A Holiday Gift for You

I have been working with a fellow data specialist to create a how-to guide on Creating Student Growth Rosters for Instructional Groups. If you're interested in generating growth/performance reports in the EDW for a specific classroom, intervention group, team, etc., this is the process to follow. Basic knowledge about the use of the Education Data Warehouse and Microsoft Excel are required to complete this process.

The document focuses on the G-602 Student Growth Roster (in the older EDW) which provides three years of MCAS performance data (scaled score) and the most recent student growth percentile (SGP) for each student for both Mathematics and ELA. The report also provides a median SGP for the group, if there are 20 or more students with SGPs in the group.

Please refer to my previous blog post on Examining MCAS Growth Data by Classroom for more thoughts about the opportunity to engage staff in discussions about growth data now as we move toward the new educator evaluation system.

I shared this process with a district colleague earlier in the week, and she sent me an email the next day saying, "I think I love you!!!!...Our secretary was able to get 3 years instructional groups for me with state IDs. The reports are soooooo easy to do and save!!! You saved me tons of time. I am very excited." So I hope there are other readers out there who will have the same reaction.

Happy Holidays to all!

Educator Evaluation Resources Coming from ESE

The December 8 Commissioner's Update included (among many other important bits of information) several resources under development related to the state's new educator evaluation system. The Model System will be released in January, accompanied by a webinar and regional rollout meetings for Race to the Top districts. Later this spring, there will be a set of training materials and other resources available to support districts as they implement this new system.

Updated Profiles Reports: Student Indicators and Graduate Information

The following School and District Profiles reports were recently updated to include the latest available data.

• Student Indicators (attendance, suspension, retention, and truancy data by school or district, 2010-2011)
• Graduates Attending Institutions of Higher Education (by school or district, 2009-2010)

Early Warning Indicator System (EWIS) Pilot

DESE is creating the Early Warning Indicator System (EWIS), a data-driven system designed to identify students kindergarten through high school that are potentially "off-track" for grade-level or developmental age, including those students that are off-track for high school graduation (potential dropouts).

There will be an informational phone conference held on Monday, December 12, and applications are due Friday, December 16. Districts interested in finding out more about participating in the EWIS Data Pilot can read more about the project and fill out an application at http://www.doe.mass.edu/dropout/ (scroll down for the info about the pilot.)

Southeast Data Coach Network

The Southeast DSAC Data Coach Network is an opportunity for school-based data coaches to participate in a regional professional learning community focused on building structures of collaborative inquiry. Network sessions will focus on sharing best practices and building upon skills and knowledge gained in the Data Coaching course from Research for Better Teaching.

The Network is intended for participants from Level 3 districts and "legacy" Level 3 districts who have taken the Data Coaching course from RBT. These districts were provided with a previous opportunity to register, and we have determined that there are openings for a few additional participants. The first meeting is scheduled for this Friday, December 2, from 12:30 pm to 3:00 pm in Plymouth, MA.

The highlighted topic for this Friday's meeting will be "Using the Data-Driven Dialogue Process to Explore Student Growth Data." The RBT course highlights a process of drilling down to strand/item/student work, but did not touch on exploring Student Growth Data. This measure will be a piece of the new Educator Evaluation Framework from ESE (where applicable) so reflective conversations about this measure now will certainly benefit schools in the long term. We will also take some time to explore selected resources from the Data Coach materials that we did not spend time on during the course this summer and plan for future network meetings.

I apologize for the last-minute announcement of openings, but would be happy to hear from additional district or school-based data coaches (or those that serve in a data coach role) that would be interested in participating. You may register at this link: https://docs.google.com/a/dsacma.org/spreadsheet/viewform?hl=en_US&formkey=dGs4TDZWOVhDckprQ3JhQTRDQXZqSWc6MA#gid=0

If you or others in your district have taken the RBT Data Coaching course, but are not able to attend this first meeting, please don't hesitate to contact me to share your interest. (laura.tilton@dsacma.org)

Examining MCAS Growth Data by Classroom

One message about the new educator evaluation system that comes through loud and clear is that student growth data will be an important measure considered (where available). This school year is a great opportunity to provide more information to staff about MCAS growth data in order to have folks become more comfortable with this measure and what it tells us.

As a reminder, the median student growth percentile for any group is the midpoint of student growth percentiles in the group (which must be >20 students), where half of the students have student growth percentiles higher than the median; half have lower. (It is not appropriate to use the average or “mean” when comparing percentiles.)

Last week, I visited an upper elementary school and presented an overview of the growth model to the staff. After sharing some of the basics, I asked the staff to share with me ways that they would like to look at growth data for their students. Teachers responded that they would like look at median growth for particular groups of students (subgroups, interventions, programs) but also that they wanted to see the median growth for their own classrooms over time. (And yes, I'll be working with the principal to help get this information to the teachers!)

