Welcome! 2011 NCES Common Core of Data Non-Fiscal Coordinator Training

1. Welcome!2011 NCES Common Core of DataNon-Fiscal Coordinator Training • Presented at the 2011 NCES Summer Data Conference

2. Contact Information

3. The Common Core of Data • NCES’ annual collection of basic data on public schools systems in the states and state-level jurisdictions in the US and affiliated land areas. • CCD nonfiscal information is obtained from state-level education officials through the EDEN/EDFacts data collection system.

4. CCD Surveys/Components (Non-Fiscal) • Public School Universe - Information on all public elementary and secondary schools during a school year, including directory information, membership and total staff FTE • Local Education Agency (School District) Universe - Information for the universe of LEAs directory information, membership and staff details • State Aggregate -Information on all students and staff aggregated to the state level including number of students by grade and gender level and staff details

5. CCD Surveys/Components (Non-Fiscal) • Local Education Agency Dropout and Completer Files- Information for number of graduates and completers at the agency level. NCES IDs can be used to link to the directory files. Public-use and Restricted-use files are available. • State Dropout and Completer Files- Information for number of graduates and completers at the state level

6. CCD Surveys/Components (Fiscal) F-33 – District Level Fiscal Data • The annual district-level collection of revenues and expenditures for public education of grades pre-kindergarten through 12 National Public Education Financial Survey • The annual state-level collection of revenues and expenditures for public education of grades pre-kindergarten through 12 Teacher Compensation Survey • The Pilot Teacher Compensation Survey (TCS) is a research and development effort to see if it is possible to collect and publish teacher-level compensation data

7. Role of CCD Coordinators • As a CCD Coordinator you have the responsibility for providing data that accurately portrays the state of public elementary/secondary education in your state to the: • United States Department of Education, Institute for Education Sciences, National Center for Education Statistics, Common Core of Data (CCD)

8. CCD Coordinators vs. EdFacts Coordinators • A CCD Coordinator is the subject matter expert of the data. • A EdFacts Coordinator is responsible for submitting the data to NCES through EDEN. • It is vital that the two parties (if two different people) work together to submit the data accurately.

9. Where Can I Find the CCD? CCD Home Page http://nces.ed.gov/ccd/ Home page includes links to CCD data & documentation, publications

10. Other Features on CCD Website • State Coordinator’s Corner — Coordinator Contact Information — Links to SEA web sites • Data tools — school and district locators —Elementary / Secondary Information System (ElSI) — Build-A-Table (BAT)

11. How are CCD Data Used? • Cited in many nationally recognized reports. • Used as a sampling frame for surveys • Could be used to distribute resources to schools • Link fiscal, nonfiscal, and graduation data at the district and state level

12. How are CCD Data Used to Help Schools? • Several federal programs and charitable foundations use CCD lists and information in selecting schools and school districts to receive funding, computers, and other instructional equipment. • They use the NCES ID to verify that the school is legitimate.

13. Examples of Organizations that Provide Money to Schools using CCD • E-Rate • Private Grants • Other Organizations (Verizon, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, NASA)

14. Rural Education Achievement Program (REAP) • Every school in the 50 states and DC is assigned a locale code based on the reported location address of a school (or mailing address if location address not provided). • Incorrect addresses may lead to inaccurate locale codes. • This code is a critical factor in eligibility.

15. CCD Releases • To help schools and researchers, NCES has improved the release dates for the universe data: * Pre EdFacts

16. The CCD Process from EDFacts to NCES • Key Players • National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) – CCD Data Stewards • EDFacts – collects the CCD Non-Fiscal data, and sends data extracts to the U.S. Census Bureau. • U.S. Census Bureau – edits the CCD Non-Fiscal Data, and works with EDFacts and CCD Coordinators to verify data and revise errors. • Census and other contractors– works with NCES to publish the CCD data.

