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…

Enacted in 2014, the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA) brought numerous changes to existing federal employment and training programs, including requiring the Department of Labor (DOL) and the Department of Education (Education) to implement a common performance accountability system across the six WIOA-designated core programs. WIOA…

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…

The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA or the Recovery Act) of 2009 provided an unprecedented level of funding for K-12 education. The program created a "historic opportunity to save hundreds of thousands of jobs, support states and school districts, and advance reforms and improvements that will create long-lasting results for our…

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…

The need for better data on the performance of higher education has become a major focus of education policymakers, and this has been reflected in federal legislation. Community colleges are appropriately held accountable for the workforce outcomes of their students, but the data that are gathered to evaluate those outcomes must reflect the…

Since the inception of the No Child Left Behind legislation, school districts have been faced with a growing need to gather, analyze and monitor more data than ever before in the management of school performance. Accountability mandates also have placed a greater emphasis on gleaning the most granular types of information from these large sources…

Displays findings from a fall 2002 survey of all states to determine how they were progressing in meeting No Child Left Behind Act's list of requirements. Generally, states and local districts are stronger developing accountability systems but a significant gap remains between the federal law's demands and the capacity to meet them. (Author/MLF)