Twelve Components of the America COMPETES Act NC s State Longitudinal Data System

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1 Twelve Components of the NC s State Longitudinal Data System Indicator (b)(1). Indicate which of the 12 elements described in section 6401(e)(2)(D) of the are included in the State s statewide longitudinal data system; North Carolina s statewide longitudinal data system (SLDS) includes all 12 elements described in section 6401(e)(2)(D) of the (See table (b)(1) below). NC is in the process of refining its SLDS through two separate but related efforts, the Common Education Data Analysis and Reporting System (CEDARS) and the development of the NC P-20W. CEDARS With the assistance of a US Department of Education (USED), Institute of Education Sciences (IES) State Longitudinal Data System (SLDS) Cohort 2 grant, the NC Department of Public Instruction (NCDPI) completed the project phase of the State s first P-13 SLDS, the NC Common Education Data Analysis & Reporting System (CEDARS; see CEDARS is composed of various NCDPI source data collection systems, a student and staff statewide unique identification system, a centralized data repository, and associated reporting and analysis (or "business intelligence") tools. Consistent with the description of an SLDS in the, CEDARS supports NC's efforts to use high quality data about students, staff, programs, and finances to make policy and service decisions that improve student outcomes. NC P-20W NCDPI has been working closely with the State s other education sectors and the Employment Security Commission (NCESC) (now the Labor and Economic Analysis Division of the NC Department of Commerce) to develop the State s first P-20W SLDS. In December 2011, NCDPI was awarded a three-year, $3.64 million grant award from USED to design, develop and implement a statewide, P-20W longitudinal data system. NC P-20W (preschool [P] through higher education [grade 20] through workforce [W]), the state's longitudinal data system, will enable education leaders at all points along the NC education-workforce continuum to access a "big picture" view of trends in student performance to help better prepare graduates for a career and college. In August 2009, Governor Perdue and the NC General Assembly directed the State Board of Education, along with representatives from the NC Community College System and the University of North Carolina General Administration, to craft a collective vision and high-level implementation plan for a state longitudinal data system. From this directive, the NC P-20W plan was developed and includes a formal, statewide, collaborative governance and a technology infrastructure that will enhance accessibility, quality, interoperability, and use of "shared" student data needed both for sector-specific and statewide, cross-sector analysis and reporting. 1

2 Working with staff from the North Carolina Community College System, the University of North Carolina System, the Independent Colleges and Universities, and the North Carolina Department of Commerce Labor and Economic Analysis Division, the NCDPI will use the grant money to: utilize a common unique identifier (UID) for each student in public pre-kindergarten through high school and post-secondary systems and integrate the UID with workforce data; establish a data broker based system so that agency researchers can ask questions that each of the data systems linked can answer; automate regular cross-agency reporting; and provide key data to empower the legislature and policymakers to make better decisions concerning funding, program assessments, as well as identifying trends in North Carolina education. North Carolina has made great strides over the past 10 years in increasing the collection and use of data, both within and across education sectors, to measure outcomes, inform decisions, and increase system accountability, but much of the data has been used only for compliance reporting purposes or specific, operational functions. This new grant from the USED, combined with the Race-to-the-Top Early Childhood grant also awarded in 2011, will facilitate the data integration from pre-school through workforce. NC P-20W will enable deep, coherent, comprehensive analyses and the associated information products needed to help leaders better connect, support and improve the state's education systems. 2