17. The CCD Process from EDFacts to NCES • States submit CCD data to EDFacts. • Please review your Match, Summary, and Edit Reports in EDFacts. • For the most part, Census edits match EDFacts edits. • Once a state submits their Directory data to EDFacts, then EDFacts sends all of that state’s CCD data to the U.S. Census Bureau for review. • Census loads the data into its CCD Processing System for analysis.

18. The CCD Process from EDFacts to NCES • Census analyzes and produces three major CCD file groups for NCES for each school year: • Preliminary file with approved Directory • CCD file with all data approved except dropouts and completers • Dropout and Completer File

19. The CCD Process from EDFacts to NCES • Directory File Review • School and Agency Match • All match errors must be resolved. • Census will attempt to resolve your match errors without contacting states; however we may not be able to resolve all of them without your help. • Edit Reports • All critical errors • Invalid Addresses and Phone Numbers • Changes in School / Agency Type and Charter field

20. The CCD Process from EDFacts to NCES • CCD File Review • Summary Reports • Cross file errors (Students and Staff) • SNF<LEA, SNF<SCH, LEA<SCH • CY/PY changes that are greater than 10% for totals • Edit Reports • All critical errors that we cannot resolve internally. • Significant non-critical errors • Changes in School Flags (Magnet, Shared, Title 1) • Large changes in CY/PY data (Staff, Membership, Lunch, Special Education, etc…)

21. The CCD Process from EDFacts to NCES • Dropout and Completer File Review • Summary Reports • Cross file errors (Grads) • SNF<LEA • CY/PY changes that are greater than 10% for totals • Edit Reports • All critical errors that we cannot resolve internally. • 400 and 20 Rules. • Dropouts and Grads in grades that are not offered. • Significant non-critical errors • Large changes in CY/PY data

22. The CCD Process from EDFacts to NCES • 2010-2011 CCD Schedule • Directory File: Delivered to NCES in May 2011. • NCES will release data in July 2011 (Final Directory Data and Preliminary Data for Total Membership, Total Teachers at the LEA level, and School Flags). • CCD File: Delivery to NCES in September 2011. • NCES plans to release data at the end of 2011 or early 2012. • Dropout / Completer File: Delivery to NCES in April 2012. • NCES will release data in Early Fall 2012.

23. The CCD Process from EDFacts to NCES • 2010-2011 Changes to CCD • NCES will begin publishing: • LEA membership by race/grade/gender • Reconstituted flag

24. The CCD Process from EDFacts to NCES • Questions?

25. Error Reports • NCES has improved the timelines on when you receive error messages concerning the data • Our goal is to make the procedure to be as efficient and helpful as we can • We work every year with EdFacts to improve their edits and better align them with our own

26. Error Reports • How would you like to receive the error reports? Which way would be the best for you to review / fix the problems? • Receive them all at one time? • Receive them immediately when you report the data? • By groups of data (directory, membership and staff, graduates)?

27. Error Reports • How do you handle the error reports? • When you receive the error reports, what procedures do you do to correct the errors? • Verify that is an error? • Work with other offices in your state? • Contacts the schools or districts involved?

28. Error Reports • How would you handle the following errors? • The number of the students at the LEA level exceed the state level by 5,000 • There are zero reported dropouts in a district with 1,000 students

29. Error Reports • How would you handle the following errors? • A school appears to have been closed and then reopened in the same year • Twenty schools all have the same physical address

30. Error Reports • What you should do if you can fix the data? • Resubmit the data through EdFacts. • Let Census know so they will know to expect it.

31. CCD Data Quality Issues Over the Past Few Years

32. Invalid Location Address and Phone Numbers • What are the issues? • States are reporting invalid location addresses • Ex. - PO Box, district address for school address, ‘No Address Found’, etc… • Location addresses are used to assign geography data. • REAP uses the geography data to distribute funds to schools. • States are reporting invalid phone numbers • Ex - 555-555-5555 or 301-555-6789

33. Invalid Location Address and Phone Numbers • What does Census do to resolve the issue(s)? • We use valid prior year data if available. • We use the school/agency website to find valid addresses and phone numbers. • We email state coordinators our findings for verification and approval. • If we don’t hear back from state, then we will use the revised address and phone number data.

