Education Data Standards 101

Education Data Standards 101 Introduction Standards bring order from chaos and allow us to understand our world in ways that would not be possible otherwise. The International Standards Organization (ISO) defines a standard as a document that provides requirements, specifications, guidelines or characteristics that can be used consistently to ensure that materials, products, processes and services are fit for their purpose. 1 We come in contact with standards continually through our day. We have standard ways to measure time, distance, and volume. Imagine how difficult it would be to compare products in the supermarket if there were no standards for weight or volume. Without the English and Metric systems of weights and measures, products like milk would be sold in arbitrarily sized containers without a label. You wouldn t know how much milk you were getting or even if it was the right type of milk. We depend on containers of milk either to use a standard size, such as one gallon, or to provide labeling indicating how much (weight and volume) and what (type and ingredients). Just as standards for weight or volume or labeling enable the consumer to make informed choices regarding appropriateness and content in the supermarket, education standards can ensure that services and supports are efficiently and effectively made available to all students, enabling evidencebased and equitable education delivery. Audience. The sheer size and variety of education data stakeholders is the most important reason for data standards. At the classroom level, the student, the student s parent or guardian, and the teacher will view education data, education standards, and education vocabulary through their own lenses. Add to that the principal, the counselor, the superintendent, a variety of program staff, the school board, education programs and organizations within the community, and the entire community itself. Also included at the local level are the IT staff responsible for integrating multiple systems of data and analysts who conduct research to inform all of the above. Beyond the local level, the audience grows even more to include education software vendors, education organizations, state and federal education staff, legislators, policymakers, researchers, and the public. Each audience member will engage education data standards at different times and for different reasons. This expansive breadth of audience requires substantial consideration to ensure all are informed and that information is consistently defined and understood. Scope. This document briefly addresses the types of education standards and then focuses specifically on an entry-level view of education data standards. As a 101 document, the intent is to provide a starting point for education stakeholders and not to be exhaustive. It focuses specifically on the Common Education Data Standards (CEDS). It does not include technical standards related to learnerfacing systems or general technical standards that are used within education systems (e.g. internet 1 http://www.iso.org/iso/home/standards.htm 1

protocols). Where relevant, the document provides links and resources to enable further knowledge development for the reader. Background This section provides background information on what types of standards currently exist. Education Standards. Within the education realm, there are three major categories of standards: 2 1) Academic Standards Standards about what students should learn. Academic standards represent the criteria established by an educational institution to determine levels of student achievement. 3 2) Data Standards Vocabulary and formats for sharing, exchanging, and understanding data. Data standards provide consistency in how data is viewed or stored and generally refer to elements, element definitions, and option sets. 3) Technical Standards Technical protocols, engineering criteria for systems, methods, processes, and practices (including for the exchange of data between systems). Technical standards allow communication between software, hardware, applications, systems, etc., without having any mis-understandings of what is being communicated. Standards allow people or machines to have a common understanding about the meaning of information. To illustrate this point, consider the following classroom example. A student is required to learn how to plot an address on a map. The requirement to understand how to plot an address represents an academic standard. The data the student provides to the system such as Street Address, City, State, and Zip Code represent a data standard. The student may use a Global Positioning System (GPS) tool to find the location. The ability for the GPS to provide this information represents a technical standard. The Common Education Data Standards CEDS is recognized as the primary education data standard with a breadth of elements that span from Early Childhood through Workforce. The purpose of CEDS is to provide common element names and definitions for the data Local Education Agencies (LEAs) and State Education Agencies (SEAs) typically handle: student demographic, achievement, staff information, and school program information. The goal of this work is to increase the accuracy of data exchanged between systems, increase data quality by removing ambiguities in definitions, and provide a common vocabulary for educators, researchers, and other decision makers to understand what the data mean, so they can work together to improve programs and outcomes for students. CEDS is developed in conjunction with a variety of nationally recognized education stakeholders and uses existing definitions whenever possible. The CEDS data standard encompasses all of the various aspects of the P-20W system that LEAs and SEAs use. Scope. CEDS provides a standard P-20W vocabulary including element names, element definitions, option sets, usage notes, and metadata (information about the data). CEDS is established and continuing 2 http://www.ofthat.com/2013/03/a-taxonomy-of-education-standards.html 3 http://eric.ed.gov/?qt=academic+standards&ti=academic+standards 2

