Ad Hoc Reports on the Fly- Dare to Dream It!
Virginia Department of EducationOffice of Educational Information Management
2012 MIS Conference
Introductions
• Susan Williams– Manager, Data Management and Accountability
Systems
• Scott Walden– Team Lead, State and Federal Reporting
Public Reporting
• Static Excel Reports• Dynamic Report Cards• Customized Student Achievement
Reports• Dynamic Excel Reports• Ad Hoc and FOIA Requests
Static Excel Reports
+ Easy to replicate+ Trend data
– Personal attention needed– Pre-defined layout– Multiple ad hoc requests
for similar data
www.doe.virginia.gov » Statistics & Reports » Enrollment & Demographics » Fall Membership » Archive Data
Dynamic School Report Cards
+ 3 years of data+ PDF or Excel format+ Updated by triggers in the
database
– Pre-defined layout– Only one school at a time– Multiple ad hoc requests
www.doe.virginia.gov » School Report Card
Customized Student Achievement
+ Multiple years of data+ Excel format+ Auto update+ User selected records/fields
– No aggregation/limited fields– Multiple ad hoc requests
www.doe.virginia.gov » School Report Card » Customized Student Achievement Reports
Dynamic Excel Reports
+ Trend data+ Auto update+ Subgroup data+ All schools in one file
– Pre-defined layout– Multiple ad hoc requests
www.doe.virginia.gov » Statistics & Reports » Graduation, Completion & Dropout Data » Virginia Cohort Reports
Ad Hoc and FOIA requests
Year Number of Requests2008 1232009 1982010 2042011 184
A New Direction
• Defined outcome of SLDS grant• High expectations
– Customized tables – Ready made charts – Data on a map – Reduce ad hoc reports
A Tool for Every Job
• Commonwealth resources– Sought technical expertise within state agencies
• COTS – Product that was designed to be customized– Easy to learn – Develop expertise within DOE/state agencies
Access to the Data
• Protect the Production Database– Security– Performance
• Created a “Reporting Database”– Long term solution for all public reporting– Database tools keep both databases in sync
Timeline
• Phase 1 included– Fall Membership – Special Education Enrollment– Annual Graduates and Completers– Annual Dropouts
• Phase 1 6 months to complete
Development Decisions
Program the business rules+ No new work
– Requirements gathering– Extensive testing– Rules about releasing data– Rules about aggregation– Annual ongoing maintenance– SLOW processing time
Create tables of final data+ Maximum control+ Programmable
update/refresh schedule+ Improved system response
time
– Program Automation– Creating a new view of
existing data
Table Structure
• De-normalized (“somewhat”)– Subgroup indicator (race, special education, LEP, etc.)– Additional fields for Gender and Race– Records for State-level, District-level and Sch-level data
• Possible: white males in Special Education• Not Possible: white males in both Special
Education & LEP programs
Data Considerations
• What data is best displayed on a map?• How should multi-year, multi-school, multi-
anything be displayed in a chart?• Is that different than multi-grade, single year?• How can a user pick one division and all the
schools within?• How do we represent suppressed data on a
chart? – a map? What data is suppressed?
Customized Reports
• Fall Membership
• Dec 1 Special Education Child Count
• Annual Graduates and Completers
• Annual Dropouts
The Next Step – Phase 2 Reports
• Assessment Reports• Cohort Graduation and Dropout
Reports– Virginia On-Time Graduation Rate– Federal Graduation Indicator (ESEA)– Graduation/Completion Index
Assessment Reports
• Analyzed 4 years’ worth of Ad Hoc requests to determine what the BI tool had to address– Aggregate groups of data– Include more variables– AND logic – a student is in both subgroups– OR logic – a student is in one, the other or both
• Build-A-Table capability needed
A New Table Structure
• De-normalized (“more or less”)– fields for Gender, Race, Grade, every program
and demographic for which there is data– Records for State-level, District-level and Sch-
level data• Added more assessment-specific fields
– Test type, scaled score, proficiency level, retesting identifiers (to name a few)
Same Table Maintenance Plan
• Availability based on publicly released data
• Scheduled updates that use last update triggers in the database
• Limited human intervention required which greatly reduces the chances of errors
Define inclusive or exclusive groups here
Landing Page for Build-A-Table
Landing Page for Build-A-Table
Other Phase 2 Reports
• Available in the Build-A-Table tool• Also includes pre-defined reports
similar to Phase 1 reports• Existing Phase 1 reports will be
available in Build-A-Table tool– Will require new table structures
Phase 3 and Beyond
• School Nutrition Program Data• AYP and other Accountability ratings• Advanced Placement classes• Career and Technical Education Data• Finance Data• Teacher Data
Questions
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