I've been hearing people ask for a while now how they can more easily calculate the median SGP by group, especially by classroom. The Student Growth Roster (G-602) report in the older version of the EDW (2.6) will display a median SGP for a custom roster of students as long as at least 20 students are selected. In the next few weeks I'll be putting together some revised instructions on how to do this (students can be selected using a list, filters, or SASIDs) so stay tuned for more resources on this front!

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:

• Glogster - virtual posters
• Google Sketchup -
• Pixton - online comics
• Blabberize - talking pictures
• Go!Animate and XtraNormal - animations
• Screenr - instant screencasts
• diigo - link collections and highlighting
• issuu - digital publishing

 So many new and exciting tools (both inside and outside the classroom!) that can be used to improve teaching and learning!

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:

• 2009-10 Advanced Placement Performance Report
• 2009-10 Advanced Placement Participation Report
• 2009-10 SAT Performance Report

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.

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

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)

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

Massachusetts Teaching and Learning System

Last week's Commissioner's Update shared information about a RTTT project focused on the development of a comprehensive teaching and learning system that will provide educators an integrated suite of tools and resources, including:

• data dashboards and reports,
• an expanded early warning indicator system,
• a "test builder" for formative and interim assessments,
• model curriculum units and lesson plans, and
• compelling multi-media and print resources to support instructional lesson design and delivery.

The folks at ESE are seeking input and feedback from school and district representatives as they develop this system over the next few years, which has a major focus on timely and easy-to-access information that can be used to improve teaching and learning.. Please visit the Teaching and Learning System page on the ESE Web site for further details and information about how you can get involved.

Public 2011 MCAS Data Available

The 2011 MCAS data for all Massachusetts public schools/districts is now available in several places:

The Education Data Warehouse (in the Security Portal; https://www4.doemass.org/)

School and District Profiles (http://profiles.doe.mass.edu/)

• From the right hand side of the main Profiles page, you can access a variety of statewide reports which can be exported into Excel for further analysis and investigation.
• The easiest way to find school/district information in Profiles: use the Search box to locate a school or district's profile. The "Assessment" tab in a school or district's Profile will allow you to access a variety of reports, including annual comparisons, growth, and subgroup information.

Adequate Yearly Progress Information (http://www.doe.mass.edu/sda/ayp/2011/default.html)

• Under "Lists and Analyses" there is a document entitled, "2011 Lists of Massachusetts Schools and Districts by NCLB Accountability Status and Accountability and Assistance Level." This document provides a summary of 2011 accountability data, including lists of districts and schools by Accountability and Assistance Level and schools commended for narrowing proficiency gaps, high growth, and/or exiting NCLB Accountability Status from 2010.

I'm always interested in knowing different ways in which people are using - or would like to use - this data! If you have ideas for data displays or different ways this data could be analyzed, please don't hesitate to contact me with your ideas. I may be able to help you out with an Excel tool that could be used by others as well.

Creating Customized Student Roster Reports, September 2011

I know there are many folks who would like to create customized MCAS student roster reports "by classroom" or a variety of other groups - intervention group, performance level, subgroup, etc. This type of reporting is not currently available in the Data Warehouse. However, there are a few different options you can look into if you'd like to run reports this way.

The first option is to use the R-616 report (only available at this time in EDW 2.6, not EDW 3.0) to create a custom report either using filters or by choosing students from a list. This can be a bit tedious if you're creating reports by classroom but it's probably the quickest option at this time.

The second option is to start with the roster spreadsheet report from the Dropbox, and use Excel to add in a column for teacher or intervention group. The Filter option in Excel can then be used to create lists based on various criteria AND then Excel could be used to calculate group statistics such as median SGP (>20 students). However, entering the information into the teacher/group column could take a while.

For more advanced Excel users only: There is a function in Excel called VLOOKUP which would allow the automation of the addition of teacher/group data to a column in the roster spreadsheet. In order to do this, you'd need your Dropbox roster spreadsheet PLUS a spreadsheet that lists students (by SASID) by teacher/group. The SASID field will serve as a common data point between the two spreadsheets and allow you to bring data from one spreadsheet into another. Someday I'll write a tutorial for this, but for now, here's a link to a great VLOOKUP tutorial online for anyone would like a reference.

2011 MCAS Results - Statewide Overview

The ESE published a press release today with an overview of the statewide results of the 2011 MCAS exams. Highlights: The percentage of 5th graders scoring Proficient or higher in ELA and math increased by 4 points since last year, and 10th graders improved their ELA performance by six percentage points a year after a slight decline.

Press Release: Gains Made by 5th & 10th Graders Highlight 2011 MCAS Results

Full Statewide Report: Summary of 2011 MCAS State Results (PDF)

Public release of school and district MCAS, AYP, School and District Levels, and Commendations schools is anticipated to take place the week of September 19.

Correction on "High Needs" Subgroup Post

Yesterday's post summarized the definition of the new "high needs" subgroup and how it is being used. One small correction needs to be made to the content of the post as follows.

The information is correct except for the last sentence which describes two ways the subgroup information is being used.  The second item, "measuring progress for districts who are working to exit Level 4 status” should read “measuring progress for schools who are working to exit Level 4 status."