3 Table (b)(1). of the Twelve SLDS s NC has this capability in place. As part of CEDARS, NCDPI has implemented a Statewide unique student and staff identifier (UID) system. Presently, NCDPI is using the system to ensure that each 1: student and staff person participating in programs (pre-k through A unique statewide student ID early college high school, which sometimes involves a grade 13) that does not permit a student to overseen by the NC State Board of Education is uniquely identified be individually identified by with a random number that is used strictly for educational users of the system [PK-16] management, evaluation, and planning purposes (i.e., not a Social Security Number). As one of the first steps toward implementing NC P-20W in the coming year, NC will use this same system to similarly identify students in all other NC education sectors. 2: Student-level enrollment, demographic, and program participation information [PK-16] 3: Student-level information about the points at which students exit, transfer in, transfer out, drop out, or complete P-16 education programs [PK-16] 4: The capacity to communicate with higher education data systems [PK-16] 5: A State data audit system assessing data quality, validity, and reliability [PK-16] All NC education sectors have the ability to produce this data. NCDPI, the NC Community Colleges System (NCCCS), and the University of North Carolina (UNC) System have strong, centralized data collection and management systems in place. The NC Independent Colleges and Universities (NCICU) and NC Early Childhood Data Group (NCECDG), which represents a collaboration between various early childhood service agencies, are in the process of developing centralized collection systems, but can produce this data through coordination of distributed collection, management, and reporting mechanisms. All NC education sectors collect this data for their respective sectors. These efforts will be improved and better coordinated across sectors as part of the efforts to establish NC P-20W. NC has this capacity. The operational P-13 Statewide UID system (established through CEDARS) enables all education sectors to access UIDs for students, subsequently enabling linkage of individuals records across sectors. Work remains to improve this data integration both within and across sectors by formalizing business and technology processes. This work is targeted as part of the NC P-20W initiative. This capability is in place, but is distributed, rather than centralized. NCNCDPI, NCCCS, and UNC all implement independent processes and procedures for enforcing sector-specific data quality, validity, and reliability standards. As part of the NC P- 20W initiative, all the NC education sectors will collaborate to ensure the quality, validity, and reliability of the shared NC P-20W data set. 3

4 6: Yearly test records of individual students with respect to assessments under section 1111(b) of 1965 ESEA [PK-12] 7: Info. on students not tested, by grade and subject [PK-12] 8: A teacher identifier system with the ability to match teachers to students [PK-12] 9: Student-level transcript info., including information on courses completed and grades earned [PK-12] 10: Student-level college readiness test scores [PK-12] 11: Data that provide information regarding the extent to which students transition successfully from secondary school to postsecondary education, including whether student enroll in remedial coursework NCDPI collects this data and has been doing so since the early 1990s. NCDPI collects this data and has been doing so since the early 1990s. NCDPI operates a Statewide student information system that captures for the P-13 environment data regarding teachers, the classes/courses they teach, and the students in those classes/courses. The student and staff UID that is associated, respectively, with each student and staff person enables deidentified linkage for purposes of analysis and planning. The NCDPI-operated Statewide student information system captures this data, which is able to be transferred both between local education agencies (LEAs) and, through a partnership with the College Foundation of NC (CFNC), between LEAs and UNC campuses. The ACT college admissions and career readiness program is being administered in North Carolina high schools free of charge to students in the school year. The ACT College Admissions Assessment will be given to every 11th grader, the PLAN assessment will be given to every 10th grader and the WorkKeys assessment will be administered to 12th grade Career and Technical Education concentrators. Both the ACT and PLAN are geared to the Common Core, the state curriculum standards initiative now accepted by 45 states and the District of Columbia. After a pilot year ( ), the ACT will become part of North Carolina s school accountability program in In addition, NCDPI procures SAT data from the College Board. As part of efforts to meet the demands of the updated NC School Accountability Model, NCDPI will begin collecting other college and workforce readiness measures, such as Compass and Accuplacer. NCDPI, NCCCS, UNC, and NCESC collaborate on several standing tracking/reporting efforts (e.g., Freshman Performance Report, Common Follow-up System) that address these topics. Through the NC P-20W development efforts, these information products will be further refined and/or expanded. 4

5 (postsecondary) 12: Data that provide other information determined necessary to address alignment & adequate preparation for success in postsecondary education Using data collected through existing systems, NC has already been conducting various studies, albeit through labor intensive data linking processes, aimed at securing this type of information. With the Statewide student UID System in place (as noted with respect to elements 1 and 4), NC now has an improved capacity to explore a wide variety of important questions aimed at improving policy and services. This work will be a primary focus of the effort to establish NC P-20W. 5