Tuesday, July 14, 2009

Data Systems Standards and Guidelines from the National Center for Education Statistics

If you are involved in data-driven decision making in your school or school district, it is important to keep up with the most recent standards regarding data systems. The National Center for Education Statistics has recently developed a toolbox for educational data system designers and managers who are "looking for ways to build and/or improve education data systems".



According to the NCES website, the Education Data Model, Version I is a "comprehensive, localized, conceptual model that provides a generic blueprint for schools and districts. This blueprint enables schools to evaluate and improve instructional tools, communicate those needs to their umbrella agency or directly to vendors, enhance the movement of student information from one district to another, and in the end, have better tools to inform instruction. Using a standard Education Data Model as a starting point contributes to a comprehensive understanding of the need for data, how data are used, and the questions that can be answered with the data. For instance, the Data Model helps to answer questions such as the following:
  • What data do schools, LEAs, and states need to collect and manage at the local level to meet the information needs of students, staff, and other stakeholders?
  • What data do they need to effectively manage education organizations in order to increase success in teaching, learning, and school leadership?
  • What data do they need to efficiently manage and run an education organization from a fiscal and administrative perspective?

A single, comprehensive model of education data is prerequisite to establishing automated systems with the right data, data that are comparable across time and systems, and data accurate enough to answer our questions".

Educational data systems are developed on a large scale, and generally the "client" is a school district, or administrator of a school district. I am not sure that those who design the data base systems are aware of the work of school psychologists, and how our work is negatively impacted by a system that doesn't address our work needs efficiently or effectively.

So what is a data-minded school psychologist to do? The first step is to become informed about databases and how they are used and implemented in your school(s). Find out who is responsible for making decisions regarding the use of data-based systems, and find out if there is a district committee who is involved in this area. It just might be that it has not occurred to high-level administrators that school psychologists might want to have a say in this matt


If you are interested learning more, you can browse the data model on the NCES Data Model web page. Also take a look at the "How to Use the Data Model" on-line guide.

Here are a few graphics from the NCES website:

Concept map behind the development of the data model:

Development of the Data Model Diagram

Taxonomy - entities, classes, and attributes:


Taxonomy Picture

Here is the relationship diagram of the data model:

http://nces.ed.gov/forum/datamodel/info/images/Relationships.jpg
Educational data systems are developed on a large scale, and generally the "client" is a school district, or administrator of a school district. I am not sure that those who design the data base systems are aware of the work of school psychologists, and how our work is negatively impacted by a system that doesn't address our work needs efficiently or effectively.

So what is a data-minded school psychologist to do? The first step is to become informed about databases and how they are used and implemented in your school(s). Find out who is responsible for making decisions regarding the use of data-based systems, and find out if there is a district committee who is involved in this area. It just might be that it has not occurred to high-level administrators that school psychologists might want to have a say in this matter.

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