Apologies for any confusion!

"High Needs" Subgroup - What Is It?

The 2011 MCAS reports include a new subgroup designation called "High Needs." The Data Warehouse FAQ describes this group as "a new subgroup category that includes all students in one or more of the subgroups: English language learner (ELL)/former English language learner students, low income students, or students with disabilities."

A number of people have asked for more information about this subgroup - in particular, if/how it is being used for accountability/assistance determination.

The simple answer from the accountability group at ESE is that this "new" subgroup is NOT being used to determine AYP or state accountability/assistance. (The individual subgroups that make up High Needs, of course, are a continuing piece of this calculation.) The High Needs subgroup is currently being used in two ways: (1) determining schools commended for narrowing proficiency gaps, and (2) measuring progress for schools who are working to exit Level 4 status.

post edited 9/8/2011

A New Spin on Item Analysis

I'm guessing that most readers of this blog have taken part in traditional "item analysis" activities using MCAS item reports and a packet of released test items. The Standards for Mathematical Practice (page 15 in the new Massachusetts Curriculum Frameworks for Mathematics document) provide an opportunity make connections with these process standards (such as, "Attend to precision" or "Look for and make use of structure") to this traditional type of data analysis.

Our regional Math Specialist, Madeline Roy, and I have documented some ideas for an activity (piloted this summer) to engage staff in exploring MCAS test item data while making connections to the Standards for Mathematical Practice. More information can be found in Facilitator's Notes and Recording Sheet documents which we have put together for your use. As always, we look forward to your feedback!

In addition, I'm sharing a link back to a post from fall 2010 entitled "Engaging Staff in MCAS Data Exploration" with additional ideas for sharing MCAS data with staff.

Best wishes to you all for a smooth start to the school year!

Insights on EDW v.3.0

Well, it's been a week since the new EDW v.3.0 was released, and since then I've had the opportunity to investigate it extensively, and even to teach a few EDW refresher workshops to bring folks up to speed. I have to say that I am very pleased with the improvements and performance (and this was echoed by most if not all of the workshop attendees this week.)

A few observations to share, for those who haven't had a chance to utilize the EDW recently.

The new system is fast. Most reports I've run have completed in less than 20 seconds or so...even the student-level ones. I actually didn't teach the topic of scheduling reports to "run in the background" at any of the courses this week. The reports actually run in less time than it takes to set up the report to run in the background! (Note that these speed improvements are seen in both the "new" EDW (3.0) and the "legacy" EDW (2.6).)

The reports are organized in a way that's easy to find what you need. Instead of a long list of reports, there are tabs for District, School, and Student Reports. Reports have numbers with prefixes that reflect the type of report - Item, Curriculum, Achievement, or Growth. I've updated the Report Summary document to include the mapping of the new report names.

A few things to know:

• If you want to move from the new 3.0 system to the legacy 2.6 system (or vice versa), you need to log out of the Security Portal and log back in. Both systems will be accessible for the forseeable future.
  


• If you're using Internet Explorer, you may need to change some browser settings in order to save reports to My Folders in the EDW. Firefox doesn't seem to have the same issues. Be sure to read the "Configure your browser" section of the Getting Started document.
  


• There are some reports that are still under development for EDW 3.0, including some "history" reports (that include multiple years) and the R-616 report (of which I am a big fan, because of the ability to customize the roster for any group of students). So, if you need these reports, you can go back to the legacy 2.6 system for now. Both are available from the Security Portal.
  


• Reports open in a new tab or window (depending on your browser). It's a little bit of an adjustment to get used to clicking to another tab to get back to the menu, but it's nice to be able to have multiple reports (tabs/windows) open at once.
  


• There will be a second phase of the release in September with additional years of data and additional reports and other features.

These are my observations a week in to using EDW 3.0. I encourage you to check it out!

Welcome EDW Version 3.0

The following email regarding the newest release of the EDW was distributed today to the EDW Contacts lists. Users will likely also receive this information through their district's contact, but I thought it wouldn't hurt to re-post the information here as well.

I haven't had much of an opportunity to investigate the new system in detail, but as I learn more I'll be sure to share hints and tips for making the most of this new resource. One thing I do know is that reports will now run much faster!

---------------------

Dear Data Warehouse Contacts,

Please be aware that there are now two versions of the Education Data Warehouse available for your use. These are

- Version 2.6 -- the EDW you are familiar with, and
- Version 3.0 -- improved performance and containing MCAS data only in redesigned reports.

As you begin to use version 3.0, it is very important that you are aware of the differences between 3.0 and 2.6, and that you share this information with your users. Data Warehouse Contacts are the liaisons to the Data Warehouse team and should be the first resource for users in your district. Thank you for helping to get the word out!



Attached for additional reference and distribution are 3 documents that are also linked from the welcome pages of version 3.0. (FAQ, Getting Started Guide, and Mapping document)

For support in using version 3.0, please email edwsupport@doe.mass.edu.

