WDE Data and Technology Newsletter July 7, 2020

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July 7, 2020 |  General News

Data Automation Update

As the 2019-20 school year wraps up, the Wyoming Department of Education (WDE) is undertaking detailed comparisons of the end of year submissions of the 684, 638, and 600 data collections with current SIF collected data, with a goal of viable automated SIF-based submissions for these collections from all districts by the beginning of the 2021-22 school year.

This will build on the previous work in the implementation of a daily statewide student enrollment profile as required by the WYTOPP assessment. The focus in 2020-21 will shift to courses and sections and the relation to students and educators as required by the 638 and 684.

While many district agents already transmit these objects, we will be working with all districts for consistency. Although many districts exhibit a fairly tight alignment of submitted end-of-year files and the current stream of SIF objects, the WDE would like to codify the steps needed for any district to align.

The WDE will collaborate with SIS providers to incorporate missing data elements in SIF data feeds, and we will ask districts for SIS administration of data feeds tailored to yield certifiable snapshots in as unmediated a way as is possible. The WDE will provide web-based workflows to the districts to perform real time data validation and calendar-driven certification, as well as one-off corrections after snapshots have occurred.

While the WDE will focus foremost on the SIS in each district as the first-stop for the data for state reporting, we realize that the SIS may not be a one-stop in all cases. For instance, forty-one districts maintain special education data in Sped Advantage. The WDE is working with Educational Advantages to ensure the direct and secure transmission of Sped data required for state reporting. The WDE will work with individual districts to discover other exceptions. An API option is being considered for some of the current CSV file specifications, possibly providing a cushion to an otherwise hard cutoff.

The proposed model seeks to reduce the data burden on district personnel by data automation. The WDE is committed to collaboration with the school districts to modernize the state collection model. We look forward to working with each district in the coming year toward this common worthy goal.

Districts Asked to Schedule a Course Code Review

In our June 22 Newsletter, we asked districts to reach out to Susan Williams and schedule a time to meet with Wyoming Department of Education (WDE) staff to start the review of your current course codes. Districts are encouraged to include curriculum coordinators, student information system (SIS) managers, and any personnel who enter course information in your SIS. Districts will be required to use the state approved course codes in the 2021-22 school year.

Through this review we hope to accomplish the following:

  • Ensure districts are using the appropriate SCED code to describe their courses.
  • Eliminate the use of ambiguous course codes.
  • Help the state to identify areas where SCED codes don't meet the districts needs to help with the creation of Wyoming specific course codes.

For more information, contact Susan Williams at 307-777-6252 or susan.williams@wyo.gov.

2019-20 School Performance Report UPDATE

The WDE has cancelled the public release of the school performance reports on September 1. On May 22, 2020, the Wyoming State Board of Education approved exception requests for all schools in all 48 school districts. As a result, Wyoming schools will not receive a School Performance Rating for
the 2019-20 school year and will continue to hold the School Performance Rating they
received for the 2018-19 school year.

The WDE will release a confidential version of the school performance report on August 13 in the Confidential Accountability portal. Schools will not receive an overall school performance rating, but will receive their school's indicator performance within the established  WAEA target levels and the ESSA norm categories for the indicators that the WDE is able to calculate. This data will not be used for accountability purposes but is being provided to districts for their internal use.

The WDE will accept district feedback on calculated indicators August 13–August 26, although the district review is not required.  

UPCOMING IMPORTANT DATES

  • August 13-26: School Performance Report Review Window - NOT REQUIRED
  • September 1: Public School Performance Report Release - CANCELLED
  • September 15-October 15: WDE949 & WDE950 collection window (revised collection dates)
  • September 15 and 16: SIS User Conference