The Washington Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction (OSPI), the State Education Agency, in partnership with the Education Research and Data Center (ERDC) in the Office of Financial Management (OFM) submits this proposal for funding for approximately $7 million under funding opportunity CFDA 84.372 (NCES 15-01). Funds received will enhance current capabilities to use data in the statewide P20W longitudinal data system to improve education in two data use priority areas: (1) College and Career, and (2) Evaluation and Research. ERDC will be responsible for the direction and implementation of the grant.
Several grant projects will focus on more traditional P20W research areas using cross sector data to evaluate transitions from one education sector to another. Particular attention is given to early learning and transition into K-12. In addition, significant resources are devoted to increased data access, more and more effective data visualization, the expansion of online reporting, and to increasing the understanding of the use of P20W data not only for analysis but also for decision-making. Just as important will be new ground that will be broken by the project through analyzing and researching outcomes for student populations receiving social services, students involved in the state’s juvenile justice system, and students receiving state financial assistance.
The expected outcomes of the project are crucial to the future expansion of P20W data analysis and research. Washington State put in place a highly effective P20W data system at the ERDC with the aid of the 2009 ARRA P20W SLDS grant. A significant amount of research was undertaken. Subsequent to that grant, ERDC has continued to incorporate new data collections and garner the interest of new research partners. The project would provide resources to ERDC and its partners to more quickly exploit the massive amounts of data available as well as create new research partnerships and cement old ones.
