Higher Education Policy Conference Friday, August 11 th 2011 Common Education Data Standards (CEDS): What, Why, and How?

2 Today’s Panelists  Panel Members: o Shawn T. Bay, Founder, eScholar LLC o John Blegen, Project Manager, Common Education Data Standards, SHEEO o Brandt Redd, Senior Technology Officer, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation o Gary West, Strategic Initiative Director for Information Systems and Research, Council of Chief State School Officers  Moderator: o Katie Zaback, Policy Analyst, SHEEO

3 WHAT IS THE COMMON EDUCATION DATA STANDARDS INITIATIVE?

4 Educators and policy makers need accurate, timely, and consistent information about students and schools in order to plan effective learning experiences, improve schools, and reduce costs. In addition, our student population is highly mobile – across districts and states, and between K-12 and postsecondary – thus the need to share high quality data requires that we develop a common vocabulary for a core subset of data elements that exist in multiple data systems. Why Do We Need Common Data Standards?

5 A national collaborative effort to develop voluntary, common data standards for a key set of variables. CEDS elements focus on standard definitions, code sets, and technical specifications of a subset of key data elements. This will increase data interoperability, portability, and comparability across states, districts, and higher education organizations. Voluntary Common Vocabulary What are the standards?

6 CEDS Stakeholders  Local Education Agencies  State Education Agencies  Institutions of Higher Education (public and private)  State Higher Education Agencies  SHEEO and CCSSO  Interoperability Standards Org: PESC and SIF  USDOE Program Offices: NCES, OPEPD, OET, OUS, OPE, and FSA  Associations: AACC, APLU, AIR, NAICU  Foundations: Gates and MSDF  Other Federal: DOL (invited)

7 Why is NCES involved? Data quality is essential to their mission. They believe that data quality begins at the institution level. Common education data standards not only facilitate data exchanges between institutions, states, and the federal government but it also helps improve data quality from the ground up both when reporting to NCES (e.g., IPEDS) and in the SLDS-funded state systems.

8 Status and Timeline Version 1  Released in September, 2010  161 elements – focused on K-12 Student record exchange across districts/States Student transcripts High school feedback reports from postsecondary to K-12 Version 2.0  Overall, focus will be more on postsecondary for Version 2.0  Postsecondary different from K12 Most institutions are private (even though most enrollments are in publics) Not all institutions in state systems Different state governance and systems  What binds them all together?

9 Why IPEDS?  Good for state systems Applies to all Title IV institutions regardless of whether in a state data system, but state systems could still adopt them and assist with data-sharing across institutions in their system (as well as with IPEDS reporting) IPEDS covers topics of most interest: enrollments, transfers, completions (i.e., student mobility)  Good for institutions NCES can use CEDS to build new tools to assist with data reporting and help ease reporting burden Institutions can share data, when appropriate, using a common language  Good for project plan Provides an achievable scope of work for Version 2.0; IPEDS is ultimately a Use Case for CEDS but also keeps work directed and manageable  Good for aggregated data quality NCES is always interested in improving data quality and comparability in its data collections IPEDS training can provide more details to data providers and base it on CEDS, ultimately improving data quality

10 CEDS Consortium Advocacy Communication Adoption Implementation CCSSO 1 SHEEO 1 DQC 2 PESCSIF The Managing Partners 1 Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation 2 Michael and Susan Dell Foundation

11 FROM OUR PANELISTS

Personalized Learning Model

Four-Layer Framework for Data Standards Data Dictionary Definition of data Elements including Name and Interpretation. Data Model Logical definition of Entities as groups of elements and inter-entity Relationships. Serialization Concrete digital format for storage or interchange of Elements. Protocol Format and rules for exchanging Serialized Elements Ease of Data Exchange and Systems Integration Broader Applicability and Longevity of Standards CEDS 2.0

Copyright eScholar LLC ©2010. All Rights Reserved.

Interstate Use Case The eScholar Interstate project is designed for states to search for students across state borders. The goal is provide the states an ability to find potential false dropouts and more effectively manage student records.