Data Warehouse Improvements and Refreshers

As you may know, the folks at ESE have been working on substantial improvements to both the front-end (user interface) and back-end (report processing speed) of the Education Data Warehouse. The new and old systems will run in parallel starting mid-August. For staff who need a refresher on the current system and/or would like to learn more about the new system, there will be several Data Warehouse Refresher workshops offered in August.

These no-cost workshops are intended for staff who have had previous Data Warehouse training (or have explored it independently) but need additional support in the use of this tool. The workshop will provide a structured environment in which to explore data using the pre-defined reports in the Data Warehouse, including the new Growth Model and reports. Information will be shared about summer 2011 improvements and changes to the Data Warehouse interface and functionality. 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.

Monday, August 22 at Bourne High School, 8:30-11:30 am
REGISTER: http://cccollaborativeorg.dependable-hosting.com/professionaldevelopment/index.asp?CategoryID=26#94

Monday, August 22 at Bourne High School, 12:00-2:45 pm
REGISTER: https://spreadsheets.google.com/spreadsheet/viewform?formkey=dHhaWVhhRUxYVTFvT1M3U2hERWt5Vnc6MA

Tuesday, August 23 at Norton Middle School, 8:30-11:30 am OR 12:15-3:15 pm
REGISTER: https://spreadsheets.google.com/spreadsheet/viewform?formkey=dHhaWVhhRUxYVTFvT1M3U2hERWt5Vnc6MA

All courses will be taught by Laura Tilton, Southeast DSAC Data Specialist and held in air-conditioned PC computer labs.

2011 MCAS and Accountability Data

DESE recently posted important information regarding 201l MCAS preliminary data and accountability data, and for discrepancy reporting. Please see the Commissioner's Memo and printable Release Schedule for complete details. Some upcoming dates are listed below:

August 8: District/school leaders can begin to access full preliminary (embargoed) 2011 MCAS results through the Security Portal (first in DropBox, then in EDW)

August 9: District/school leaders can access to preliminary (embargoed) school and district accountability data through the Security Portal.

August 8 (2:30 pm) OR August 9 (10:00 am): MCAS and Accountability Reporting Teleconference (register at www.mcasservicecenter.com)

The Commissioner's Memo also mentions the updates and improvements that will take place in the Education Data Warehouse later in August. I'll certainly be sharing additional information as it becomes available!

Using Excel for Dynamic Inquiry

At the end of June, the Southeast DSAC Literacy Specialist and I had the good fortune to work with a group of teachers who were part of a district "Literacy Intervention Team." Their immediate goal was to explore the growth and performance of their 6th grade students who had participated in the previous year's targeted literacy intervention efforts.

I assisted the group in developing a large Excel spreadsheet which contained all the relevant student data, and we spent time exploring this data dynamically, asking questions such as:

• How did our intervention students perform on this year's MCAS test? What type of growth did we see in these students? How did they perform on local assessments (SRI, DRA-2, etc.)
  


• Were there students who were not included in our intervention efforts who scored Warning/Failing on the MCAS? Who were they and why were they not included in intervention efforts last year?
  


• What about the performance of students whose were initially identified last summer for intervention, but did not participate? (parents "opted out" of literacy intervention or other reasons)

The team's extremely rich conversations that day were able to move to the next level because of the ability to explore the data in a dynamic way, digging deeper as the conversation progressed.

As a result of this work (and previous work/conversations in districts), I would like to offer a workshop entitled "Using Excel for Dynamic Inquiry" so that districts/schools may develop their own dynamic tools for looking at data.

Please take a few minutes to participate in a short survey to indicate your interest in such a workshop, and feel free to forward the survey to others in your district who may be interested. Thank you for your feedback!

SURVEY LINK:
https://spreadsheets.google.com/spreadsheet/viewform?formkey=dFRpWjR4UjJqcl9QOXMzai1ZaTZoR0E6MQ

Student Claiming Field Re-Setting July 15

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.

Blog Archives

I got an email recently from a blog subscriber professing her undying love for the content of this blog (really!). She mentioned that she saves all the blog e-mails and uses them for reference when she gets stuck or has a question.

This prompted me to write this post reminding readers that ALL the blog archives are posted online at http://southeastdata.blogspot.com/. I realized that since many of the blog's readers only see the content as it gets e-mailed, you might forget that the blog archives are available online as well.

You can search blog posts from the link above by typing in a keyword (box at top of page), clicking on a label (right side of page), or browsing by date (also on right side of page).

For those that are new to the blog, you may wish to go back and browse some of the archives...and for those that aren't, you can go back and revisit topics as they come around again.

Happy Summer!

Quick Access to EDW Reports

The latest version of the Data Warehouse includes a great new feature - the Reports Page. This page provides links to run each of the available reports in HTML or PDF format directly. It also provides the option of scheduling a report to be run in the background.

Rolling your mouse over any of the report names provides a "screen shot" of a sample reference report. No more waiting for the report to finish only to find it wasn't the one you expected!

