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Appendix C
Education Data for the
District of Columbia
The data available for use in an evaluation of District of Columbia
(DC) Public Schools include both that collected by the city itself (by various
offices, including DC Public Schools [DCPS], the Office of the State Super-
intendent of Education [OSSE], and the Office of the Chief Financial Officer
[OCFO]), and data collected by National Center for Education Statistics
(NCES) of the U.S. Department of Education.
DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA DATA SOURCES
The District of Columbia has a number of data systems related to
schools. DCPS provided the committee with a list of current databases
housed within DCPS, OSSE, and the OCFO, and a list of evaluations or
studies currently under way or recently completed (see tables below, as of
March 2011). The DCPS systems include all of the basic student atten-
dance, achievement, attainment, and tracking systems (e.g., DC STARS,
ThinkLink Online), reading interventions (e.g., Read 180), human capi-
tal management systems (e.g., IMPACT), and management, operations,
and finances systems (e.g., Transportation Management System). OSSE’s
sources of data include the State Longitudinal Education Data (SLED)
warehouse (not yet operational) and a tracking system for individualized
education plans (IEPs) required under IDEA. The OCFO data systems
include the procurement and accounting systems. The evaluations include
on-time studies, such as the City Year Evaluation, as well as ongoing as-
sessments, such as the stakeholder surveys for which DC reports data every
169
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170 APPENDIX C
year at the school and district levels (see http://dc.gov/DCPS/About+DCPS/
Satisfaction+Stakeholder+Surveys [accessed March 2011]).
We were not able to review all of these data systems, but have a few
comments. A report recently released by the Council of the Great City
Schools (2010),1 for example, listed as its first finding about DC that there
were “significant challenges to data quality” and “there was a lack of uni-
versal practice and oversight by the district in creating data comparable
across DCPS schools and ensuring accurate information within the system.
For example, there was no central control over student ID creation and
no validations (automatic or hand-checked) to the system to guard against
duplication.”
The DC data and accountability chief made a presentation to the
Committee, in which she acknowledged that, although the office had made
significant progress in improving data collection efforts, much more needs
to be done. She cited as an example of problems she found on taking office
the formerly standard practice in DC’s student tracking system of count-
ing students as present unless otherwise noted by the school, which led to
greatly overstated attendance rates.
Quality issues have also been raised with other DCPS databases. For
example, in 2007, independent monitors of DC’s special education system
said of the special education data that “Most [case analyses] require track-
ing down the student at a school that differs from the one listed as the at-
tending school in [the data system] . . . [the system] does not meet standard
system requirements of . . . data quality control[.] . . . There are several
hundred ‘lost students.’ . . . No one is really sure where they are at any one
time.” In 2009, the District also terminated its contractor on the building
of their State Longitudinal Data System for default.
These preliminary findings do not in any way suggest that all of the dis-
trict data are of poor quality or unsuitable for use in a thorough evaluation.
They do suggest that, as would be done at the beginning of any research
study, the evaluation begin with careful consideration of the quality of the
data available to support investigation of the specific research questions
and methods envisioned.
Table C-1, below, is the list of data sources related to education that
DCPS staff provided to the committee. These include data collected by each
of the relevant city agencies.
DCPS also provided information about data being collected by the
National Center for the Analysis of Longitudinal Data in Education
1 Smerdon, B., and Evan, A. (2010). The Senior Urban Education Research Series, Vol
ume 1: Lessons for Establishing a Foundation for Data Use in DC Public Schools. Wash-
ington, DC: Council of the Great City Schools. See http://www.cgcs.org/publications/
DC_FellowReport2010.pdf [accessed March 2011].
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171
APPENDIX C
Research (CALDER), through a memorandum of understanding with DC
and supported by the U.S. Department of Education. This project links data
from the multiyear enrollment automated database (MEAD), assessment
data, student residential information, and school files. Tables C-2 and C-3
list the sorts of information being collected through this project.
DATA FROM THE NATIONAL CENTER
FOR EDUCATION STATISTICS
The federal data collections within NCES of the U.S. Department of
Education that include information about DC’s schools and students are
the Common Core of Data (CCD), the Schools and Staffing Survey (SASS),
the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), and the Trial
Urban District Assessment (TUDA). Below is a summary of the measures
included in each.
