Louisiana

The following profile is a representation of the Louisiana public education state longitudinal data system (SLDS) as presented through publicly available resources of public primary, secondary and higher education, information made available to the public through the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), the Data Quality Campaign, published research articles, other third party internet resources (as noted), and direct contact with state and federal public education officials.   It is not a formal program evaluation.

The information provided is intended for use by academic researchers, state and federal public education policy makers, educators, and student households.

Introduction Evaluation Criteria Governance and Maintenance Data Providers
Funding Researcher Access Public User Portal Legal Statutes
DQC Contact Schematic State Response
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Download State Profile LEDRS Dashboard LEDRS Website NCES Funding:
2009

Introduction

The Louisiana Education Data Repository System (LEDRS) is Louisiana’s public education state longitudinal data system (SLDS)[1] managed by the Louisiana Department of Education (LDE)[2]. The LEDRS, created for the purpose of collecting and analyzing Louisiana’s public education data at the individual, course, institution, and system levels, links data records from the breadth of the Louisiana public education systems. The combined data collection systems are part of a nation-wide effort to record granular public education detail over time in order to document the entirety of the students’ education experience. This information is intended to be available for analysis and public policy consideration for the purpose of producing improvements in student learning at elementary, secondary, post-secondary, and higher education levels, and to optimize labor market outcomes, individually and generally.

Louisiana is one of the 47 states having received public funding to create a state longitudinal data system (SLDS). Despite state-to-state differences, each SLDS shares a common purpose of supporting research and analysis with the intent of informing individual, household, and public policy decisions based on standardized criteria.

[1] State longitudinal data systems are intended to enhance the ability of states to efficiently and accurately manage, analyze, and use education data nces.ed.gov/programs/slds/about_SLDS.asp
[2] The Louisiana Department of Education’s mission is to provide leadership and to collaborate with educators and learning communities in order to ensure that every learner has the opportunity to be successful http://www.louisianabelieves.com/resources/about-us
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Evaluation Criteria

This review assesses the overall quality of LEDRS as an SLDS by considering the nature of the organization maintaining the data system, those agencies and institutions providing inputs to the data system, and to which agencies and institutions the data systems’ outputs are available. The assessment also considers the data system’s funding mechanisms, internal and external researcher data accessibility, the quality of the data system’s public user interface (dashboard), and the data system’s current Data Quality Campaign (DQC)[1] ranking. This report considers each of these criteria pertaining to LEDRS and provides contact information to the departments and individuals who maintain and manage the SLDS.

[1] The Data Quality Campaign is a national, nonprofit organization leading the effort to bring every part of the education community together to empower educators, parents, and policymakers with quality information to make decisions that ensure students excel http://dataqualitycampaign.org/
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Governance and Maintenance

The LEDRS is governed by the Louisiana Board of Elementary and Secondary (BESE). BESE is the administrative body of all Louisiana public elementary and secondary schools. It adopts regulations and enacts policies governing the operations of the schools under its jurisdiction, and exercises budgetary oversight of their educational programs and services. BESE is comprised of the following members: [1]

  • 1st BESE District Representative
  • 2nd BESE District Representative
  • 3rd BESE District Representative
  • 4th BESE District Representative
  • 5th BESE District Representative
  • 6th BESE District Representative
  • 7th BESE District Representative
  • 8th BESE District Representative
  • 3 members at-large

The LDE manages and maintains the LEDRS. The data system is located in-house and operated by the LDE’s SLDS project team. This team maintains, supports and evaluates the technical infrastructure of the LEDRS, including its data security, accessibility, application maintenance, and network services. The team also develops and implements an infrastructure architecture that is efficient, cost-effective, and fully integrated with the existing LDE servers.[2]

[1] Information obtained from the Louisiana Board of Elementary and Secondary Education http://bese.louisiana.gov/
[2] Information obtained from the Louisiana 2009 ARRA Grant application https://nces.ed.gov/programs/slds/pdf/Louisiana2009.pdf
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Data Providers

The LEDRS receives data records from the LDE. The LDE provides K-12 data records from each public Local Education Agency (LEA) in Louisiana. These data records are linked through the use of a state assigned unique identifier variable which is assigned to each student that enters into the Louisiana public education system. This state assigned ID is attached to Louisiana students throughout their education careers, including their higher education efforts if they continue on their education process after high school. The LDE data records contain a significant amount of information on each student, including graduation and dropout events, course attendance and completion rates, performance, demographic characteristics, and other identifier information.[1]

[1] Information obtained from the LDE online site http://www.louisianabelieves.com/resources/library/data-center
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Funding

The LDE applied for federal funding through the Statewide Longitudinal Data System Grant program administered by the Institute of Education Sciences, an agency of the United States Department of Education in 2009. Louisiana was awarded the 2009 SLDS Grant for the purpose of developing and enhancing its state longitudinal data system. The 2009 SLDS Grant awarded Louisiana $7,315,000 for the purpose of further expanding the capabilities of the LEDRS. This funding was used to pay for the various costs associated with the development of a data system, which include: travel costs, equipment costs, supplies costs, contractual costs, and indirect costs. The proposed outcomes to be produced using this funding include: [1]

