Higher Education Policy Conference Friday, August 11 th 2011

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

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

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 • AdvocacyCommunication Adoption Implementation • CCSSO 1 • DQC 2 • PESC • SIF • SHEEO 1 The Managing Partners 1 Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation 2 Michael and Susan Dell Foundation

11. From our panelists

12. Personalized Learning Model

13. Four-Layer Framework for Data Standards CEDS 2.0 DataDictionary DataModel Serialization Protocol Definition of data Elements including Name and Interpretation. Logical definition of Entities as groups of elements and inter-entity Relationships. Concrete digital format for storage or interchange of Elements. Format and rules for exchanging SerializedElements Broader Applicability andLongevity of Standards Ease of Data Exchange andSystems Integration

15. 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.

16. Interstate Data Mapping

17. How to Converge the standards • Create an over-arching standards convergence initiative (CEDS). • Set up open groups that address (data elements, data content rules, communication standards, IP and licensing. • Invite leadership from existing standards organizations to participate in groups (SIF, PESC, IMS, etc.) • 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. • Make it clear that the scope is as broad as the educational customers need it to be. (P-20, WF, Instructional, etc). • Set short deadlines for approved versions • Have the customers drive vendor participation and compliance.

18. CCSSO Goals for State Information Systems • 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)

19. The States’ Foundations

20. Integration of Data through the States’ SLDS and ETL through CEDS 2.0 LMS (Learning Management System) Common Core State Standards Aligned Academic Standards Curriculum Components Instructional Planning Instructional Programs Instructional Materials Instructional Resources Instructional Activities More SIS (Student Information System) Students Teachers Courses Classes/Sections Discipline/Behavior Grades/Transcripts More EDS (Educator Data System) Teachers Principals Other Education Staff Evaluation Data Credentials/Licenses Schedules Professional Development Schools of Education More SLDS (Statewide Longitudinal Data System) Common Ed Data Standards State Core Model Filters and Queries De-Identification Systems Unique Identifiers Reporting Research 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 More WDS (Workforce Data Systems) Business Partners Workforce Readiness Workforce Preparation Armed Forces Reporting Research More ETL CEDS 2.0 CSEIS

21. Moving the State’s Data through CEDS 2.0 Same In Every State ETL StateSLDS CEDS 2.0 CSEIS • 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) 5

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

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

24. 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… In the Late ‘60s SREB began sharing data among its members!

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