Common Core of Data (CCD)
The CCD survey annually collects data about all public elementary
and secondary schools, all local education agencies, and all state education
agencies throughout the United States. CCD contains three categories of
information: general descriptive information on schools and school dis-
tricts; data on students and staff; and fiscal data. The general descriptive
information includes name, address, phone number, and type of locale; the
data on students and staff include selected demographic characteristics; and
the fiscal data cover revenues and current expenditures. Most of the data
are compiled by state education agencies and sent to the Department of
Education. The CCD data are comparable across all states. Data are also
collected for DCPS, and, since 2004, for charter schools operating in DC.
Specific data include the number of students by grade level; fulltime
staff by major employment category; high school graduates and completers
in the previous year; average daily attendance; school district revenues by
source (local, state, federal); and expenditures by function (instruction,
support services, and noninstruction) and subfunction (school administra-
tion, etc).
Then Acting Commissioner of NCES, Stuart Kerachsky, made a pre-
sentation to the committee about these data. He noted that collecting data
for DC is more challenging than doing so for other jurisdictions for several
reasons. Both the quality and the timeliness of the DC data have not been
comparable to those of other states. For example, the District’s data exhibit
a high percentage of missing data, especially for staff categories. In addi-
tion, the average tenure of the fiscal data coordinator in DC is markedly
shorter than the average for states, which hampers continuity. Finally, new
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TABLE C-1 List of Education-Related Data Systems Provided by DCPS
172
DCPS Data Systems Inventory
Owner
# Title (Agency) Description
1 Genesis Earth DCPS Head Start workflow management
2 Work Sampling Online DCPS Head Start comprehensive child assessment tool
3 DCPS Administrator DCPS Used to process principal and assistant principal applications
4 Gov Delivery OCTO Used to send bulk emails to parents, etc.
5 Imagine Learning DCPS Reading intervention program for certain English language learner 3rd through
5th grade students. Used as learning aid directly by students
6 Early Steps and Stages Tracker OSSE Early Stages IDEA Part C tracking. Tracks students identified as possibly having
special needs (birth - 2yr)
7 Early Stages Tracking, Monitoring, and DCPS Early Stages IDEA Part B tracking. Tracks students identified as possibly having
Reporting special needs (2yr - 4yr 9mo)
8 DC STARS DCPS Student Information System (SIS)
9 Blackman-Jones Database DCPS Tracks Blackman-Jones statistics for consent decree reporting and case management
10 CAASS DCPS Student access control system. Tracks students as they enter school buildings,
currently used for school security
11 DCPS Public Website DCPS Public website for DCPS
12 SEDS (Easy IEP) OSSE Individualized Education Program (IEP) management system
13 FileNet OCTO Document imaging system
14 PD Planner DCPS Online catalog and activity management system for professional development
offerings for DCPS educators and employees
15 PASS OCTO Procurement management system
16 SOAR OCFO System of accounting and reporting (financial mgmt system) - General ledger,
accounts payable, budget, fixed assets, accounts receivable, cash management,
inventory management
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17 PeopleSoft OCTO Human resources management system
18 WinSnap/WebSmart DCPS Food services management and point of sale system
19 FSS (Full Service Schools) Dashboard DCPS Allows principals to view current state of different measures of their school,
(beta) combining information from different data sources in one place
20 IQ OCTO Districtwide correspondence management
21 Out-of-Boundary Lottery DCPS Lottery system to randomly select enrollment for out-of-boundary students
22 DCPS PS/PK and Out-of-Boundary DCPS Manages postlottery activities (results, managing waitlist, etc.) for the DCPS Pre-
Database School / Pre-K / Head Start and Out-of-Boundary Lottery
23 Capital Gains DCPS Allows teachers to enter data on student performance for Capital Gains Program
24 DCPS CFO Budget V2 DCPS Allows principals to work with CFO analysts to develop coming year budget
25 DCPS CFO Budgeting DCPS Tracks actual vs budgeted spending for Central Office divisions
26 IMPACT DCPS Manages school-based staff assessments
27 DCPS UELIP Application DCPS Allows people (DCPS and non-DCPS) to apply for UELIP Internship Program
28 Comp Ed Database V2 DCPS Houses data about compensatory education providers, program, and services for
