1. Introduction to SLEDS
Robert Vagi & Ethan Brown | Center for Applied Research and Educational Improvement
CAREI | sleds.mn.gov

3. Learn more at https://www.cehd.umn.edu/carei/
About CAREI
The Center for Applied Research and Educational Improvement partners with local, state, and national service agencies, and policymakers to improve the educational outcomes for all learners. CAREI leverages the resources and expertise at the University of Minnesota to address real-world problems with systematic, high-quality research, assessment and evaluation.
Learn more at

4. CAREI and SLEDS Member of the SLEDS Network
CAREI serves the Northeast, Southeast, and Central portion of the state (with a portion of the metro)
5 Economic Development Regions:
3, 6E, 7E, 7W, 10
31 Counties
171 School Districts or LEAs
125 public school districts
33 independent magnet/charter schools
13 other LEAs (mostly ed. districts and service co-ops)

5. Today’s Objectives Become familiar with the types of data in SLEDS.
Feel comfortable navigating SLEDS.
Understand how to dig more deeply into your SLEDS data.
Become familiar with the Graduate Employment Outcomes (GEO) tool
11/19/2018

6. Did you know?
Approximately ____ % of MN public high school graduates enrolled in college in the fall after graduation.
What is the primary factor that influences where students attend college?
____% of high school graduates complete a certificate or degree within four years. ___% complete in 7 or 8 years.
By the fourth year, ___% were still enrolled or had graduated.
11/19/2018

7. Did you know?
Approximately 69% of MN public high school graduates enrolled in college in the fall after graduation.
What is the primary factor that influences where students attend college? Where they live!
25% of high school graduates complete a certificate or degree within four years % complete in 7 or 8 years.
By the fourth year, 62% were still enrolled or had graduated.
11/19/2018

8. Statewide Longitudinal Data System
What is SLEDS?
Statewide Longitudinal Data System

9. Big idea: SLEDS is about transitions

10. Statewide Longitudinal Education Data System (SLEDS)
What is SLEDS?
Statewide Longitudinal Education Data System (SLEDS)
A statewide database system that links data from multiple sources:
K-12 education data (Minnesota Department of Education [MDE])
Post-secondary data (Minnesota Office of Higher Education [OHE])
Workforce data (Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development [DEED])
Focus is on the ”transitions” from K-12 to Post-Secondary and from Post- Secondary to Workforce

11. What is ECSLDS?
The system shows population results on children's growth and achievement in relation to their participation in a variety of educational and social programs over time.
Funded by Race to the Top Early Learning Challenge Grant (MDE)
Partnership between the Minnesota Departments of Education, Human Services, and Health
Follows children birth to grade 3
Web tool - online, interactive database only

12. https://mn.gov/deed/data/data-tools/graduate-employment-outcomes/
What is GEO?
The Graduate Employment Outcomes (GEO) tool is overseen by the Department of Employment and Economic Development.
GEO links postsecondary degrees earned in Minnesota to employment in Minnesota
GEO is meant to be used by:
Prospective students, to set realistic expectations for employment and wages following graduation
Parents and career counselors, to help prospective students plan their education
Education program planners interested in aligning program offerings to market demand
Policy makers interested in evaluating the state’s returns on investments in higher education
11/19/2018
CAREI | sleds.mn.gov

13. Brief SLEDS History Year Activity 2006 Received 1st SLDS grant 2011
Formal data sharing agreements signed
2013
1st SLEDS Research Report Series launched (Getting Prepared)
2015
K-12 Secured Reports
Awarded SLDS Grant
2016
Early Childhood Longitudinal Data System Website Launch
Postsecondary Secured Reports
SLEDS Network launched
SLDS = statewide longitudinal data system (federal education grant)

14. SLEDS Priorities Pathways Progress Predictors Performance
Pathways: The movement of individuals between K-12/Higher Education/Workforce
Minnesota Report Card: College-Going - A snapshot of college-going activity for high school graduates. (Published annually)
Progress: The benchmarks or transition points students meet or fail to meet
Getting Prepared - A report on recent high school graduates and developmental course taking trends in college. (Published annually)
Predictors: The characteristics, patterns, or commonalities that help explain which students succeed and which do not
How well does a college education pay? - An analysis of the economic success of post-secondary graduates in Minnesota. (Published April 2014)
Performance: How well are education and workforce aligned for individual success?
Racial Disparities in Wage and Employment after Graduation - An analysis on the differences in college graduate outcomes by race, gender, and age. (Published December 2015)

15. WHY SLEDS?
SLEDS can support your school’s system-level questions related to the transition from the K-12 setting to college and career.
What % of students go to college? Do you have significant “summer melt”?
What are the most common 2-year and 4-year colleges your students’ attend?
What is the average ACT score in your district? How does that compare to the state average?
What % of students take developmental courses when they enter college?

16. SLEDS Data

17. Transitions Are Key Use SLEDS when you consider transitions!
K-12: MDE Data
Post-secondary: OHE Data
Workforce: DEED Data
Big idea: SLEDS is about transitions
Use SLEDS when you consider transitions!

