Planning for the sustainability of data system integration should be a fundamental part of the initial project plan. Taking a long-term view rather than a project-to-project approach improves the data culture and chances of success. The intent of this tip sheet is to identify key components, strategic timing, and planning considerations for…

Eleven states have worked with CIID, over the past three years, to integrate their IDEA data and to implement Generate, a software application that improves data quality and automates reporting through standardization. These eleven states have realized notable data quality improvements that will be shared in this brief to help states across the…

CIID has implemented Generate in 9 state education agencies (SEAs), and through this work SEAs have realized a variety of improvements to their special education data in terms of overall data quality, improvements to data governance structures, and ease of federal reporting. This brief is the second in a series looking at data quality. Here, we…

The objective of this audit was to determine whether the U.S. Department of Education's (Department) overall information technology (IT) security programs and practices were effective as they relate to Federal information security requirements. To answer this objective, the Department's performance was rated in accordance with Fiscal Year (FY)…

High-quality data is essential when looking at student-level data, including data specifically focused on students with disabilities. For state education agencies (SEAs), it is critical to have a solid foundation for how data is collected and stored to achieve high-quality data. The process of integrating the Individuals with Disabilities…

The Center for the Integration of IDEA Data (CIID) Data Integration Toolkit is designed to support SEA [state education agency] efforts to integrate Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) data with their statewide longitudinal data systems (SLDSs) and includes: (1) A sample road map articulating typical steps and tasks required for…

For more than a decade, states have evaluated school performance largely through a single measure--test scores--and rated schools on whether they improved students' performance in reading or math. The idea was to focus schools' attention on the outcomes that mattered most and to focus states' attention on the schools that needed the most help in…

Educational authorities and policymakers are increasingly focused on protecting student privacy while using data to inform program and policy decisions. Data from more than one government agency is often analyzed to more holistically inform these decisions. This has led to the development of integrated data systems (IDSs) that allow linkage of…

Until recently, states focused on ensuring the presence of a "highly qualified teacher" in every classroom. Under the 2001 reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA), known as No Child Left Behind (NCLB), this title described a teacher holding at least a bachelor's degree and the appropriate state license and…

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to provide an empirical comparison of two measures of school success -- a value-added assessment system and the federally-mandated system of adequate yearly progress (AYP) -- to identify highly effective urban schools in the USA and to explore the predictive relationship between evidence-based decision-making…

Due to legislative mandate, the Ohio Department of Education (ODE) was required to develop a system (the Education Management Information System) that would increase the amount of information available to state-level policy makers and the public. Some recommendations for improving the function of EMIS are offered in this report. The text provides…

In response to legislative mandates calling on educational institutions to become more accountable for monies spent, a number of community colleges in California have implemented research and data collection models to help them answer state and local questions about institutional effectiveness. However, there is a significant difference between…