In addition, this page provides direct links to the pre-run reports in the DropBox, School and District Profiles, the DART tool, and other Data Warehouse documentation.

To get to the Dashboard, log in to the EDW, and go to Public Folders > ESE MCAS Reports > ESE MCAS - 2011 Preliminary Report View.

June 2011 Preliminary MCAS Data in EDW

The June 2011 preliminary MCAS and MCAS-Alt results are now available in the MCAS drop boxes. All EDW school and district users have been granted access to MCAS drop boxes. (Please note that the preliminary data is embargoed and may not be publicly released.)

There is a new link from the EDW to "Pre-Run Reports and Data Files" which leads to a set of PDF links of student roster reports (school level), test item analysis reports (school and district level), and performance summary reports (school and district level.)

In addition, there are some preliminary reports available in the EDW:
Preliminary district reports: R-301, R-302, R-306
Preliminary school reports: R-401, R-402, R-406
Preliminary student reports: R-606, R-610, R-613, R-616, R-617
Preliminary growth reports for ELA only: G-601, G-602

Please refer to the message on the EDW Welcome screen (after logging in) for additional information about current and future improvements to the EDW, including the PowerPoint presentation and Q&A from the recent Webex presentations.

Last Call for Data Warehouse Basics Workshop - this Wednesday!

Data Warehouse: Basics and More
Wednesday, June 29, 2011, 8:30 a.m. - 3:30 p.m.
Location: Bourne High School
Instructor: Laura Tilton, DSAC Data Specialist
Cost: Free

This workshop for new Data Warehouse users will combine the essential elements of the DW101 and DW201 courses from the ESE, including the cycle of inquiry and use of the pre-defined reports. The new Student Growth Model and related reports will also be explored. While sample data will be used for the introductory activities, participants will have the opportunity to begin to investigate data for their own schools/districts.

All participants will need to make sure they have been granted access to the Data Warehouse in the security portal (and know their username and password) by their district’s Directory Administrator. This needs to be done by June 28 at the very latest, as the Data Warehouse requires an overnight wait for access changes. The instructor for the workshop does not have the ability to assign or change Data Warehouse access.

Register through the Cape Cod Collaborative at this link:
http://cccollaborativeorg.dependable-hosting.com/professionaldevelopment/index.asp?CategoryID=26#87

I will also be offering a "refresher" course on August 22 (also listed at the CCC link above) which will include information about the "new" features of the data warehouse (if available.)

It's that time of year!

As the school year winds down, it's also a busy time of year data-wise! The MEPA data were released earlier this month, and the MCAS raw data files and roster files (embargoed!) were placed in DropBoxes at the end of last week. The end of this week will bring new preliminary data in the Data Warehouse, the MEPA-MCAS crosswalks in DropBoxes. If you missed the webinar last week on MCAS Reporting, the PowerPoint presentation can be found in the MCAS Reporting section of the MCAS Service Center.

Last week's conference call on EDW improvements provided of an insight into the improvements being made to the system. (PowerPoint to be posted soon on the ESE Web site.) Some features we can look forward to include:

• Faster report generation due to back-end improvements


• Interface enhancements including reports in a separate window, prompts directly on the report itself, and links to pre-run reports in DropBoxes


• MEPA and CD status data will be in EDW


• Faster access to appropriate prompts (for example, less scrolling to get to the district's name)


• On-screen previews of sample reports so users know what the report looks like before it is run

I don't have details about what features will be available when (I believe the goal is late summer), but I do know that we will see a few of the improvements in this week's EDW release. In addition, the new system and the old system will co-exist for a while as folks get used to the new system.

As a reminder, I am offering a Data Warehouse "Getting Started" workshop on June 29 and a "Refresher" course on August 22 (in Bourne). The refresher course will include any information about the "new" system that is available at that time. Spots are still available and you can sign up through the Cape Cod Collaborative.

Release of Spring 2011 MCAS Test Items

Selected items (and answers) from the Spring 2011 MCAS tests are now available in PDF format from the ESE Web site.

http://www.doe.mass.edu/mcas/2011/release/

Competency Determination (CD) Student Status Update

The updated Competency Determination (CD) attainment status files are now available in the DropBox in the ESE Security Portal. The CD status data reflect the following:

• MCAS results through the March 2011 retests in English Language Arts and Mathematics



• MCAS Performance Appeals through May 17, 2011



• MCAS-Alt results through the spring 2010 tests



• MCAS-Alt Portfolio Appeals through May 12, 2011

For additional details, please see the Commissioner's Memo dated June 10, 2011.

Data Warehouse Improvements

The folks at ESE are taking steps to improve the performance of the data warehouse in the short-term (given the pre-release of MCAS data scheduled for June) as well as the longer-term (August and beyond). One of the steps that will be most beneficial to EDW users is that there will be a direct link to pre-run reports stored in district dropboxes.

