Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction Longitudinal Data Systems to Support Data-Driven Decision-Making

In the spring of 2004, Wisconsin began assigning each public school student a unique statewide ID. Approximately 880,000 unique student numbers were assigned in the first year. In March 2005, Wisconsin began to collect individual student level data through our Individual Student Enrollment System (ISES). Through our assessment vendor (CTB McGraw-Hill), encrypted student identification will become the basis for test tracking.

Wisconsin's Information Network for Successful Schools (WINSS) website is a source of valuable information for educators, parents, and the general public. The Data Analysis section of the WINSS website allows users to search a database of information about the state's 426 school districts to find out how schools are doing compared to state and national averages in myriad arenas. The School Finance Data Warehouse allows users to view a snapshot of a public school district's general finance data, view data in a series of standard and customizable reports or download district financial data for further analysis. Other data warehouse efforts have been initiated in the Special Education program area.

Although development work continues in these areas, many states, including Wisconsin, are ill equipped to manage and effectively use the data states are now required to collect because of NCLB requirements and other state and federal policy initiatives.

Statewide Longitudinal Data System Grant Program Work

The purpose of the SLDS grant project is to create a longitudinal data decision support took kit that will facilitate knowledge-based curriculum, assessment, and school operational decisions to improve education effectiveness and delivery. The SLDS system is being designed to integrate key "silos" of data to produce value-added, on-demand, multi-dimensional analyses that answer key business and education improvement questions that currently cannot be attained from data silos.

Phase one of the project will (1)adopt an academic reference model (ARM) that identifies key education decision processes critical to tracking education performance and enhancement, (2)define key tools and decision reports that deliver critical information to support the ARM, and (3)develop a kernel data warehouse with associated reports to support objectives (1) and (2). The project will include development and deployment of a variety of end-user reporting tools that are web-based, self-service, and capable of adhoc analysis and reporting, statistical forecasting, and integration with Excel spreadsheets. Phase 2 and 3 of the project will pilot the system and bring it to production status.

The longitudinal data system developed by this project will include data on all students enrolled in PK–12 education. The project has been divided up into distinct task areas: data analysis and research requirements, data access, data dictionary, data warehouse, and secure data transport. Specific research methods for each task area are presented in detail in the proposal. The Data Dictionary will contain clear concise descriptions and definitions of the complex data elements the DPI works with to provide information and services. This data dictionary will also conform to requirements for metadata at the federal and state level.

One of the distinctive aspects of our proposal is that it reflects a genuine collaboration among three states and the Wisconsin Center for Education Research. Working together will permit each state to share responsibility for project tasks, thereby increasing the impact of the resources allocated to each state. Moreover, by structuring work products so that they can be shared across the Tri-State Partnership, we expect that these products will be of value to states that are not explicitly part of our collaboration. Project results and products, including overview papers that describe the concepts and strategies used in this project, will also be disseminated via conferences and workshops.

Other Work Planned

Ongoing plans include expanding the ISES framework to collect additional information at the student record level, and integrating student-level data with existing aggregatelevel data. Where feasible, the ISES will replace existing aggregate data reports. Current plans include the integration of the IDEA Federal Student Data Report data collection into ISES during the fall 2007–08 school year.

Wisconsin will also be redesigning the existing teacher licensing system and will be creating an online educator license system. This provides an excellent opportunity to reassesses its collection of staff data including the assignment of a unique statewide staff Ids.