use in comp ed determinations
29 Labor Management and Employee Relations DCPS Tracks grievances, adverse actions, etc. for DCPS employees
30 Performance Assessments DCPS Central Office employee performance evaluations
31 Probationary ET-15 Portal OSSE Tracks final disposition of teachers on probation
32 SST Tracker DCPS Pilot application used in a limited number of schools. Provides basic tracking of
students referred to Student Support Team
33 Textbook Request System DCPS Allows principals to make textbook requests
34 Destiny DCPS Textbook tracking system
35 DCPS Summer School Application DCPS Allows people (DCPS and non-DCPS) to apply for summer school positions
36 TCTL Application DCPS Allows people to apply for TCTL Summer Program
37 Nonpublic and Charter School DCPS Used by both nonpublic and charter schools to track the ordering and completion
Assessments: School Year 2009-2010 of special needs assessments
38 DCPS Provider Management Application DCPS Monitors, reports on, and updates related service provider information
39 DCPS Accommodations and IEP Changes DCPS Used to manage DCPS’ Read Aloud and DC CAS alt process for state testing
(DC CAS)
40 Read 180 DCPS Online reading intervention program designed to accelerate the learning of
students who are reading below grade level
173
continued
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TABLE C-1 Continued
174
Owner
# Title (Agency) Description
41 EBIS OCTO A web-based application that maps residential addresses to school boundaries
42 Transportation Management System DCPS Used to submit transportation requests for students who have transportation as a
related service in their IEP
43 Trapeze OSSE Routes students for transportation
44 Extrata DCPS Part of system and used to scan, classify, and index human resource documents
that belong in an employee’s personnel folder
45 IGP-Individual Graduation Plan DCPS Online system that allows students to view electronic portfolio of educational,
career, and achievement information
46 Connect Ed DCPS Automated calling system used to confirm student absences and for principals to
send messages home to parents
47 Dibels DCPS Package of services that includes handheld Palm devices installed with software
that allows teachers to assess students on DIBELS (Dynamic Indicators of Basic
Early Literacy Skills) and sync data with online monitoring system
48 Burst DCPS Reading intervention system related to Dibels (see above)
49 SLED OSSE State Longitudinal Education Data warehouse
50 ELIS DCPS Serves as system of record for individuals who seek licensure in the District of
Columbia. Tracks educator preparation (e.g., degrees earned, degree major, etc.),
teaching testing info, teacher license info, etc.
51 ThinkLink Online DCPS Discovery Education’s online data system for capturing DCPS Benchmark
Assessment Data (DC BAS) student-level data. This system contains assessment
data, teacher reports, sample items, and teacher resources
52 Security Incident Tracker DCPS Tracks security incidents occurring at schools
53 Schools DataLINK DCPS System of record for school-level data for which the Student Information System
(DC STARS) is not the system of record. Provides aggregate-level information
54 Nonpublic Unit Tracker DCPS Tracks information about students in nonpublic schools that DCPS oversees for
special education purposes
SOURCE: Personal communication from DCPS, March 2011.
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175
APPENDIX C
TABLE C-2 Information on DC Schools Being Organized by CALDER
MEAD Assessment Residential School
Students Traditional + Traditional + Traditional + Traditional +
Charter Charter Charter Charter
Years 2001/2–2008/9 Spr2005-Spr2009 2003/4–2008/9 2003/4–2008/9
Data USIs Reading & math Student address School addresses
Elements Student scores School attended Grades served
characteristics: Student Grade
Gender characteristics: Full name
Ethnicity Gender Date of birth
English Ethnicity
proficiency English
Special ed. proficiency
Date of birth Special ed.
School attended Date of birth
Grade School attended
Grade
Full name
SOURCE: Jane Hannaway presentation to committee, prepared by the National Center for
Analysis of Longitudinal Data in Education Research (CALDER).
TABLE C-3 Links That Can Be Established Using the DC Data, By Year
School Years
09-10
01-02 02-03 03-04 04-05 05-06 06-07 07-08 08-09 (expected)
Test scores N N N Y Y Y Y Y Y
Gender Y N N Y N Y Y N Y
Ethnicity N N N N N Y Y Y Y
Special Ed. N Y Y N Y Y Y Y Y
English Prof. N Y Y N Y Y Y Y Y
Grade Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y
School Att. Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y
Address N N Y Y Y Y Y Y Y
SOURCE: Jane Hannaway presentation to committee, prepared by the National Center for
Analysis of Longitudinal Data in Education Research (CALDER).
