/schedule.html.

For those blog readers that don't serve in the information management capacity in their districts, I hope you'll take a quick look at some of the links above. The data collection process is quite complex and time-consuming, so take a moment to acknowlege your district's information managers for taking on this important and time-consuming work!

October 2011 DART Headlines


The DART (District Analysis and Review Tool) is an Excel-based data tool from ESE which provides snapshots of district performance, allowing users to easily track select data elements over time, and make comparisons to the state or to "comparable" districts. The data elements include a broad range of district and school interests including demographic, assessment, student support, educator, financial, and achievement gap data.

The DART was recently updated to include 2011 data, and a DART Detail tool focused on data about English Language Learners is expected to be released in November. For additional details and the latest tools, please visit the DART page on the ESE Web site.

Regional EDW 3.0 Workshops - October 20 and November 10

Workshop Announcement: Introduction to the Education Data Warehouse 3.0

This workshop will provide a structured environment in which to explore data using the pre-defined reports in the EDW 3.0, including the new Growth Model and reports. Participants will access their own district or school’s data, get time-saving tips and will have an opportunity to run and save reports for use in the planning for the 2011-2012 school year. . The workshop is appropriate for district and school administrators, and grade-level or data team leaders, whether or not they have previous experience with the EDW. Priority for seats will be given to staff from Level 3 or 4 districts in our region, but we anticipate that we can accommodate staff from all districts in the Southeast region of Massachusetts.

NOTE: Prior to the workshop, all participants should ensure that they (1) know their username and password for the DESE Security Portal AND (2) have been assigned the appropriate security role which permits access to the EDW.

Please click the links below to register for one of two dates, or contact Laura Tilton (laura.tilton@dsacma.org) with questions.

Thursday, October 20 12:30-3:30, Sharon Middle School
Thursday, November 10, 12:30-3:30, Old Rochester Regional Middle School (Mattapoisett)

Sunday, October 2, 2011

Re-release of Grade 10 MCAS Math Results

On Friday, September 30, the Commissioner’s office at DESE posted a press release regarding the re-release of 2011 grade 10 MCAS math scores. Nearly 3,300 students statewide who took the Spring 2011 grade 10 MCAS Math test and passed have earned higher performance levels than initially indicated.

School and district results in grade 10 Math have been updated in the Profiles section of the ESE Web site. The new data is scheduled to be available in the Education Data Warehouse no later than Thursday, October 6, 2011.  
 
Press Release: http://www.doe.mass.edu/news/news.aspx?id=6421