By default, the Education Data Warehouse allows schools and districts to access MCAS records for tests they administered only. The student claiming process enables schools and districts to access to ALL historical MCAS data for their enrolled students, regardless of where the test was taken. For additional information about the value of student claiming, please read my previous blog post entitled, "Student Claiming: A Good Idea."
The folks at DESE will be re-setting the student claiming fields on Friday, July 15, 2011. Starting next week (July 18th), once you have "rolled over" your student information system to the 2011-2012 school year, you may upload a "claiming file" of all currently registered/enrolled students. Once you have successfully uploaded and accepted the data you will then be able to access MCAS and SIMS history for all students registered to be in your schools this September.
Please note that for those districts currently using SIF for claiming, this process should happen automatically. For further information, please contact your ESE SIF representative.
If you've haven't previously claimed students in the Data Warehouse, this summer (after July 18th) would be a good time to do so! Additional information on the student claiming process can be found at the end of Chapter 3: Basic Access of the EDW User Guide.
Showing posts with label student information system. Show all posts
Showing posts with label student information system. Show all posts
Wednesday, July 13, 2011
Wednesday, April 6, 2011
The Great SIS Survey
Chris Dawson from the ZDNet Education blog is undertaking The Great SIS Survey: Your Student Information System is critical to the functioning of your school and district. It should also be an integral part of teaching and learning. Is it?
It will be valuable for many of us to review the feedback from schools nationally (and perhaps internationally?) as we think about how a seamless SIS structure can support a culture of data on our districts. If you have a free moment (ha!), I encourage you to check out his blog post and add your two cents to the survey. I'll definitely keep tabs on the discussion and share what develops.
Thursday, October 28, 2010
Data News from MassCUE
I attended one day of the fabulous MassCUE conference at Gillette Stadium on Wednesday 10/28, and wanted to share some of the things I learned. I will come back and post links to the session resources here once they are up on the MassCUE Web site.
I attended a session entitled, "Formative Assessment using Google Apps," presented by the Harwich Public Schools. They have used Google Forms to easily create online quizzes to check student understanding...with instant results tallied to a Google spreadsheet! I have used Google Forms for surveys and the like (similar to Zoomerang and Survey Monkey, but free and unlimited, with data automatically collected in a back end spreadsheet) but it was interesting to see it used to check student understanding and used immediately to inform instruction.
Jeff Comenitz from the ESE's Data Warehouse team had a plethora of information about the DART tool, the growth model, the SIF project, and the new Student Course Schedule (SCS) data collection. (Of course, if you're a follower of this blog, none of these topics are new to you!) He shared some sample teacher-level Data Warehouse reports which are being developed for next fall, once the teacher and student data are connected in the Data Warehouse.
Associate Commissioner Bob Bickerton spoke on "Using Data and New Tools for Decision Making and Continuous Improvement." He highlighted not only the various data collection initiatives (SIMS, EPIMS, SCS, SIF) but also plans for the RTTT-funded "teaching and learning system." He acknowledged the performance challenges that the Data Warehouse is currently encountering, and described how the SLDS grant funds are being used in part to re-architect the Data Warehouse to improve performance and support wider use of the tool.
I spoke with many of the student information system vendors as well as some vendors offering data management tools. I would like to better understand the capabilities of the various systems to handle local data, so that I can help districts in our region understand what options are available to them based on the tools that they may already have in place.
We did get to hear from Jonathan Kraft at lunchtime, however, rain prevented the Patriots from taking the practice field so, sadly, I don't have any Tom Brady sightings to report.
I attended a session entitled, "Formative Assessment using Google Apps," presented by the Harwich Public Schools. They have used Google Forms to easily create online quizzes to check student understanding...with instant results tallied to a Google spreadsheet! I have used Google Forms for surveys and the like (similar to Zoomerang and Survey Monkey, but free and unlimited, with data automatically collected in a back end spreadsheet) but it was interesting to see it used to check student understanding and used immediately to inform instruction.
Jeff Comenitz from the ESE's Data Warehouse team had a plethora of information about the DART tool, the growth model, the SIF project, and the new Student Course Schedule (SCS) data collection. (Of course, if you're a follower of this blog, none of these topics are new to you!) He shared some sample teacher-level Data Warehouse reports which are being developed for next fall, once the teacher and student data are connected in the Data Warehouse.
Associate Commissioner Bob Bickerton spoke on "Using Data and New Tools for Decision Making and Continuous Improvement." He highlighted not only the various data collection initiatives (SIMS, EPIMS, SCS, SIF) but also plans for the RTTT-funded "teaching and learning system." He acknowledged the performance challenges that the Data Warehouse is currently encountering, and described how the SLDS grant funds are being used in part to re-architect the Data Warehouse to improve performance and support wider use of the tool.
I spoke with many of the student information system vendors as well as some vendors offering data management tools. I would like to better understand the capabilities of the various systems to handle local data, so that I can help districts in our region understand what options are available to them based on the tools that they may already have in place.
We did get to hear from Jonathan Kraft at lunchtime, however, rain prevented the Patriots from taking the practice field so, sadly, I don't have any Tom Brady sightings to report.
