Quality Data: Improving Education in SC

1. South Carolina Department of Education Title Slide AchievingQuality Data

2. Quality Data: SASI Data EIA/EFAFunding EarlyChildhood SASI stores a vast amount of data related to all aspects of educating SC’s students. Over 190 data items are extracted from SASI records ClassSchedule Student CourseCodes /History Teacher Dropouts Attendance Precode School toWork Career & Tech Ed(CATE) Discipline Trans-portation

3. Quality Data: SASI Data – Put to Work! SASI data is often relied upon to meet the requirements of Federal, State, and District policies and regulations. UMIRS Legislative Decision Making EEDA School & District Report Cards No Child Left Behind Preprinted Test Sheets Perkins Act Medicaid Funding Adequate Yearly Progress Highly Qualified Teachers and more…

4. Quality Data: SASI Data – Put to Work! Increased demands for data result from state and federal statutory and regulatory requirements. Each data element requested via SASI is tied to a requirement for reporting or funding. • USDA Reimbursements • Education Accountability Act Report Card Free or reduced lunch status

5. Quality Data: Shaping South Carolina’s Future The Collection of Accurate and Timely Data Allows… …TEACHERS to make appropriate decisions about their students’ needs. …PRINCIPALS to track student and teacher progress. …DISTRICTPERSONNEL to hire staff or provideresources where and when they are most needed. …the SC STATE LEGISLATURE to know when resources are making a difference in education. …the SC DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION to plan and manage effective programs.

6. Quality Data: Getting Things Right… • Quality Data is Accurate • Quality Data is Secure • Quality Data is Timely • Quality Data is Complete • Quality Data is Trusted What constitutes quality data?

7. Define the Data Input Criteria Data Quality: How can data be improved? Define the Data Input Criteria • Policies and Regulations • Standards and Guidelines http://ed.sc.gov/

8. Communication Data Quality: How can data be improved? • Communication • Schedule regular meetingsfor program experts, data entry staff, and technology staff. • Encourage a forum for feedback • on what works and what doesn’t. • Publish data entry & collection deadlines via a “Data Calendar.”

9. Quality Data:How can data be improved? Hands-on SASI training workshops are provided by SDE Regional Technology Centers in • Florence • Conway • Dorchester Professional Development Additional training Webinars & Workshops may be provided via Pearson School Systems (PSS).

10. Quality Data: How can data be improved? • Protect the confidentiality of student records • Utilize login passwords • Implement periodic software updates • Limit user rights within SASI • Prohibit volunteers and non-trained employees from accessing SASI data. Technology Secure the Network!

11. Data Quality: How can data be improved? Data Entry Personnel SASI Clerks are the INITIAL SOURCE for quality data! Re-evaluate: • Job descriptions • Salary level • Skills and educational requirements necessary to do the job Recognize and reward exceptional data entry persons in your school.

12. Share the memos. Quality Data: How can data be improved? Data EntryEnvironment Communicate the data entry expectations. Provide a quiet setting for data entry. Allow data entry staff to attend SASIxp training. Limit non-essential duties during heavy data entry periods.

13. Cooperation Principal Superintendent DataCoordinator Teacher Counselor Librarian TechnologyStaff DataEntryClerk Nurse Data Quality: How can data be improved? • Cooperation… • Quality is Everyone’s Responsibility

14. Resources Quality Data:Resources which help improve data • Technical Documentation • Web sites - http://ed.sc.gov • Forms/worksheets • SDE 2006 Data Collection Manual http://ed.sc.gov

15. Resources: 2005-06 Data Collection Manual • Identifies the SASI fields collected, Atom by Atom

16. Verification & Validation Data Quality: How can data be improved? Verification and Validation of SASI Data

17. Data Quality :(SDE) Reporting Manager Data Validation • Reports list error messages (by District or school) which identify missing, inaccurate, and invalid data. • Validation reports are provided to the districts via the Reporting Manager.

18. Role of the Principal What you should do… Recognize the potential impact of inaccurate data… Financially • Pupil Accounting System (PAS) • Student Accountability System (SAS) • Relationship of Free & Reduced lunch data to: • Nutrition programs • Title 1 services • E-rate program Publicly UMIRS Reporting AYP School Report Card Highly Qualified Teachers Are you confident that your data reflect appropriate codes for services provided at your school?

19. The Reality of Poor Data Quality – the UMIRS Report • The Federal No Child Left Behind legislation mandates the collection and reporting of : • Truancy rates • Violent offenses • Drug-related offenses • Student suspensions & expulsions • Programs & services for dealing with truancy, violence and drug use • Is your data painting an accurate picture • of your students and school?

20. The Reality of Poor Data Quality – Coding Errors on the UMIRS Report 175 offenses of chewinggumare reported as 175 handgun violations on the UMIRS report.WHY?

21. The Reality of Poor Data Quality – Coding Errors on the UMIRS Report Culprit: Inaccurate Coding The middle school used the state standardized discipline code for handgunviolation (#781) instead of creating a user-defined code to record incidents of chewing gum. Are you confident that data entry at your school is based on current, accurate, and standard codes?

22. The Reality of Poor Data Quality – Inaccurate Highly Qualified Teacher Data Joe teaches Algebra I at a SC middle school. Joe is S.C. certified and highly qualified in Math. Why are Joe’s Algebra classes flagged as nothaving a highly qualified Math teacher?

23. The Reality of Poor Data Quality – Inaccurate Highly Qualified Teacher Data Answer: Two numbers in Joe’s certification number were transposed upon entry, therefore he was could not be verified as SC certified teacher. -or- An out-dated course code was used when scheduling Joe’s Algebra classes in SASI. The course code was not state approved for indicating a “core” subject.

24. The Reality of Poor Data Quality – Inaccurate Highly Qualified Teacher Data • Highly Qualified Teacher counts are affected by: • Incomplete teacher information • Invalid teacher Social Security and/or certificate numbers • Out of date/incorrect course codes Ooops!

25. The Reality of Poor Data Quality: Inaccurate Data • Worrisome “dirty” data… • Lunch status, gender, birth date, GR9 & race data fields are often left blank orcompletedwithinvalid codes. • Duplicate student records exist;The unique State ID field is often blank. • Inaccurate dropout dates, program entry/withdrawal dates are often found. • Invalid characters are found in name fields • Incorrectnumber of digits in numeric fields, etc.

26. The Reality of Poor Data Quality: Inaccurate Data Worrisome data entry processes… • Not completely “enrolling” new students with birthdates, etc. SUNs program is not invoked = potential for duplicate students. • Not “inactivating” students prior to the first day of testing. Inaccurate counts represented in AYP calculation. • Not using standardized codes.

27. Role of the Principal What you should do… • Ask Yourself… • Are data complete for students, teachers, courses, etc? • What verification methods are implemented in my school or district prior to submitting data to the SDE? • Which persons are responsible for the data? Have they been trained? • Are the most current guidelines and codes being utilized?

28. Questions Data Quality ? ? QUESTIONS ? Office of Technology Barbara Solomon(Bsolomon@ed.sc.gov)