34. Invalid Location Address and Phone Numbers • What can states do to help prevent/resolve the issue(s)? • Please verify our research, update your databases with this information, and resubmit to EDFacts. • Create edits in your process that looks for PO Boxes and duplicate addresses. • Communicate with your schools and districts the importance of reporting valid location addresses and phone numbers.

35. Invalid Location Address and Phone Numbers • Questions?

36. Grades Offered and Membership Data • What are the issues? • Many states have grades offered files that do not correspond to their membership files. • Example – school offers 12th grade, but 12th grade membership is blank. • Example – school reports 12th grade membership, but does not include 12th grade in their grades offered file. • Difficulty populating blank membership and grades offered data.

37. Grades Offered and Membership Data • What does Census do to resolve the issue(s)? • Census contacts states coordinators to make them aware of the discrepancy. • Census creates business rules to populate blank membership and grades offered data. • Census calculates GSLO and GSHI based on the grades offered and membership data.

38. Grades Offered and Membership Data • What can states do to help prevent/resolve the issue(s)? • Review your EDFacts / Census Edit Reports to identify discrepancies between grades offered and membership. • Report ‘0’ or ‘Missing’ for total membership in all grades that you offer.

39. Grades Offered and Membership Data • Questions?

40. Free or Reduced Priced Lunch Data • What are the issues? • Some states are reporting Free Lunch data that exceeds their membership data. • Free Lunch data should include students that are eligible to participate in the Free Lunch Program. • You should assign free lunch students to the school where they sit, which is not necessarily the school where they receive the free lunch. • The Free Lunch data is the main socio-economic indicator on the CCD file that many researchers use as a school level poverty indicator.

41. Free or Reduced Priced Lunch Data • What does Census do to resolve the issue(s)? • We send states a list of schools where Free Lunch exceeds membership. • If states do not resolve these errors, then we set the Free Lunch data equal to total membership minus 3.

42. Free or Reduced Priced Lunch Data • What can states do to help prevent/resolve the issue(s)? • Please review your EDFacts / Census Edit Reports to identify cases where Free Lunch exceeds total membership. • Inform your schools on the importance of reporting the Free Lunch data for eligible students at the schools where they sit, not necessarily the schools where they receive the free lunch.

43. Free Lunch Data • Questions?

44. Dropouts and Completers • Whatare the issues? • Timeliness: Reporting delays are most significant for the 040 (completers) and 032 (dropouts) files. • For the 2009-10 collection these were due 1/31/2011 • Data doesn’t always add up: Some states have major differences between the dropout rates and the graduation rates suggesting inaccurate data.

45. Dropouts and Completers • What does NCES do to resolve the issue(s)? • PSC and Census are in close contact, monitoring the status of all dropout and completer file submissions • NCES will be less likely to grant significant deadline extensions • NCES will impute data for any states that cannot meet deadlines or do not respond to Census/NCES data quality inquiry.

46. Dropouts and Completers • What can states do to help prevent/resolve the issue(s)? • Report data in a timely manner. • Report accurate data. • Respond to Census data quality inquiries in a timely manner

47. Dropouts and Completers • Questions?

48. Cross-Level Data Quality Issues • Whatare the issues? • Σ[school] > Σ[agency] • Σ[school] > state • Σ[agency] > state • Σ[school] > agency *frequently and by 10% or more • Double counting at the school or agency levels

49. Cross-Level Data Quality Issues • What does NCES do to resolve the issue(s)? • PSC and Census will be in close contact, alerting you to these data errors. • NCES will use the higher-level data to adjust the lower-level data so that the lower-level aggregates don’t exceed the higher-level aggregates. • What accounts for the discrepancies between the school and agency -level data?

50. Cross-Level Data Quality Issues • What can states do to help prevent/resolve the issue(s)? • Report accurate data. • Audit your data before submitting. • Respond to Census data quality inquiries in a timely manner.