The pre-run reports will be:

Pre-burst District Reports (for district-level users with 209 and 210 roles)
o Items Analysis
o Performance, CPI and SGP by Subgroup
o Data files (.csv, .xls)

Pre-burst School reports (for school-level users with 211 roles)
o Student Roster
o Items Analysis
o Performance, CPI and SGP by Subgroup
o Data files (.csv, .xls)
o MCAS-Alt Portfolio

Additional updates and improvements will come later in the summer with re-designed reports and enhanced servers for the main EDW database. Stay tuned!

Data Warehouse Workshops and Refresher Courses?

Currently I have scheduled a Data Warehouse: Basics and More course in Bourne on June 29, and a Data Warehouse Refresher course on August 22. (These are offered through the Cape Cod Collaborative but are open to all districts in the region at no cost, please click the links above to sign up.)

If there is a need for additional Data Warehouse workshops or refresher courses in other parts of the region, I'll be happy to offer them as needed. Please contact me (laura.tilton@dsacma.org) with your DW training needs and I'll keep you informed about upcoming regional training opportunities.

New Class Size Data Reports on Profiles

Average class size data (calculated from the latest Student Course Schedule data collection) can now be found in the School and District Profiles area of the ESE Web site. This calculation divides the total number of students in classes by the total number of classes, based on SCS data. (In the past, the closest the DESE was able to come to a class size statistic was student/teacher ratio.)

From the Profiles main page, click on the “Quick Statewide Reports” dropdown menu on the right to choose between two different class size reports. Both reports allow the user to filter between the district and school levels, sort columns (by clicking headers), look at all subjects combined, or choose one specific subject. Each of the reports contain data for the state at the bottom of the page and all of the data can be downloaded into an Excel or PDF file for further investigation.

From an individual school or district profile, click the "Students" tab to see the data for the individual school or district.

As previously posted, the SCS data has also been used to generate a new set of reports available in the Data Warehouse.

Release Schedule for 2011 Preliminary MCAS Results

Commissioner Chester has announced a schedule for the June release of 2011 preliminary MCAS and MCAS-Alt results. This release will include full preliminary MCAS results for ELA, multiple-choice results for Math and STE (grades 5 and 8), and full MCAS-Alt results. As a reminder, this preliminary information is embargoed; while it may be used for instructional planning, it may not be discussed with the public or press.

Here's a summary of the schedule:

June 15 - ELA Composition images available at the MCAS Service Center Web site
June 16 - MCAS-Alt Portfolio feedback forms available in DropBox
June 17 - Preliminary roster reports posted in DropBox
June 20 - Preliminary school/district reports posted in DropBox
June 24 - Selected reports available in Education Data Warehouse
August TBD - Full preliminary results available

In addition, there will be two MCAS reporting teleconferences on June 16 at 2:30 pm and June 17 at 10:00 am (register via www.mcasservicecenter.com).

The folks at ESE are putting into place several strategies to minimize traffic jams with the EDW for this June release, including links to pre-run versions of popular reports. Stay tuned for more details.

Please visit the Commissioner's memo for the details of the MCAS release schedule as well as the MEPA results schedule.

New SCS Analytical Reports Available in EDW

As I think most everyone knows by now, this year the ESE asked districts to submit student course schedule (SCS) data in addition to the regular collection of student (SIMS) and educator (EPIMS) data.

One of the goals of the SCS (also called SIMS Expansion) project is to provide a series of new analytical reports that examine factors such as class size, teacher and student characteristics, courses of study and other factors on student performance as measured by marks, completion rates and MCAS scores. (This process along with a report preview was presented at the Southeast Data Institute and the presentation and related materials are available online.)

Five of these analytical reports are now available in the EDW in Public Folders > ESE SCS Analytical Reports:

• Classes Taught by Highly Qualified Teachers;


• Teacher Retention by School Poverty Level;


• Class Size by Course Level and by School Poverty Level;


• Course Completions and Passing Rates; and


• Student Marks Distribution by Class Size

Please note that these reports include the certified data for your own district plus statewide data from the 378 districts that certified their collections on time. The EDW team requests that users review the SCS Report Release Notes in that same folder, and understand that these reports may be modified as the data are reviewed.

Good News and Bad News

The bad news: The Data Warehouse will be offline this Thursday (5/19/11) starting at 12:30 pm.

The good news: This downtime will be used for maintenance, configuration and testing as part of the process for improving system performance. The system should be back on line by 7:30 pm Thursday evening.

Data Institute Presentations Available Online

Thanks to the efforts of the Central DSAC and the FLLAC Collaborative, several of the presentations from the March 16 Southeast Data Institute are now available as online videos. Please visit the Data Institute Materials page for links to the following video presentations and related materials:

• Using Data and New Tools for Decision-Making and Continuous Improvement (Bob Bickerton)


• School Interoperability Framework (SIF) Project Update (Valentin Torres and Teri DeFilippo)


• Collecting and Reporting Student Course Schedules (SCS) (Maryann Donie,
  Rob Curtin, Craig Finley) - includes a preview of classroom-level reports!

Special thanks to the presenters for their willingness to share their knowledge in this format so that this important and timely information can be shared beyond those that were able to attend the March 16 event.

