Higher Education Policy Conference Common Data Standards: tsup? Higher Education Policy Conference August 12, 2010 John Blegen, State Higher Education Executive Officers Ken Sauer, Indiana Commission for Higher Education

Higher Education Policy Conference Types of Education Data Standards Data Standard Categories ◦ Data definitions and code sets – Concerned with the meanings and contents (e.g., values) ◦ Technical specifications – Used by software and systems developers to facilitate interoperability ◦ Data Model – Describe the relationships that exist between entities Existing official and de facto standards ◦ National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) ◦ PESC ◦ SREB – regional collection ◦ National Student Clearinghouse ◦ Many more… 2

Higher Education Policy Conference What is a Data Standard? Data standards are ◦Documented agreements on definitions, representations, and formats of common data elements ◦Intended to improve the quality and share-ability of education data ◦A set of uniform data elements stored or represented in a source system that are defined by element name, valid values/controlled vocabulary, data length, data type, and narrative definition 3

Higher Education Policy Conference Why Do We Need Data Standards? National Data Standards … ◦ Are more efficient than building 50 sets of standards ◦ Can be more efficiently updated than 50 separate systems ◦ Foster P-20 longitudinal data systems 4

Higher Education Policy Conference Why Do We Need Data Standards? National Data Standards … ◦ Improve the quality of the data definitions themselves and the quality of the data reported ◦ Make comparable analyses possible ◦ Are necessary to link systems and to exchange data (interoperability) 5

Higher Education Policy Conference Why Do We Need Data Standards? 6

Higher Education Policy Conference Why Do We Need Data Standards? 7 Policy QuestionsStandards Questions What percentage of those who go to college enter with developmental and remedial needs? What counts as remedial needs? Does that include students who take remedial courses? What about students whose ACT/SAT scores indicate they are not ready for college level work but do not actually take remedial courses?

Higher Education Policy Conference Initiatives Related to Education Data Standards National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) Handbooks (K-12) National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) IPEDS Definitions (postsecondary) EDFacts (USED K-12) National Education Data Model (NEDM) (K-12 and postsecondary) Postsecondary Electronic Standards Council (PESC) Schools Interoperability Framework (SIF) Common Data Standards Initiative 8

Higher Education Policy Conference A Statement of Common Purpose - WHO? - Council of Chief State School Officers State Higher Education Executive Officers Input from ◦ Department of Education ◦ Data Quality Campaign ◦ Postsecondary Electronic Standards Council (PESC) ◦ SIF Association 9

Higher Education Policy Conference Common Data Standards Initiative Parallel Activity Technical Working Group Advocacy, Communication & Adoption NCES Forum 4 SEAs (+2 alternates) 4 LEAs 4 Higher Education Systems SIF Association PESC Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation SHEEO CCSSO Michael & Susan Dell Foundation DQC 10

Higher Education Policy Conference A Statement of Common Purpose - WHY? - “….unintended consequence of diversity… ◦ We define and collect core data elements in slightly different ways…” “…differences make it harder to communicate ◦ student needs and previous achievements ◦ valid information on relatively simple questions…” 11

Higher Education Policy Conference A Statement of Common Purpose - WHAT? - “…collaborative effort to leverage and create model data standards…” “…widespread, voluntary adoption…” “…enhance policy-making and student achievement…” “Initially …focus on data related to transition…” 12

Higher Education Policy Conference A Statement of Common Purpose - WHAT? - On Data Related to Transition, Two Use Cases Have Been Developed: ◦Sending High School Transcripts to Colleges ◦Providing Feedback Reports to High Schools on How Their Graduates Are Doing in College What Are the Data Elements and Standards Needed To Support These Reports? 13

Higher Education Policy Conference A Statement of Common Purpose - WHAT? - SHEEO and CCSSO are developing a list of critical policy questions ◦Extracting from existing published sources ◦Determining the data required to answer them. ◦Providing feedback to the CDS development process. 14