18. K-12 Data (MDE) K-12 Enrollment K-12 Assessment
Enrollment data collected from Minnesota public and private K-12 institutions
51 variables related to attendance and a wide-range of demographic indicators
Data from 2005 onward
K-12 Assessment
Results from statewide assessments such as the MCAs, MTAS, and ACCESS
18 variables including test administration information and a subset of demographic indicators
Data from 2006 onward

19. K-12 Data (MDE) ACT Assessment/College Entrance
31 variables related to: a) results from ACT’s assessments, b) Interest Inventory data, and c) high school course taking and grades
Data from 2005 onward
Advanced Placement Results
8 variables related to AP test scores and test administration details
Data from 2006 onward
International Baccalaureate
18 variables related to program, subject, and grades
Data from 2008 onward

20. K-12 Data (MDE) Kindergarten Readiness GED Results
56 variables related to developmental and familial indicators, developmental indicators measured by teachers in first few weeks of year
Data being collected for first time now
GED Results
39 variables related to GED test scores
Data beginning in 1950
Adult Basic Education
Adult Basic Education serves students who are 16 or older, not enrolled in or not eligible to attend K-12 public or private school, and lack basic skills in one or more of the following areas: reading, writing, speaking, listening and mathematics.
43 variables related to enrollment, goals, and completion
Data beginning in 1979

21. Post-Secondary Data (OHE)
Post-Secondary Enrollment
Fall term enrollment data collected from all Minnesota public and private postsecondary institutions.
33 variables related to degree/major seeking, transfer/dual/concurrent credits, demographics
Data from 2003-present
Post-Secondary Completions
12 variables related to degrees/certificates completed
Data from 2007-present

22. Post-Secondary Data (OHE)
Institutional Characteristics
The Institutional Characteristics survey is administrated by the USDE and provides general information about postsecondary institutions.
23 variables including: Institution address, telephone number, website, educational offerings, mission statements, control/affiliation, award levels, calendar system, and admissions requirements.
Data from 2003-present
Out-of-state Enrollment and Completion (National Student Clearinghouse)
12 variables including: Enrollment status, enrollment dates, major, degree conferred
Data from 2006-present

23. Workforce Data (DEED) Unemployment Insurance Wage Records
Data provided by all employers in Minnesota covered by Unemployment Insurance law. Data is provided quarterly and contains the names. Social Security numbers, wages, and hours of workers at each employer location.
Employer Detail
Data on all Minnesota businesses that describes their location, staff size, and primary industry. The North American Industrial Classification System (NAICS, is used.
Workforce Training Participant Data
Data on individuals who participate in workforce training programs. Data includes individual characteristics, and services provided.

24. SLEDS Data Dictionary http://sleds.mn.gov/ 50+ data tables
Each tables contains a list of variables with:
Variable name
Variable labels
Years of valid data (1979…2011 to present; 2006 and 2007 most common for K-12 education data)
Number and value of codes
Some variables (e.g. ethnicity) appear in multiple tables

25. When is SLEDS Updated?
New data are loaded in SLEDS twice a year (June and November).
At each data load all data attempts to link with all data, new and old, so database is new every six months.
This means summarized data may change slightly as more data are available.
When you use your organization’s data, be sure to cite the date of the data you examined.

26. Accessing SLEDS Data The public site is available to everyone!
Public Data
Your Organization
Research projects
The public site is available to everyone!
Your organization can request access to your data.
If you need access to individual level data for a specific research project, you can request that through SLEDS.
Six-month wait time
We’ll talk more about the various levels of access and how to get them after we dig into our data!

27. Navigating SLEDS

28. SLEDS Site
Here is the site.

29. Layout of Site Site Layout (animated boxes to highlight each area)
There are 3 main sections on many of the first pages.
Left hand bar is the navigation bar.
Middle has information and is scrollable.
Right has contact information.

30. Left Hand Navigation Bar
Data are organized by the transitions being explored.
We will spend most of our time exploring the data in the SLEDS public site. This navigation bar shows the organization of the data.

31. Data Screens Each screen will start with 1 data window.
You can create extra data windows by selecting the “add another view” button.
There are multiple data sources in each section.

32. Data Options
Choose between districts, schools, years, race/ethnicity, gender, and other demographic information.
This will disaggregate the data displays.

33. GEO
Data Sources
Minnesota Office of Higher Education (OHE) postsecondary graduation records
Wage records from all employers subject to Unemployment Insurance taxes in Minnesota.
11/19/2018
CAREI | sleds.mn.gov

34. Key Aspects of GEO GEO EMPLOYABILITY (in-state employment rate)
2. FULLTIME AND YEAR-ROUND STATUS (job quality and job stability)
3. EARNINGS (annual and hourly wages)
11/19/2018
CAREI | sleds.mn.gov

35. GEO
Navigating GEO:
outcomes/
11/19/2018
CAREI | sleds.mn.gov

36. Your Turn
Using the worksheet at your table, identify one or two key questions that are relevant to your organization.
Take a few minutes to navigate the public sites shown in this presentation to answer these questions.
Share what you found with a neighbor.
Using the guiding questions, discuss with a neighbor these answers may be useful to your organization.

37. Digging Deeper

38. Today’s Focus Public Data Looking at overall data trends.
Your Organization
Research projects
Looking at overall data trends.
Examining summary data.
Today’s Focus

39. Your Student-Level Data
Public Data
Your Organization
Research projects
Considering program evaluation in your organization.
Answering questions that require student level data.
This is the data you have already given to MDE!

40. Data Access SLEDS Secured Reports
Go to Research and then the middle column has information related to getting your secured report.
SLEDS Secured Reports

41. Research Projects
Public Data
Your Organization
Research projects
Need student-level data from organizations other than your own.

42. Data Access
Go to Research and then the middle column has the data request as well as the policy.

43. Think About
Do you have a need for data that is more specific than the summary data provided on the public site?
Does anyone in your organization have access to the student-level data for your organization?

44. CAREI’s SLEDS Objectives
Increase use of SLEDS public site data by education and workforce stakeholders.
Increase percent of users that request their SLEDS files.
Increase recognition of CAREI as a valuable SLEDS resource.
We want to work with schools and other stakeholders to do this! Please reach out to us if there are ways we can be of service!