to evolve as the Rosetta Stone of education vocabulary. SEA, LEA, Early Childhood education providers, Institutes of Higher Education, and education data organizations such as SIF and Ed-Fi have aligned their own data elements to CEDS, which enables them to then map with each other using CEDS as the vocabulary bridge. Governance. CEDS is governed through an open community of stakeholders, including practitioners, policy makers, data stewards, and IT staff from SEA, LEA, Institutes of Higher Education (IHE), Career and Technical Education (CTE), along with non-profits, foundations, associations, parents, vendors, federal program offices, and the public. Beyond the Standard. What CEDS offers goes beyond the standard. CEDS brings education data stakeholders together to one place where data standards can be discussed from definition through use. Through tools and the online community, CEDS users can discuss and troubleshoot data collection and management issues as well as receive technical assistance for both new users interested in CEDS and for existing users looking to expand their knowledge. Examples of resources that go beyond the standard include: CEDS On-Line Tools: CEDS has several tools that facilitate different uses of CEDS. The CEDS data management tool, Align, allows users to upload a data dictionary so they can (1) maintain their metadata for their data systems and to further data governance efforts, (2) compare with other data systems they interact with, and (3) apply the data dictionary to research and policy questions, metrics, and indicators of interest. The CEDS tool, Connect, allows users to plan out and define the elements and analysis steps necessary to fulfill accountability requirements, policy questions, and research data requests. Connect also provides a library of Connections created by other users. Then, using the CEDS tool, myconnect, users can marry an Align map with a Connection to see which elements from the user s data system are necessary to complete the data request. CEDS Normalized Data Schema (NDS): The NDS provides a standard framework for integration of P- 20W data systems through a well-normalized operational data store. The NDS factors all of the entities and attributes of the Domain Entity Schema with standard technical syntax and 3rd normal form. In a P-20 data system, the NDS models the most current view of data available to the enterprise including some historical data (such as prior assessment data and enrollment records). CEDS On-line Communities: CEDS offers two communities for users and the public. Using CEDS Community is an online workspace where stakeholders can discuss use of the tools (i.e. Align, Connect, and myconnect), use of the standard, implementations of the standard, best practices, successes, and challenges. Developing CEDS Community is an online workspace that deals specifically with the development of the standard for all areas of the specification. CEDS Technical Assistance: For those looking for a CEDS Website: http://ceds.ed.gov more personal approach, CEDS offers technical CEDS Community: https://ceds.grads360.org assistance including webinar demonstrations tailored to the stakeholder s needs, support with mapping data dictionaries in Align, help with developing Connections, and a staff of CEDS experts to answer questions and propose resolutions for issues that arise in a stakeholder s everyday data management work. 3

Example. CEDS provides a common vocabulary that allows multiple systems of varying data a single common standard to align with. Some SEAs and LEAS use CEDS in their master data management tool, aligning all of their disparate system elements and definitions to a single common element and definition in CEDS. This increases efficiencies when merging systems and when pulling data for data requests and research analysis. Building on the CEDS Foundation The various technical standards organizations serve a variety of purposes. CEDS focuses on data definitions, vocabulary, models, and tools to promote common understanding about the meaning of data. CEDS is recognized as the primary source for these. Technical standards organizations go deeper into the technical interoperability requirements of specific data sets and data systems. The more specialized technical standards organizations may focus on a single domain, such as K12 or postsecondary; on specific aspects of interoperability, such as data transport; or serve specific stakeholders, such as software developers and integrators vs. education researchers and policy makers. Each one fits within the larger education data standards ecosystem. Building on this foundation, organizations and education software vendors are transforming the way CEDS is used in LEAs and SEAs by providing remarkable interoperability opportunities with flexibility and access to powerful, resource saving capabilities. Likewise, CEDS is influenced by the work of the other standards organizations. Access for Learning (A4L) is non-profit collaboration composed of schools, districts, local authorities, states, US and International Ministries of Education, software vendors and consultants who collectively address all aspects of learning information management and access to support learning. A4L provides a set of industry developed and supported technical blueprints that enable pk-20 software to work seamlessly together as a single, efficient system. The A4L standards reference CEDS elements directly in the Schools Interoperability Framework (SIF) specifications. The organization has established policy regarding its participation in CEDS development and has informed CEDS definitions, including learning standards, assessment reporting, and special education data elements. Concepts in the A4L SIF standards not in CEDS are available as CEDS Extend elements. Assessment Interoperability Framework (AIF) is set of standards that can be used by assessment implementation providers. The work was developed through the CEDS project and brought coherence across the standards addressing the data vocabulary (CEDS), systems that deliver assessments (based on IMS Global QTI and APIP standards), and transport of data for assessment registration and results reporting by state education agencies (SIF). It was developed by IMS Global, the SIF Association, state assessment consortia including assessment consortia focused on students with severe cognitive disabilities, and states not involved in a consortium. The AIF work became the foundation of the current Assessments domain within CEDS. As a result, the CEDS elements can be leveraged to support interoperability between the assessment systems and the broader education data systems environment. Ed-Fi Alliance is an educational data tool suite (unifying data model, data exchange framework, application framework, and sample dashboard source code) that enables vital academic information on K-12 students to be consolidated from the different data systems of school districts while leaving the management and governance of data within those districts and states. ED-Fi looks to CEDS element definitions as a resource when expanding its standards. Ed-Fi publishes Align maps on the CEDS web site 4

