The Montana Office of Public Instruction (OPI) requests $3,977,861 over three years for implementation of College and Career Ready Montana under Priority # 3 of the Statewide, Longitudinal Data Systems Grant for FY 2012 to link the OPI’s K-12 data warehouse and the Montana University System (MUS) postsecondary data warehouse. We like to believe that our students are college and career ready, but the fact is, we aren’t sure. We are lacking access and linkages to longitudinal student transcript data that can help us design accurate solutions to help ensure student success.
This grant will support three key goals:
Goal #1: Establish data linkages between K-12 and postsecondary partners by creating an electronic student transcript repository for K-12 education. Under its 2009 SLDS grant, the OPI is completing a K 12 data warehouse and associated tools. The next set of data that the OPI intends to collect and store is student-level transcript information, including information on courses completed and grades earned. This will facilitate the exchange of transcript information between qualified entities.
Goal #2: Create an Interagency K-20 Data Governance Council. This proposal expands on the data governance structure developed for the K-12 data warehouse. Correct and appropriate use and interpretation of data for K-20 analysis can be ensured only if both owners and users of data possess a shared understanding of the meaning and representation of the data. Key to this effort is the creation of data governance structures to guide data collection, sharing, and use. An interagency K-20 Data Governance Council will be created to lead and guide this effort.
Goal #3: Implement business intelligence and web reporting tools for users of K-20 data. Business Intelligence tools will facilitate state and federal reporting; provide more accurate, consistent data; and allow the various stakeholders to track groups of students and learn how the educational services they have received have contributed to their success. The OPI will expand OPI’s K-12 warehouse to link K-12 data and establish interoperability with the MUS system, primarily through development of a standard transcript that can be compared and used by all units of the university system. These data will then be combined with postsecondary transcript information so that schools can be informed regarding the quality and performance of curricula with respect to college readiness. The K-12 data warehouse will be expanded to house the additional data and provide reports and dashboards. The OPI will help the LEAs extract the data from their legacy systems, and design and implement an electronic student records and transcript exchange, with data from the LEAs and MUS flowing to the OPI. The deliverables, tied to the Priority #3 requirements, are to form a project and data governance structure, plan, and systems; provide data research analyst and business analyst positions; produce accessibility documentation; establish procedures to ensure data integrity, security, and quality; train users how to accurately enter data; establish procedures to monitor the accuracy of data entering the system; provide staffing to help validate data, ensure accuracy, and generate reports; create the exchange mechanism with the MUS; collect and validate data from the K-12 districts; develop transport and validation mechanisms to move data from LEAs to the OPI; deliver K-12 transcript to universities; establish secure access; develop and provide training on the use of data tools and products; develop a professional development module for data interpretation and application; secure an outside evaluator; and establish research partnerships.
