INFORMATIONAL LETTER NO.  30

 

POLICY CODE:  KLL

 

 

TO:               Superintendents of Schools

                     Headmasters of 60% Schools

                     Directors of Vocational Regions

FROM:         J. Duke Albanese, Commissioner

DATE:          December 12, 2002

RE:               Maine Education Data Management System

 

Please share this letter with school principals and other interested personnel.

 

The Maine Education Data Management System (MEDMS) is currently under development for use by every school system in meeting state and federal requirements for schools and school systems to report data to the Maine Department of Education (MDOE).  Most of the MEDMS will go on line by July 1, 2003.  The remainder will go on line by December 1, 2003.  Training will be provided for one user per school at no cost.  The specifications for the system have been finalized and are under review by the State’s Division of Purchases.  Once this is approved, the exact specifications will be posted on the MDOE website.

We understand that many school systems are finalizing budgets for the 2002-2003 school year and therefore need to have more detail about what the MEDMS will provide as a guide to what local capacity may have to be purchased.  This memo is intended to respond to this need.  Until a contract with a vendor is negotiated, it is still possible to change the specifications of the MEDMS.  The specifications provided reflect the balance of school system needs, reporting requirements that the State must meet, cost, and available time.  We recognize that if the Department does not deliver the MEDMS by the dates specified, school systems will not be able to meet state and federal reporting requirements.

Questions about this memo, or any other aspect of the MEDMS should be directed to Karen Caprio, Distinguished Educator for Data Management, at Karen.Caprio@state.me.us

General System Capacity.  MEDMS will:

1.      Interface with a school system’s Student Information System or with SIF Software and Student Information System.  This will not replace the SIS for recording of daily attendance, teacher grades, developing a master schedule, producing quarterly report cards that include data other than LAS results, and printing traditional transcripts.

2.      Have the capacity to send information to DOE electronically, either through the interface or as a batch.

3.      Maintain security of access based on the role of users:

§  Citizen

§  School board member

§  Central office personnel

§  Building administrators or guidance

§  Program director (Title 1, school nutrition, special education)

§  Teacher

§  MDOE

4.      Have an analytical tool for Queries, to enable analysis of performance:

§  By demographic traits of students

§  By characteristics of personnel

§  By resources

5.      Provide for electronic reporting for the following state reports or data sets:

§  Pupil enrollment reports [EF-M-11; EF-M-12; EF-M-40; and EF-M-35a]

§  Vocational student database

§  Special education students [EF-S-05]

§  Special education placement and costs [EF-S-01; EF-S-07]

§  Special education program staffing [EF-S-02]

§  ESL/Bilingual program data

§  Migrant program data

§  Approved annual budget and expenditures [EF-M-45; EF-M-46]

§  School Nutrition data

§  Donated Commodities data

§  Staff data forms [EF-M-15]

§  Certification status [EF-C-300]

§  Homeschooling data

§  School bus data

§  Truancy and dropout data

§  Violent student behavior, suspension and expulsion data, reporting of bomb threats

§  Annual attendance reports

Student Data Management. MEDMS will:

6.      Assign unique student identifiers for accurate analysis and reporting, known as “de-duplication.”

7.      Transfer any student data in the MEDMS electronically for students who transfer between Maine school systems.

8.      Track resident student enrollments: students educated at public expense; private school enrollment; and home-schooling placement.

9.      Track student data across school years; will track historic data entered by school systems.

10.  Aggregate and disaggregate results as required by Ch. 127 and NCLBA.

11.  Track student behavior information as it pertains to Federal Reporting requirements.

12.  Permit access by sending superintendent to all data on resident students educated at public expense.

Assessment Data Management. MEDMS will:

13.  Link to Assessments developed by MDOE, including those on MaineLAD site, MAP, and Maine Phys Ed Assessment.

14.  Track assessment results by student at the Performance Indicator level for any assessment developed by the Department, and any assessment in a school system’s Local Assessment System once the school system enters the attributes of the assessment. 

§  Not on-line test-taking capabilities

§  Not electronic scoring capabilities

§  Not computing quarterly grades, or tracking results of classroom assessments other than those adopted by the School Board as part of the Local Assessment System.

15.  Capture all assessment attributes necessary to record student performance:

§  Name of assessment

§  Maximum points for each Performance Indicator

§  Maximum points for each Content Standard

§  Maximum points for each Content Cluster

§  Maximum points for each Content Area

§  Grade span assessed

§  Maximum points possible for the assessment

§  Assessment type (up to 6 categories per content area)

§  Other attributes that are essential for the MDOE certification algorithm, which will both determine a student’s performance level and whether there is sufficient evidence to certify the student’s performance.

NOTE: This will not manage the field-testing process of locally developed assessments.

16.  Interface with all MEA data beginning in 1998-1999.

17.  Apply MDOE certification algorithm to LAS results of a student.

Other Data Management. MEDMS will:

18.  Collect personnel characteristics:

§  Teacher education level

§  Teacher certification status

§  Teacher characteristics

19.  Report on certification status of teachers as required by NCLBA.

20.  Integrate financial data in order to meet EPS requirements, including:

§  Report school-based information instead of school-system-based information

§  Accurate student counts by program enrollment for special ratios

§  Accurate tracking of new spending categories: technology, assessment, training & development of personnel

21.  Lay the foundation for integration of existing data silos currently maintained by the Department.