Fundamentals in Designing State P-12 Longitudinal Data Systems

In addition to the 10 essential elements, states need to ensure that they take into account the following fundamental concepts in the construction of their longitudinal systems.

Privacy Protection: One of the critical concepts that should underscore the development of any longitudinal data system is preserving student privacy. An important distinction needs to be made between applying a "unique student identifier" and making "personally identifiable information" available, for example. It is possible to share data that are unique to individual students but that do not allow for the identification of that student. It also is critical to put in place encryption and data security protocols to secure the transmission or transaction of data between and among systems. States should ensure that they bring privacy considerations into the development of each repository and the exploration of each protocol or report.

Data Architecture: Data architecture defines how data are coded, stored, managed and used. Good data architecture is essential for an effective data system. Many states are in the process of improving their data architecture so that they can clearly communicate with all entities with which they share and from which they receive data. Districts need to know specifically how data elements are defined (e.g., what a "dropout" is), how they should be formatted, and how and when the data should be transferred to the state education agency. Without these standard definitions and dictionaries, state education agencies will have an extremely difficult time making sense of the data received from their districts. With standards in place that are used by everyone, staffing resources and processing or cycle time can be greatly reduced, data can be made available to users when they need them, and reports can be based on clear and common definitions.

Data Warehousing: Many states are in the process of designing and building or upgrading their data warehouses. Policymakers and educators need a data system that not only link student records over time and across databases but also make it easy for users to query those databases and produce standard or customized reports. A data warehouse is, at the least, a repository of data concerning students in the public education system; ideally, it also would include information about educational facilities and curriculum and staff involved in instructional activities, as well as district and school finances. The warehouse should ensure student and teacher confidentiality, allow longitudinal analyses, and include analytical capabilities for its users. Examples of the capabilities that should be available in a data warehouse include, but are not limited to, trend analyses; tracking of students over time and across campuses and/or districts; queries designed and conducted by different users (with different levels of access to detailed data, depending on user classification); and standard summary reports at the campus, district or state level for policymakers and educators. The key to effective data warehousing is the timely and efficient use and reporting of data.

Interoperability: Data interoperability entails the ability of different software systems from different vendors to share information without the need for customized programming or data manipulation by the end user. Interoperability reduces reporting burden, redundancy of data collection, and staff time and resources. It allows for better, faster and clearer reporting of data. It depends on systems having common data standards and definitions. Organizations such as the Schools Interoperability Framework Association work to ensure the creation of platform-independent, vendor neutral open standards that can be used by educators and vendors to design and implement interoperable data systems.

Portability: Data portability is the ability to exchange student transcript information electronically across districts and between P-12 and postsecondary institutions within a state and across states. Portability has at least three advantages: it makes valuable diagnostic information from the academic records of students who move to a new state available to their teachers in a timely manner; it reduces the time and cost of transferring students' high school course transcripts; and it increases the ability of states to distinguish students who transfer to a school in a new state from dropouts. The large interstate movement of students in the wake of Hurricane Katrina made the value of such a system obvious. Data portability is supported by the implementation of interoperable systems, but it requires states that use these systems to have a set of common definitions or protocols.

Professional Development around Data Processes and Use: Building a longitudinal data system requires not only the adoption of key elements outlined in this paper but also the ongoing professional development of the people charged with collecting, storing, analyzing and using the data produced through the new data system. The local school person who inputs course grades needs to understand fully how his/her work fits into the broader data system, the principal needs to understand how data can effect daily school management - both facilities and academic decisions - and policymakers need to understand how their decisions are limited or expanded based on the quality of the data available. For these changes in culture and management to occur, states need to make it a priority to rethink and possibly reorganize how education data is managed throughout the system, increase training and professional development for staff - both managers and users - and assist all employees and stakeholders of the state education system to be active consumers of the longitudinal data system.

Researcher Access: Research using longitudinal student data can be an invaluable guide for improving schools and helping educators learn what works. These data are essential to determining the value-added of schools, programs and specific interventions. States are developing ways to make student-level data available to researchers while protecting the privacy of student records under the Family Education Rights and Privacy Act. Because state education agencies and local school districts usually do not have the resources to conduct this research themselves, providing access to the data to outside researchers with appropriate privacy protections allows critical research to be done at no cost to the state or to school districts.