Data Warehouse Downtime 5/12/11

The Education Data Warehouse will be offline this Thursday (5/12/11) starting at noon as it undergoes some improvements designed to optimize system performance. The system should be back on line by 7 pm on Thursday.

The EDW team has asked that users delete any unused reports or report views (especially those that are over a year old - they are likely outdated!) These files are kept in your "My Folders" or "District Folders" area. The EDW team would be very appreciative if you are able to assist them by deleting any old files prior to Thursday. The less they have to move on Thursday the better the system will run for the 2011 MCAS releases. Thank you!

Southeast Data Network Meeting 5/4

The Southeast Data Network meeting will be held this Wednesday, May 4, from 8:30-11:00 am at the North River Conference Center, 525 Beech Street, Rockland.

This meeting will serve to continue the important conversations started at the March 16 Southeast Data Institute (for both those that attended and those that did not) by:

• Following up on the “data visions” that teams developed during the institute. What are next steps and needs?


• Prioritizing data-related topics for further discussion, resource sharing, and professional development


• Establishing a meeting schedule and guidance for future networking meetings
  

Formal registration for this meeting has closed, although we certainly welcome all interested folks to attend. Please email me laura.tilton@dsacma.org if you plan to attend and have not yet registered.

2011 March Retest Results in EDW

The 2011 MCAS March Retest results were added to the EDW today. The data are available through the following reports in Public Folders > ESE MCAS Reports:

• R-610 Student Test Results*


• R-613 Student MCAS History*


• R-616 Test Item Analysis Roster


• R-617 Student MCAS Roster

Please remember that running student-level reports with one page per student (* above) will generally take 20-30 seconds to run per student. If you plan to run these reports for larger numbers of students, you will want to set up the reports to run in the background.

In addition, a student data file (.xls and .dat formats) is available to districts and schools, and student roster reports (.pdf format) are available to schools, through DropBox Central in the DESE security portal. For more information on this data release, please see http://www.doe.mass.edu/news/news.aspx?id=6141.

March 2011 MCAS Retest Result Schedule

For the schedule of the March 2011 MCAS retest results (English Language Arts and Mathematics) please see today's news item from Commissioner Chester:

http://www.doe.mass.edu/news/news.aspx?id=6141

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.

February Biology Results in EDW and Dropbox

A message from the Data Warehouse Team:

The 2011 MCAS February Biology results were added to the Education Data Warehouse (EDW) as of 3/24/11. The following reports are available under
Public Folders > ESE MCAS Reports:

R-408 Detailed School Performance Distribution
R-610 Student Test Results
R-613 Student MCAS History
R-616 Test Item Analysis Roster
R-617 Student MCAS Roster

The ESE does not report aggregate school, district or state results for February Biology, so any report that relies on these measures will not have the 2011 February Biology prompt option.

PDF student rosters reports were also placed in each school’s MCAS 2011 dropbox.

Developing a Data Vision

At the March 16 Southeast Data Institute, morning presenter Robb Geier from PCG Education led district-based teams through an investigation of Data Quality, Data Capacity, and Data Culture within the context of their own settings. He talked about the "Fizzle Factor" - the place that many districts seem to get stuck on their way from superficial data use to systemic data use.

Teams worked hard to investigate a framework for thinking about data use, identify related strengths and limiting factors, develop draft vision statements for data use, inventory data systems and available data, and embark on the development of an action plan for district data use. [Robb has graciously made the materials from the workshop available for districts who were not able to attend.]

We hope that ALL districts in the Southeast region will register for one of several upcoming networking sessions where we will have an opportunity to continue these discussions and share common needs and best practices related to data use.

Data Institute Follow-Up

The Lassoing Local Data Conference was held last week at Stonehill College with over 180 attendees from 40+ school districts in the Southeast region.

Thank you to all attendees and presenters for a very successful day! (Please visit the event web site at https://sites.google.com/site/southeastdatainstitute/ for follow-up information and a slide show of the day.)

Presentation materials and handouts from the day are being posted on the Conference Materials page as we receive them, so that they may be shared with a wider audience.

In addition, a series of follow-up networking meetings focused on data use are being organized in order to continue the important conversations that were started at last week's event. All districts in the region are invited to attend these initial meetings, not just the districts which were able to send teams to the institute. Please visit the Follow-Up Opportunities page for additional information and registration.

Data Institute and Follow-Up Resources

I am looking forward to seeing many of you at the Lassoing Local Data institute this Wednesday at Stonehill College. (Please note that the conference is completely filled with a wait list - registered participants received confirmations via email last week.)

For those that aren't able to attend, please know that we will be posting as many of the resources from the institute on the Resource page on the event web site. In addition, there will be follow-up networking sessions held in April and May, hosted through our region's collaboratives. These will be open to ALL districts in the region, regardless of whether or not your district attended the institute.

Additional information will be posted later this week so stay tuned!