with each new release of its standards. Concepts in the Ed-Fi specification that are not in CEDS are available as CEDS Extend elements. IMS Global s mission is to advance technology that can affordably scale and improve educational participation and attainment. IMS develops open interoperability standards, supports adoption with technical services, and encourages adoption through programs that highlight effective practices. IMS has collaborated with CEDS on element definitions for assessments informed by concepts with in IMS standards such as QTI and APIP. IMS workgroups have since used CEDS vocabulary to inform its own work. CEDS worked with the developers of the Open Badges specification so that metadata used in badges is aligned with CEDS Achievement element definitions. Open Badges is now under the stewardship of IMS. Learning Resource Metadata Initiative (LRMI), now under the stewardship of the Dublin Core Metadata Initiative (DCMI) is a set of specifications for tagging web content. The developers of LRMI, looked to CEDS for vocabulary definitions. The core set of CEDS element definitions for learning resources were based on LRMI and both initiatives have influenced the development of Schema.org. Multi-State Tagging Initiative used CEDS and LRMI to develop a subset of elements for tagging digital content in SEA curated repositories. The group informed the vocabularies that are now part of CEDS. An EIMAC workgroup has taken stewardship and continues to coordinate with CEDS on the set of tags used by states. PESC creates data standards to facilitate the exchange of data among postsecondary institutions. As a resource, PESC provides a range of standards for higher education, cataloguing data elements, definitions, and code sets, and specifying technical requirements. PESC element definitions have been adopted into CEDS. Likewise, PESC workgroups have looked to CEDS element definitions when developing new standards. Elements within PESC standards are aligned to CEDS and included as CEDS Extend elements. U.S. Education Department Technical Assistance (TA) Centers provide technical assistance and support to grant programs. These TA Centers provide states with information about CEDS through their website, newsletters, and webinars and serve as a liaison to communicate the states expressed data needs to the CEDS technical assistance team. The Center for Integrated IDEA Data (CIID) supports the integration of IDEA data systems and processes with an SLDS. As part of its work, CIID recently developed the Generate tool, which uses CEDS to assist SEAs with federal IDEA reporting. SEAs can use Generate to prepare submission files related to IDEA data for EDFacts and to prepare data for completing four of the State Performance Plan (SPP) /APR indicators. The database in Generate was developed based on the CEDS NDS and the CEDS tools are used as resources to support data integration work and the implementation of the Generate tool. The Statewide Longitudinal Data Systems (SLDS) grant program administers a competitive grant program as well as a growing range of services and resources to propel the successful design, development, implementation, and expansion of SLDSs. The SLDS program required the use of CEDS for multistate collaboration for the 2015 grants and states were asked to explain how they would use CEDS to accomplish the goals of their SLDS grants. The SLDS program has hosted multiple state-led workgroups that defined multi-state methodologies for common policy questions that are maintained in the CEDS Connect. 5

The Center for IDEA Early Childhood Data Systems (DaSy) works with states to support IDEA early intervention and early childhood special education state programs in the development or enhancement of early childhood longitudinal data systems. DaSy utilizes CEDS Connect to assist states as they tackle federal reporting requirements for Part B and Part C Annual Performance Report (APR) indicators. They recently released more than 20 Connections on the various indicators required for APR indicators. This provides states with a resource to map their own elements to these Connections and find any gaps. Stakeholder Involvement and Influence This Education Data Standards document provides, at a high level, the primary data standard, CEDS, as well as examples of organizations using CEDS to transform the education data space. The audience using K12 data is vast, but the group of key stakeholders who provide the most influence into the standards world is relatively small, comprised primarily of state and local education agencies. While there are other voices in the standards world, it is primarily the state and local education agencies who use and pay for the products and services built on varying education standard platforms. SEAs and LEAs expend a large amount of resources to integrate data to complete reporting requirements, conduct research analysis to answer policy and equity questions, and to directly inform classroom instruction. When SEAs and LEAs, who hold the power of the purse, demand, with a unified voice, interoperability with CEDS and with non-proprietary organizations who are leveraging CEDS to effectively use data, resources that were once spent on integration can be reallocated to improving data use and putting data into the hands of classroom teachers to improve educational outcomes. SEAs and LEAs have a great opportunity to move education data standards forward in the next few years so that integration challenges become a thing of the past. Learn More To learn more or get involved in the development and use of the Common Education Data Standard, visit www.ceds.ed.gov. 6