Monday, July 19, 2010
...OK, so what is SIF? Should my district look into the SIF grant opportunity?
What is SIF? Schools Interoperability Framework (SIF) is a "data exchange standard for ensuring that school software applications - such as library, cafeteria, transportation and student information management programs - share data and work together seamlessly and effectively." (Thanks to Karen Carpenter at DESE for this simple definition and the information that follows!)
Why should MA schools be excited about SIF? SIF will transform the process of collecting data from the current collections driven process to a seamless automated process. This new process will provide the ESE and districts with consistent, timely, valuable and accessible data in the Education Data Warehouse.
What is the SIF grant opportunity? Fund Code 120, the Streamlining District Data Systems grant (Round 2), is being offered in order to encourage a wide variety of districts to pilot the implementation of SIF solutions. You do NOT need to have participated in Round 1 to apply for Round 2.
The grant application deadline is August 12, 2010. There will be an online technical assistance workshop THIS WEDNESDAY, July 21, at 2:00 pm. For more information or to answer any questions please contact Karen Carpenter, LEA SIF Project Manager, at 781-338-6847 or by email at kcarpenter@doe.mass.edu.
Why should MA schools be excited about SIF? SIF will transform the process of collecting data from the current collections driven process to a seamless automated process. This new process will provide the ESE and districts with consistent, timely, valuable and accessible data in the Education Data Warehouse.
What is the SIF grant opportunity? Fund Code 120, the Streamlining District Data Systems grant (Round 2), is being offered in order to encourage a wide variety of districts to pilot the implementation of SIF solutions. You do NOT need to have participated in Round 1 to apply for Round 2.
The grant application deadline is August 12, 2010. There will be an online technical assistance workshop THIS WEDNESDAY, July 21, at 2:00 pm. For more information or to answer any questions please contact Karen Carpenter, LEA SIF Project Manager, at 781-338-6847 or by email at kcarpenter@doe.mass.edu.
Thursday, July 15, 2010
What's the SIMS Expansion All About?
Approximately 75 districts statewide participated during the 2009-2010 school year in the "Expanded SIMS" data collection pilot program. Starting this fall (2010), all districts will be required to collect additional data in a similar manner. But what data is being collected and how will this information be used?
The "Expanded SIMS" title is a bit of a misnomer, since the actual 52 SIMS fields that are currently collected three times per year (October, March, and June) have really not changed.
What is new, however, is the frequency of EPIMS data collection (now three times per year, like SIMS) as well as the new Student Course Schedule (SCS) data collection (also collected three times per year).
The SCS contains 13 new data elements connecting teachers, students, and courses K-12. Many Student Information System vendors have been working to implement processes to facilitate this data collection process, although it will be a significant project for district data managers (especially the first time!). The good news is that SCS information will allow for MCAS reports for 2011-2012 to include course- and teacher-specific reports which are currently not available.
For additional information, please visit the SIMS Expansion page on the ESE Web site. Additional information is being communicated this summer to districts by the Data Collection folks from the ESE.
The "Expanded SIMS" title is a bit of a misnomer, since the actual 52 SIMS fields that are currently collected three times per year (October, March, and June) have really not changed.
What is new, however, is the frequency of EPIMS data collection (now three times per year, like SIMS) as well as the new Student Course Schedule (SCS) data collection (also collected three times per year).
The SCS contains 13 new data elements connecting teachers, students, and courses K-12. Many Student Information System vendors have been working to implement processes to facilitate this data collection process, although it will be a significant project for district data managers (especially the first time!). The good news is that SCS information will allow for MCAS reports for 2011-2012 to include course- and teacher-specific reports which are currently not available.
For additional information, please visit the SIMS Expansion page on the ESE Web site. Additional information is being communicated this summer to districts by the Data Collection folks from the ESE.
Wednesday, June 9, 2010
Student Claiming in the Data Warehouse
By default, the Education Data Warehouse allows schools and districts to access MCAS records for tests they administered only. The student claiming process enables schools and districts to access to ALL historical MCAS data for their enrolled students, regardless of where the test was taken.
The folks at DESE will be re-setting the student claiming fields on Friday, July 16, 2010. After you have rolled-over your student information system to 2011 (and after July 16th) districts may upload a new claiming file so that you can access the historic MCAS results for registered students that will be in your building for the start of the 2011 school year.
If you've haven't previously claimed students in the Data Warehouse, this summer (after July 16) would be a good time to do so!
Additional information on the student claiming process can be found at the end of Chapter 3: Basic Access of the EDW User Guide.
The folks at DESE will be re-setting the student claiming fields on Friday, July 16, 2010. After you have rolled-over your student information system to 2011 (and after July 16th) districts may upload a new claiming file so that you can access the historic MCAS results for registered students that will be in your building for the start of the 2011 school year.
If you've haven't previously claimed students in the Data Warehouse, this summer (after July 16) would be a good time to do so!
Additional information on the student claiming process can be found at the end of Chapter 3: Basic Access of the EDW User Guide.
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