Beta ESE MCAS Reports Dashboard

The Data Warehouse folks at DESE host a variety of monthly conference calls on Data Warehouse developments for the following users groups:

• Report Author User Group - 1st Wednesday of the month at 2 pm
• District User Group - 2nd Wednesday of the month at 2 pm
• Local Assessment Workgroup – 4th Wednesday of the month at 2 pm

To get more information about any of these groups and subscribe to receive notification about these conference calls, please visit the main EDW Web page, and scroll to the bottom of the page.

During today's District User Group call, Jeff Comenitz shared information about the new "ESE MCAS Reports Dashboards" that are under development. The student-level dashboard is now available in the EDW (in beta form) for testing and feedback in Public Folders > ESE MCAS Reports > Beta > MCAS 600-Level Reports.

This Dashboard allows the user to quickly access all of the 600-level reports. The user can click on a report name, and see an image of a sample report before running it. The user can also choose "Run as HTML" or "Run as PDF" to select the output and go to the prompt page for the report. They are also working on a "Run with Options" link which would allow the user to set the report to run in the background.

Jeff is encouraging folks to check out this beta Dashboard and send feedback to datawarehouse@doe.mass.edu.

Regional Data Institute Details

The “Lassoing Local Data: Creating Systems that Support a Culture of Inquiry” event will be held March 16, 2011 at Stonehill College in Easton and will be open to teams from school districts in the Southeast region of Massachusetts. Teams must be coordinated through the superintendent's office, as spots for this free event are limited.

For details, please visit https://sites.google.com/site/southeastdatainstitute/.

DART Tool Enhancements

Last summer, DESE published the Excel-based "DART" (District Analysis and Review Tool), available online at http://www.doe.mass.edu/sda/dart/. The DART offers a snapshot of district performance, allowing users to easily track select data elements over time, and make comparisons to the state or to "comparable" districts.

A variety of enhancements to the DART were published last week, including the addition of 2010-2011 SIMS data, new enrollment data, curriculum indicators, and graduation information. (Details are listed on the DART page linked above.)

There is also a brand-new file called "DART Detail: Finance and Staffing," the first in a series of DART files that will provide more detail in particular areas. This tool allows you to compare five districts and their three year trends in finance and staffing.

Of course, the most useful tool for most of us this week has been ... a shovel. Happy snow!

A Question from the Field...and a Little Excel Lesson

A district administrator recently asked me, "How can I find out how many middle schools in Massachusetts didn't make AYP for Mathematics?"

One source for this information is an Excel document on the ESE AYP page entitled, 2010 Lists of Massachusetts Schools and Districts by NCLB Accountability Status and Accountability and Assistance Level. You can use the filter feature of Excel to answer this (and other) questions.

What is filtering in Excel, you ask? Well, it's a way of displaying ONLY data in a list that fit certain criteria. I encourage you to follow along and try this out, if you're not familiar with the filter feature in Excel, and you'll see just how handy it is!

After you've opened the Excel document above, click the tab at the bottom for Table 5, which will give you a list of all the schools in the state. You can use the filter feature of Excel to narrow down the data to answer this question - just click on the little arrow on the top of the column to use the filter. First, filter in the "Grade Level" column (Column F) to display only the Middle Schools. A number will appear in the lower left corner, telling you how many schools meet that criteria (289 of 1737 schools).

Then, scroll over to Column O (2010 Math AYP Aggregate) and use the filter feature to display only the schools that did not make AYP. Again, look in the lower left corner for the number (136 schools.) You can repeat this process for other criteria, such as subgroups and/or ELA (just make sure you remove the filter in the other column before choosing another column.)

Note that the filter feature works a little differently depending on what version of Excel you have. Here's a simple overview of the filter feature in Excel for those using Excel 2007 or earlier. I find the filter feature to be one of the most useful aspects of exploring and analyzing data with Excel!

November Retest Results and Enrollment Updates Available in EDW

The MCAS November Retest results are now available in the Education Data Warehouse (EDW) in Public Folders > ESE MCAS Reports. The retest data is included in the following student-level reports:

• R-610 Student Test Results


• R-613 Student MCAS History


• R-616 Test Item Analysis Roster


• R-617 Student MCAS Roster

Please note that the retest information is not included in school, district or state aggregated results, so reports that rely on this data will not have the 2010 November Retest prompt option.

In addition to the EDW reports, the MCAS 2010 DropBox also contains PDF student roster reports with retest information.

Finally, the reports in Public Folders > ESE Enrollment and Indicators have been updated to display data from the October 1, 2011 SIMS collection.

2010 Competency Determination Data Released

For those of you involved at the high school level, I thought you'd be interested to know that the 2010 Competency Determination data (MCAS requirements for graduation) has been released. The data reflect MCAS and MCAS-Alt results through the spring 2010 tests and MCAS Performance Appeals through November 18, 2010.

The data files can be found at DropBox Central in the ESE Security Portal for those personnel who have been assigned the MCAS DropBox security role (assigned by your district's Directory Administrator).

For additional information, please see the 1/11 Commissioner's Update.