SD-STARS – South Dakota’s Statewide Longitudinal Data System
PURPOSE | COMPONENTS | CURRENT STATUS | NEWS | CONTACT
South Dakota – Student Teacher Accountability and Reporting System (SD – STARS)
The Student Teacher Accountability Reporting System (SD-STARS) is a State Longitudinal Data System (SLDS) that will drive the educational initiatives to improve instruction and student performance. The goal is for SD-STARS to securely consolidate and link all educational data that currently resides within the SD-DOE. In other words, it pulls data that is already available from different sources (ex: Infinite Campus, assessments), dumps data into a centralized system, and links data together. This will increase data availability for reporting and analysis used by teachers, schools, districts, and the SD-DOE as well as external stakeholders, such as policy makers and researchers. SD-STARS will also allow for deeper and richer performance analysis by bringing student, teacher, principal, and financial data together.
PURPOSE
The purpose of SD–STARS is to aid, measure, inform. Educators will have the ability to access and use high quality data to aid in informing instruction and decision-making. To this end, data will be displayed in an easily understood format and educators will be trained so they are able to identify trends and conduct thorough analyses. Through SD-STARS, students’ outcomes will be measured so educators can identify at-risk students, examine achievement gaps, evaluate programs, recognize strengths, and address areas for improvement. Ultimately, stakeholders will develop a more holistic view of our education system and use that picture to inform systemic change.
COMPONENTS
SD-STARS has 4 key components:
Data Warehouse —Repository that stores student, teacher and school data from various sources over many years
Portal —Secure place where users can access and interact with data from the warehouse
Reports —Tools that allow users to look at and analyze key data
Training –Opportunities to learn about how to use SD-STARS for informing practice/decisions
Security to protect the privacy of individuals is a high priority. In addition to other security measures, SD-STARS will limit what a person will be allowed to see. For example, a teacher will only be able to view data for the children he teaches, and a principal would be able to see children in her school. This maintains FERPA compliance.
CURRENT STATUS
Completed Work
Work in Progress
Future Work
NEWS ARTICLES
• States awarded grants for Longitudinal Data Systems, Education News, 7/20/12
• S.D. will follow data to see gains in schools, Argus Leader, 7/3/11
• New data system to assess South Dakota schools, teachers, Rapid City Journal¸ 3/12/12
CONTACT
Marcus Bevier, LDS Management Analyst with the SD Department of Education (605) 773-8062
Sara Kock, LDS Management Analyst with the SD Department of Education (605) 773-6158
The Student Teacher Accountability Reporting System (SD-STARS) is a State Longitudinal Data System (SLDS) that will drive the educational initiatives to improve instruction and student performance. The goal is for SD-STARS to securely consolidate and link all educational data that currently resides within the SD-DOE. In other words, it pulls data that is already available from different sources (ex: Infinite Campus, assessments), dumps data into a centralized system, and links data together. This will increase data availability for reporting and analysis used by teachers, schools, districts, and the SD-DOE as well as external stakeholders, such as policy makers and researchers. SD-STARS will also allow for deeper and richer performance analysis by bringing student, teacher, principal, and financial data together.
PURPOSE
The purpose of SD–STARS is to aid, measure, inform. Educators will have the ability to access and use high quality data to aid in informing instruction and decision-making. To this end, data will be displayed in an easily understood format and educators will be trained so they are able to identify trends and conduct thorough analyses. Through SD-STARS, students’ outcomes will be measured so educators can identify at-risk students, examine achievement gaps, evaluate programs, recognize strengths, and address areas for improvement. Ultimately, stakeholders will develop a more holistic view of our education system and use that picture to inform systemic change.
COMPONENTS
SD-STARS has 4 key components:
Data Warehouse —Repository that stores student, teacher and school data from various sources over many years
Portal —Secure place where users can access and interact with data from the warehouse
Reports —Tools that allow users to look at and analyze key data
Training –Opportunities to learn about how to use SD-STARS for informing practice/decisions
Security to protect the privacy of individuals is a high priority. In addition to other security measures, SD-STARS will limit what a person will be allowed to see. For example, a teacher will only be able to view data for the children he teaches, and a principal would be able to see children in her school. This maintains FERPA compliance.
CURRENT STATUS
Completed Work
• Purchased customizable SLDS system
• Applied for and awarded SLDS grant from Institute of Education Sciences (IES)
• Applied for and awarded SLDS grant from Institute of Education Sciences (IES)
Work in Progress
• Modeling and gathering data from source systems (ex: Infinite Campus, assessments)
• Creating a training plan for districts and ESAs
• Developing initial set of reports
• Testing portal for functionality and security
• Running and testing reports needed for federal accountability
• Defining governance structure to make decisions around data within South Dakota
• Creating a training plan for districts and ESAs
• Developing initial set of reports
• Testing portal for functionality and security
• Running and testing reports needed for federal accountability
• Defining governance structure to make decisions around data within South Dakota
Future Work
• Pilot SD-STARS with 10 SDIF districts (starting October 2012)
• Roll out SD-STARS statewide (after March 2013)
• Continue to develop additional reports based on the needs of districts/teachers
• Create workgroup to explore growth models for South Dakota (Summer 2013)
• Expand SD-STARS to integrate with higher education, workforce, and other data systems
• Roll out SD-STARS statewide (after March 2013)
• Continue to develop additional reports based on the needs of districts/teachers
• Create workgroup to explore growth models for South Dakota (Summer 2013)
• Expand SD-STARS to integrate with higher education, workforce, and other data systems
NEWS ARTICLES
• States awarded grants for Longitudinal Data Systems, Education News, 7/20/12
• S.D. will follow data to see gains in schools, Argus Leader, 7/3/11
• New data system to assess South Dakota schools, teachers, Rapid City Journal¸ 3/12/12
CONTACT
Marcus Bevier, LDS Management Analyst with the SD Department of Education (605) 773-8062
Sara Kock, LDS Management Analyst with the SD Department of Education (605) 773-6158