The Virginia Department of Education (VDOE) —in partnership with the Office of the Governor, the State Council of Higher Education (SCHEV), the Virginia Community College System, the Virginia Information Technologies Agency, and Virginia’s workforce agencies— proposes to expand on the advancements we have made through our current Statewide Longitudinal Data Systems (SLDS) grant. VDOE, SCHEV, and several workforce agencies have completed the work needed to meet two of the seven data system capabilities and eight of the 12 data system elements required by the America COMPETES Act, and we have partially met another four capabilities and two elements. In order to establish a comprehensive, longitudinal P-20 data system, we propose to:
• Create an integrated K-12 student-teacher information system that matches individual teachers to students. We will accomplish this by developing and validating course enrollment/completion and teacher/principal evaluation data collections, upgrading the existing teacher licensure system, and developing a needs-based competitive grant program for local school divisions to support their efforts towards system integration.
• Create a longitudinal data linking and reporting system with the ability to link data among state agency data sources, including K-12, higher education, and workforce systems. Using a federated system to merge data across agencies, we will: develop a rubric to document data element definitions, data requirements, and technical requirements for deidentified data sets that can be linked among agencies; build a central linking directory based on data sharing agreements in place or established as part of the grant project; and establish a query process for authorized user access that uses the linking directory to anonymously join individual-level records from multiple data sources.
• Develop a web-based portal to provide one-stop access to education and workforce data by policymakers, educators, the public, program directors, researchers, etc. To increase the accessibility of existing data, we propose a portal with different levels of access for publicly-available data and reports, as well as access to non-public data for authorized users.
• Design a data management and control system that enables us to maximize data quality, ensure accessibility with appropriate security, and enhance the usefulness of the data in both existing and proposed systems. We plan to develop and implement comprehensive cross-agency data sharing policies and practices and standards for data exchange, as well as data security measures that maintain privacy of personally identifiable information, and clear protocols for role-based data access at all levels. We also intend to enhance existing data audit systems to improve data quality, validity, and reliability.
• Develop a mechanism for postsecondary institutions to receive transcript data. We propose to develop a secure mechanism to permit postsecondary institutions to receive high school transcript data electronically, and are proposing to use grant funds to carry out a pilot project with VCCS and selected four-year institutions for electronic transfer of transcript data to them, and for integration of those data into existing systems. For each outcome, we plan to develop and implement customized live and electronic training tools to meet a variety of user needs. Completion of the proposed project will propel Virginia’s data collection, reporting, and analytic capabilities far beyond current levels, and will result in a statewide longitudinal data system that will be fully able to meet all the required data system capabilities and data elements.