Copyright eScholar LLC ©2010. All Rights Reserved. Interstate Data Mapping Data Mapping for Interstate Project Interstate FieldPESC FieldIMS FieldSIF FieldCEDS Field State Student IDAgencyAssignedIdsourcedidStateProvinceIDStudentIdentificationCode StudentIdentificationSystem="State" Student First NameFirstNamename/n/givenFirstName Student Last NameLastNamename/familyLastName Student Middle NameMiddleNamename/partname/partnametypeMiddleName Student Name SuffixNameSuffixname/n/suffixN/ANameSuffix Previous Last NameN/Aname/partname/partnametypeName Type ="05" Name Type valid value 05 Previous Name (sometimes called Maiden Name of Female Persons) OtherName Date of BirthBirthDatebdayBirthDateBirthdate GenderGenderCodegenderGenderSex Grade LevelStudentLevelCodegrouptype/typevalue/levelGradeLevel/CodeEntryGrade Level Race Ethnic CodeRaceCodeN/ARaceList/Race/CodeRace Ethnicity IndicatorEthnicityCodeN/AHispanicLatinoHispanic LatinoEthnicity Social Security NumberSSNsourcedidSSNStudentIdentificationCode StudentIdentificationSystem="SSN” Local Student IDSchoolAssignedPersonIDsourcedidLocalIDStudentIdentificationCode StudentIdentificationSystem="District" Country of BirthBirthCountryN/ACountryOfBirthBirthCountry Source System CodeN/AdatasourceN/A Last Update DateCreateDateTimedatetimeN/A Entry Date timeframe/beginEntryDate Entry CodeN/A EntryType/CodeEntryType Exit Date timeframe/endExitDateExitWithdrawalDate Exit CodeExit Reason CodeN/AExitType/CodeExitWithdrawalType Entry TypeN/A

Copyright eScholar LLC ©2010. All Rights Reserved. Naming and Identification SIF PESC IMS CEDS/TSDS Data Content Rules SIF PESC NCES CEDS/TSDS Messaging/ Communication Standards SIF PESC IMS CEDS/TSDS How to Converge the standards 1.Create an over-arching standards convergence initiative (CEDS). 2.Set up open groups that address (data elements, data content rules, communication standards, IP and licensing. 3.Invite leadership from existing standards organizations to participate in groups (SIF, PESC, IMS, etc.) 4.Get the customers (SEAs and LEAs) onboard and committed to the objective that any new functionality delivered that involves interoperability of data will conform to the current version of the overall standard. 5.Make it clear that the scope is as broad as the educational customers need it to be. (P-20, WF, Instructional, etc). 6.Set short deadlines for approved versions 7.Have the customers drive vendor participation and compliance. IP and Licensing SIF PESC IMS CEDS/TSDS

States support comprehensive information systems that address the states’ data needs: Inform teaching and learning (inform what should happen next for each learner) Automate all federal reporting (in the aggregate from record-level source data) Support the newly proposed accountability principles (state-based reporting) Share data with constituencies and communities (automate SchoolDataDirect and SchoolMatters, others) CCSSO Goals for State Information Systems

Student Success Growth Opportunities & Supports High Quality Instruction & Leadership Educator & System Accountability Core Teaching Standards Professional Development Standards Common Core State Standards for Students Data Standards School Leader Standards The States’ Foundations

Integration of Data through the States’ SLDS and ETL through CEDS 2.0 SLDS ( Statewide Longitudinal Data System ) Common Ed Data Standards State Core Model Filters and Queries De-Identification Systems Unique Identifiers Reporting Research More SIS ( Student Information System ) Students Teachers CoursesClasses/Sections Discipline/Behavior Grades/Transcripts More LMS ( Learning Management System ) Common Core State Standards Aligned Academic Standards Curriculum Components Instructional Planning Instructional Programs Instructional Materials Instructional Resources Instructional Activities More EDS ( Educator Data System ) Teachers Principals Other Education Staff Evaluation Data Credentials/LicensesSchedules Professional Development Schools of Education More AMS ( Assessment Management System ) Common Core Assessments Statewide Assessments Formative Assessments Interim Assessments More PDS ( Postsecondary Data Systems ) Educator Preparation College Readiness Reporting Research More IDS ( Unique ID/Indexing Systems ) Students Teachers Courses ID Management Professional Development Instructional Resources MoreWDS ( Workforce Data Systems ) Business Partners Workforce Readiness Workforce Preparation Armed Forces Reporting Research More ETL CSEIS CEDS 2.0

21 5 Moving the State’s Data through CEDS 2.0  A state’s SLDS data will be extracted by the state’s ETL application  The state’s ETL application will transform the data based on common standards and data model  The transformed data will be loaded into the comprehensive state education information system (CSEIS) State SLDS ETL CSEIS CEDS 2.0 Same In Every State

State SLDS Common State Education Information System ETL App CEDS 2.0 The Apps Store Dashboards EDFacts Reporting CRDC Reporting Accountability Principles Support Individualized Learning Plans Learning Maps Learning Content More… Vender Apps In Every State CSEIS Other State Data

Students are following diverse paths in and out of early childhood, K-12, postsecondary, & workforce Associate Degree Certificate 2-Year College Part Time Job Part Time Job 2 GED Training Early Childhood Education Elementary & Middle School High School Diploma Bachelor’s Degree Full Time Job # 1 4-Year College High School Full Time Job # 2 Military Service Graduate Degree Apprenticeship

In the Late ‘60s SREB began sharing data among its members! A decade later, HEDS began data sharing among more than 100 Private institutions Since then, hundreds of decentralized, independent, data sharing agreements continue to moved the inquiry process forward. But, each project has to solve the data standards problem all over again…

Every Sector of the Education Community can benefit from the improved efficiency and superior data quality that can result from Common Education Data Standards