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176 APPENDIX C
strategies have been needed each year to make the data comparable to those
for other states and prior years, for example, to account for changing clas-
sifications of charter schools.
Schools and Staffing Survey (SASS)
The SASS is an integrated sample survey comprised of four question-
naires targeting public and private schools, school districts, and principals
and teachers. Data collection at the state level began in 1987-1988 and
again in 1990-1991, 1993-1994, 1999-2000, 2003-2004, and 2007-2008,
resulting in public release and restricted-use datasets. The next SASS collec-
tion is scheduled for the 2011-2012 and 2015-2016 school years.
One year following each administration of the SASS survey, a follow-up
questionnaire is administered to the initial group of teachers to determine
the numbers of those who have left their positions or have moved on to
other positions. For the first time in 2007-2008, this follow-up question-
naire, known as the Teacher Followup Survey (TFS), was also used to moni-
tor the movement of first-year teachers. In addition, the year after SASS
2007-2008, a state-level Principal Follow-up Survey (PFS) was conducted
on all principals interviewed in SASS.
The SASS 2007-2008 collection includes 104 DC traditional public
schools, their principals and school libraries at the state level, as well as
an additional sample of public charter schools from 16 districts (many DC
charter schools are their own districts). Finally, a sample of three to eight
teachers per school based on school enrollment is also included.
The SASS provides data on
• Districts, including enrollment, teachers, principals, count of newly-
hired teachers, teacher schedules and salaries, types of benefits
offered to teachers, number of newly-hired principals, principal sal-
ary schedule, number of contract days for teachers and principals
per year, existence of a collective bargaining agreement or other
type of agreement, school choice policies, high school graduation
requirements, presence of incentives to recruit or retain teachers,
poor performance dismissals or contract nonrenewals, high school
graduation policy;
• Schools, including staffing counts, Title I teacher count, grade levels
offered, student enrollment by race/ethnicity, IEP and LEP students,
migrant students, school year length, programs/services offered,
public school designation as charter or traditional;
• Library Media Centers, including services, policies, expenditures
in previous year, types of holdings and equipment, assistive tech-
nology availability;
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177
APPENDIX C
• Principals, including demographics, salary, hours worked per week,
number of instructional hours students receive per week at grades
3 and 8 for core academic subjects, attitudes and school climate,
policies on school safety; and
• Teachers, including demographics, salary, workload, preparation,
certification, teaching assignment, grades taught, number of stu-
dents taught (average class size can be calculated), professional
development, attitudes on school climate.
National Assessment of Student Progress and
Trial Urban District Assessment
The National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) collects
academic achievement data and related background information. Table C-4
shows the DC data available from NAEP.
The Trial Urban District Assessment (TUDA) is designed to explore the
feasibility of using NAEP to report on the performance of public school stu-
dents at the district level, for those districts selected to be a part of TUDA
(see Table C-5). As authorized by federal law, NAEP has administered the
mathematics, reading, science, and writing assessments to samples of stu-
dents in selected urban districts public schools.
TABLE C-4 Available NAEP Data
National National and Participating
Subject Only Results State Results Urban District Results
Arts — —
ü
Civics — —
ü
Economics — —
ü
Geography — —
ü
Long-Term Trend — —
ü
Mathematics — ü ü
Reading — ü ü
Science — ü ü
U.S. History — —
ü
Writing — ü ü
NOTE: Unshaded rows are areas for which DC data are available.
SOURCE: Nation’s Report Card, available: http://nationsreportcard.gov/about.asp [accessed
December 2010].