Higher Education Policy Conference A Statement of Common Purpose - HOW? - “…CCSSO and SHEEO will work with their respective members…” “…partner on communications with the Data Quality Campaign…” “….provide feedback on standards design to the U.S. Department of Education…” “…engage policy and information experts…” 15

Higher Education Policy Conference A Statement of Common Purpose - HOW? - “The U.S. Department of Education will facilitate the leveraging, and where needed, the development of model common data standards for a core set of student-level variables…” “…variables and model standards will be shared…for feedback and discussion, in order to achieve broad consensus and voluntary adoption.” 16

Higher Education Policy Conference Common Data Standards Initiative What It Is Not! Required: Adoption of any or all of the CDS standards is entirely voluntary. A data collection: CDS does not collect data. A Federal unit record system: CDS is a model (or models) for data standardization to enable sharing between institutions and sharing between institutions and state systems. A US ED initiative: CDS is a collaborative effort including SEAs, LEAs, state higher education organizations, national organizations and USED. Academic Standards: CDS has been confused with the Common Core Academic Standards 17

Higher Education Policy Conference Issues Scope and Objectives need to be clearly articulated: ◦A deeper understanding of the educational process and better information about outcomes ◦Performance information about students ◦Required to facilitate comprehensive analysis of P-20 public education ◦Increase comparability of data, interoperability and portability of data, and reduce collection burden ◦Meet student, policymaker and educator needs 18

Higher Education Policy Conference Issues State/Postsecondary Issues….

Higher Education Policy Conference Issues Governance and Sustainability need to be addressed ◦Whose standard is it? ◦The community is cynical about "standards" that have come and gone ◦Should USED have primary responsibility for the technical content of the standard or is it some other body? ◦Does governance need to be addressed up front or after the standards have been adopted voluntarily by the community? 20

Higher Education Policy Conference Issues Design Criteria (a standard for standards) ◦Quality specifications should exist for data names, entities, definitions, option sets, time dimensions, units, etc. ◦Narrative Definitions: In order to be collected accurately, definitions must be usable “on the ground” and should be written in inclusive language with no acronyms and at an 8th grade reading level. 21

Higher Education Policy Conference Issues Design Criteria (a standard for standards). ◦Valid Values: Proper design of lists of valid values critical to quality of data collection. All sets of valid values must be:  Mutually Exclusive. Should never be a case where more than one value could be correct for the same record at the same time.  Collectively Exhaustive. There should be a value for every case. “Other” should be avoided whenever possible and if used, clearly distinguished from “no data.”  Understandable by people likely to be providing data. 22

Higher Education Policy Conference CDS TWG Data Elements Example 23

Higher Education Policy Conference First Draft is Undergoing Review Available at Sample comments: ◦Birthdate - Please follow the International Standards for date formatting YYYYMMDD ◦Economically Disadvantaged Status - Unless a student completes a FAFSA or applies for some other means dependent program at the college, a higher education institution is unlikely to know the economic background of a student. This is especially a problem at Community Colleges where as many as half the students may not complete a FAFSA. 24

Higher Education Policy Conference First Draft is Undergoing Review Available at Sample comments: ◦Projected Graduation Date - Recommend changing to "Projected Graduation Year" rather than date as a date cannot be projected but a year can. 25

Higher Education Policy Conference What’s Next? First “soft” release expected in September Communication and adoption strategies refined Multiple presentations (and yet more presentations) Engage vendor communities Feedback! Feedback! Feedback! Years 2 and 3: Consider expansion of the number of elements and the scope (Pre-K and Workforce) 27

Higher Education Policy Conference What Does This Mean For You? “What have you heard about this CDS thing?” It’s largely K-12 centric right now but not for long We need postsecondary input into the draft standards Build on “Strong Foundations” report Increased attention to K-12 / Postsecondary / Labor data linkages especially with state longitudinal data systems (SLDS grants) and NSC expansion into K-12 Potential adoption by states or vendors may require system modifications Future changes to IPEDS may be CDS-compliant 28

Higher Education Policy Conference Contact Information John Blegen Ken Sauer