Education Decision Support Systems

8/9/2019 Education Decision Support Systems

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Education Decision Support Systems MeetingSponsored by U.S. Department of Educations Office of the Chief Information Officer

Council of Chief State School OfficersDoubletree Hotel at Post Oak, Houston, TexasJune 28-29, 2001

Presenter: Leigh Ann Grant-Engle, Data ManagerMissouri Department of Elementary and Secondary EducationPhone: (573) 522-8310 Fax: (573) 526-6898

[email protected]://www.dese.state.mo.us/

Background Information

General Facts About Missouri Schools (The Show-Me State)

880,000 students in public schools grades K-12 64,000 teachers

524 School Districts ( 2 large Urban Districts Kansas City and St. Louis City)o 73 Elementary only districts (K-8)

Missouri has a State Board of Education (members appointed by the Governor), with aCommissioner of Education. Each district has a local school board that manages the district.

Missouri does NOT have a statewide student information system. Each district chooses their ownmethod of managing student records.

Mi i d NOT h St t d t d i l


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Missouri does NOT have a State mandated curriculum

Decision Support System

The department had one time money to purchase a software tool that would help school districts analyzethe assessment results.

Considerations in choosing the tool:

It was on the states Prime Vendor Contract

The price was reasonable ($291 per copy)

The flexibility in the use of various databases

The flexibility in report designs, and layouts

Ease of use by the end user (pre-made reports)

The opportunity to help organize the data in a useable format and continue a dialogue with the

districts on how to use that data.


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Technical Infrastructure

Data collected via a paper form, scanned and provided to the department in a fixed record lengthtext file.

The data is loaded on our RS6000 machine into Oracle Databaseso The data is stored at a raw level in the original format that it is received.

o Aggregate data to a building, district and state level are then stored in tables

A series of scripts are written to output the data into text files. There is a total of 15 tables neededfor each school district. The record layout is predetermined for later use with the software tool.

The text files are FTPd to a local NT server. A VB Script is written to read each text file andplace it into a Microsoft Access Database file (*.mdb). When this process is completed there are525 district level files named with a fixed preface and district code identifier. (example

MAP_001090.mdb)

A CD is created for each district containing:o A Report Folder (series of pre-made reports)

o That administrative year of data

o The Manual

o Additional upgrades as needed (for example ODBC driver 32)

Clear Access (a product of Computer Associates) is a relational database tool that is machinelicensed and installed on the local hard drive. The software can be installed on a network, but canonly be used by one individual at a time. The tool can access and use the following database


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ClearAccess Architecture

QUERYREPORTWRITER

QUERYRESULTS

DESKTOPAPPLICATIONS

E.G. EXCEL


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CLEAR ACCESS Demonstration

Clear Access Demonstration

Administrative UsesReporting and Planning UsesInstructional Uses

Click one time on Run

Double Click on Map_2000_Reports


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Highlight the report and click on Open.


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Report Number 1: Achievement Level Report

Identify the grade levels and subjects with a high percentage of students in the

lower two levels. Is the district having trouble at the elementary, middle or high school?

Identify a subject and grade level to follow through each of the additional reports.

Exit Report

Zoom In on the reportExit ReportEmail Report


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Report Number 2: Content_Standards_School

Review each standard to see if the district has improved from last year?

Is the district doing any better or any worse than the state on a given standard? If the district has multiple buildings, is a building doing any better or worse on aparticular standard?

How many objectives does the district have for that standard up through to thegrade level being reviewed?


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Report Number 3: Content_Item_Analysis ?? (??=Subject CA, Math, Sci, SS)

Review the Standards of concern from the Content_Standard_School Report.

What content is being assess? What types of questions are being used to assess the content?

Drill Down

Quick Select

Re - Sort


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Education Decision Support Systems June 28-29, 2001 Houston TX 10Presenter Leigh Ann Grant-Engle, Data Manager Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education

Click on the Print Preview to beable to email the report tosomeone.

By holding the mouse on top ofany item. A full description willdisplay.

Show-MeStandardNumber

Show-MeStandardDescription

Type of QuestionMC = Multiple ChoiceCR = Constructed ResponsePE = Performance Event

Session Number(Session 1, 2 or 3, Session 3 is CTB TerraNova)

Item Number (Number of the item on the test)

Description (From the Annotated Frameworks or TestSpecifications)

Number of points possible forthat particular item.

Average number of points thestudents got right for thatitem.


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Place the mouse on top of the districtname. Right click on the mouse. Theoption to Drill Down will appear.Drill down to additional schools,classrooms, or students.

Drilling Down Within the Report


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Quick Select on a Group or StandardAfter drilling down to a subgroup there will bethe option to do a Quick Select. This will allowa user to display ONLY that particular sub-groupfor printing.

Place the mouse on top of the sub group to beincluded. Right click on the mouse button andscroll down to Quick Select.


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Sorting of the Report

The sort order of the report is determined by the column on the far lefthand side of the report. This report is currently sorted by Standard,Question Type, and the Session and Item Number.

To sort the report by question type, place the mouse on top of the QT andclick on the LEFT mouse button. Hold the button down and drag thecolumn to the far left hand side of the page.


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Additional Comments and Thoughts

Positives

Software tool can export and import a variety of data formats.

Data organized in a standard format so additional reports can be generated centrally and provided via a web site.

Districts have been very pleased with their ability to access and use the data.

On-going Issues

Cleansing of the dataChanges in the software companyTraining on the tool (district turnover)

Training on how to use the dataOther vendors using the data with their tools.Common Student IDStudent Confidentiality issues requests for the data.The Volume of data storage, indexing, backups etc


Documents

Education Decision Support Systems