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TABLE C-5 District Assessment Participation
178
2002 2003 2005 Reading, 2007 Reading, 2009 Reading,
Reading Reading and Science, and Mathematics, Mathematics,
and Writing Mathematics Mathematics and Writing and Science
ü ü ü ü ü
Atlanta Public Schools
ü ü ü ü
Austin Independent School District
ü
Baltimore City Public Schools
ü ü ü ü
Boston School District
ü ü ü ü
Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools
ü ü ü ü ü
Chicago Public Schools
ü ü ü ü
Cleveland Metropolitan School District
ü
Detroit Public Schools
ü ü ü ü ü
District of Columbia Public Schools
ü
Fresno Unified School District
ü ü ü ü ü
Houston Independent School District
ü
Jefferson County Public Schools (KY)
ü ü ü ü ü
Los Angeles Unified SchoolDistrict
ü
Miami-Dade County Public Schools
ü
Milwaukee Public Schools
ü ü ü ü ü
New York City Public Schools
ü ü ü ü
San Diego Unified SchoolDistrict
ü
School District of Philadelphia
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NOTES: Beginning in 2009, if the results for charter schools are not included in the school district’s Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) report to the
U.S. Department of Education under the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, they are excluded from that district’s TUDA results. See more
information on the comparability of the 2009 NAEP design. Due to an insufficient sample size, the District of Columbia did not participate in the
science assessment in 2005 and 2009 and the writing assessment in 2007.
SOURCES: U.S. Department of Education, Institute of Education Sciences, National Center for Education Statistics, National Assessment of Edu-
cational Progress (NAEP), various years, 2002-2009 assessments. Nation’s Report Card, TUDA, available: http://nationsreportcard.gov/tuda.asp
[accessed December 2010].
179
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180 APPENDIX C
NAEP and TUDA provide scale scores and achievement level data,
along with background information and allow for trend analyses within
states and districts, and comparisons with others. NAEP and TUDA also
survey school administrators regarding information about the school and
teachers regarding their educational background, experiences, and instruc-
tional practices. Every 4 years a high school transcript study is conducted.
In 2009, charter school results were included in the state-level NAEP
assessment but were not included in the district-level TUDA results for
DC. In that year, the math sample for DC 4th grade included approxi-
mately 1,900 students in NAEP and 1,400 in TUDA; for 8th grade
approximately 1,800 students in NAEP and 900 in TUDA. State-level
(NAEP) and district-level (TUDA) math and reading assessments will be
next administered for DC in 2011, 2013, and 2015 (schedule subject to
change, see table). The schedule for NAEP and TUDA administrations is
shown in Table C-6.
TABLE C-6 Schedule of NAEP and TUDA Assessments, 2005-2017
Long-Term
Year National State/TUDA Trend
2005 reading reading (4, 8)
mathematics mathematics (4, 8)
science science (4, 8)
high school transcript study
2006 U.S. history
civics
economics (12)
2007 reading (4, 8) reading (4, 8)
mathematics (4, 8) mathematics (4, 8)
writing (8, 12) writing (8)
2008 arts (8) reading
mathematics
reading (4, 8, 12)a,c
readinga
2009
mathematicsb mathematics (4, 8, 12)c
sciencea science (4, 8)a
high school transcript study
2010 U.S. history
civics
geography
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181
APPENDIX C
TABLE C-6 Continued
Long-Term
Year National State/TUDA Trend
2011 reading (4, 8) reading (4, 8)
mathematics (4, 8) mathematics (4, 8)
science (8) science (8, state only)
writing (8,12)a
2012 economics (12) reading
mathematics
2013 reading reading (4, 8)
mathematics mathematics (4, 8)
science science (4, 8)
high school transcript study
U.S. historya
2014
civicsa
geography
technology and engineering
literacya (grades TBD)
2015 reading (4, 8) reading (4, 8)
mathematics (4, 8) mathematics (4, 8)
writing writing (4, 8)
2016 arts (8) reading
mathematics
2017 reading reading (4, 8)
mathematics mathematics (4, 8)
science science (4, 8)
high school transcript study
Last Updated March 10, 2010.
aUpdated or new framework is planned for implementation in this subject. In the case of
subjects for which frameworks are already adopted, the Board will decide whether a new or
updated framework is needed for this assessment year.
bNew framework for grade 12 mathematics only, in 2009.
cFor 2009, there is a pilot study of state-level results, for which 11 states volunteered.
NOTES: At the national level, grades tested are 4, 8, and 12 unless otherwise indicated, except
that long-term trend assessments sample students at ages 9, 13, and 17. The Governing Board
intends to conduct assessments at grade 12 in world history and foreign language during the
assessment period 2018-2011.
SOURCE: See http://nces.ed.gov/nationsreportcard/about/assessmentsched.asp [accessed March
2010].
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