The Louisiana Department of Education (LDOE) proposes to use the US Department of Education longitudinal data systems grant to build the Louisiana Education Data Repository System (LEDRS). The LEDRS will allow the LDOE to organize and link all of its data into a centralized repository. The LEDRS project will consist of three main tasks:
• The creation of a data repository that will centralize and link the data that currently reside in isolated silos.
• The creation of a data reporting system that will enable the LDOE to automate its EdFacts reporting and provide tools for routine and rapid ad hoc reporting.
• The creation of three new systems that will track homeless students, Section 504 students, and critical student performance measures.
The ultimate goal of the LEDRS is to provide a data driven decision making environment that will help improve student performance by the ability to readily make available more accurate, reportable, and researchable data on a more frequent basis.
The LDOE has been nationally recognized as having an abundance of high quality data and Louisiana is one of only a few states with the ability of linking students and teachers at the classroom level. However, the LDOE does not have an automated reporting system for ad hoc or even routine reporting. Reports currently require extensive manual effort by analysts that are experienced in the various data systems. Data users also only have access to outdated production reports with no ability to query the data. Linking our multiple data stores will allow for improved data analysis and more accurate and timely reporting. Centralizing and data warehousing will make the data more readily available to our external stakeholders. The LDOE will provide the ability to query the LEDRS system and request outputs in multiple formats.
The LDOE also has a need to develop systems to track homeless and Section 504 students. Homeless students are currently identified by codes in the Student Information System but due to the highly mobile nature of these students accurate reporting is difficult and additional information is desired. A stand-alone system that will track these students across district lines needs to be built to accurately identify and report these students. A stand-alone system to track Section 504 students is also desired. Section 504 students are currently reported individually by paper forms, making analysis labor intensive and monitoring virtually impossible. Another benefit of a centralized repository will be the ability to run data diagnostics across all of the connected data areas in a more controlled environment and will allow the LDOE to send automated notifications to LEAs to review questionable data. The repository will contain both finalized and preliminary data; this structure will lend itself to allow for more frequent collections of critical student performance measures.
