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

Contact Information

• E-Mail:– Susan.Williams@doe.virginia.gov

– Scott.Walden@doe.virginia.gov

• Phone:• (804) 225-2099