  • Build the Louisiana Education Data Repository System (LEDRS)
    • Creation of a data repository that will centralize and link the data that currently reside in isolated silos
    • Creation of a data reporting system that will enable the LDE to automate its EdFacts reporting and provide tools for routine and rapid ad hoc reporting
      • Training of LDE technical staff to allow all future SLDS enhancements to be internally managed and maintained
    • Creation of three new systems that will track homeless students, Section 504 students, and critical student performance measures
      • Homeless Students
      • Section 504 Students
      • Critical Student Performance Measures
[1] Information obtained from the Louisiana 2009 SLDS Grant application https://nces.ed.gov/programs/slds/pdf/Louisiana2009.pdf
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Research Accommodation

Outside researchers interested in utilizing Louisiana public education data for research must submit a data request to the LDE. This request must contain the following information:[1]

  • Purpose of the Research
  • Data Requested
  • Agreement to Confidentiality
  • Agreement to Restriction of Use
[1] Information obtained from the Louisiana Department of Education’s online site https://www.louisianabelieves.com/resources/library/data-center/data-sharing-agreements
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Public User Portal

The LDE has created a public user portal for the LEDRS, named the LDE Data Center. The Data Center puts data about Louisiana’s schools in a centralized location which is easy to access and use. The public user portal provides aggregate level data about various education issues within Louisiana relating to its students and education institutions. This portal is intended to provide the state’s education stakeholders include policy makers, administrators, educators, parents, students and other interested parties within Louisiana. The quality of this portal will be evaluated using several different criteria which include: the user-friendliness of the portal, the extent of data offered by the portal, whether the portal is self-sufficient or relies upon other webpages to provide information, and the extent of customizable reports that can be made using the portal. [1]

LEDRS Data Center Evaluation:

  • User-friendliness:
    • The portal is easily-accessible through the LDE Data Center tab, located in the LDE online site. The LDE Data Warehouse page provides a comprehensive overview of each of the information sections provided within the portal. The portal is intuitive to use and easy to navigate. Users are provided a clear overview of the sections contained in the portal and are provided step by step instructions on how to use the tools in these sections.
  • Extent of data offered:
    • The portal provided K-12 data on each school district and county in the state of Louisiana. It also provides K-12 data on the overall education outcomes of the state in general and the amount of students that are moving onto higher education or post-secondary institutions.
  • Self-sufficiency of the portal:
    • The portal provides direct access to the district and school reports that can be generated within it. In addition to this, the portal provides a connection to the LDE online site and all of the tools, resources and information that can be found within the site
  • Extent of customizable reports that can be created through the portal:
    • The portal allows users to customize reports by deciding whether they would like to look at the education performance and characteristics of the entire state or a particular district or school. The portal then allows uses to choose what information will be provided within the report. Some information available to be selected include cohort year, student demographic characteristics, school personnel composition, and state assessment scores. Once the user has designated what report they would like to view, the report is automatically generated on-site.
[1] This analysis was provided through examination of the LEDRS public user portal http://www.louisianabelieves.com/resources/library/data-center
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In 2014, the Louisiana legislature passed House Bill No. 1283 which mandates how the LDE may share student education data and what is required of the LDE to share such data.[1] The bill requires the LDE to publicly announce any data sharing agreements it enters with third parties, whether these third parties be state agencies or not. It also creates standards and requirements that the LDE must meet anytime it wishes to enter into a data sharing agreement.

[1] Information obtained from Louisiana House Bill 1283 http://www.legis.la.gov/Legis/ViewDocument.aspx?d=915342
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DQC

The Data Quality Campaign (DQC) is a nonprofit, nonpartisan national advocacy organization that evaluates each state’s longitudinal data system to determine how effectively each state uses their data system for education improvement purposes. The DQC’s annual survey, Data for Action (DFA)[1], measures each state’s progress towards implementing the 10 Essential Elements of Statewide Longitudinal Data Systems and the Ten State Actions to Ensure Effective Data Use[2], a set of elements and policy actions proposed to produce quality data systems and increase student achievement within in each state.

Louisiana has currently met each of the 10 essential elements:

  • Element 1 – Statewide student identifier
  • Element 2 – Student-level enrollment data
  • Element 3 – Student-level test data
  • Element 4 – Information on untested students
  • Element 5 – Statewide teacher identifier with a teacher-student match
  • Element 6 – Student-level course completion data
  • Element 7 – Student-level SAT, ACT, and Advanced Placement exam data
  • Element 8 – Student-level graduation and dropout data
  • Element 9 – Ability to match student-level P-12 and higher education data
  • Element 10 – State data audit system

Louisiana has currently met 7 of the 10 state actions:

  • State Action 2 – Create stable, sustainable support for longitudinal data systems
  • State Action 4 – Build state data repositories
  • State Action 6 – Create progress reports with student-level data for educators, students, and parents
  • State Action 7 – Create reports with longitudinal statistics to guide system-level change
  • State Action 8 – Develop a purposeful research agenda
  • State Action 9 – Implement policies and promote practices to build educators’ capacity to use data
  • State Action 10 – Promote strategies to raise awareness of available data

Maine has currently not met 3 of the 10 state actions:

  • State Action 1 – Link state K-12 data systems with early learning, postsecondary, workforce, and other critical state agency data systems
  • State Action 3 – Develop governance structures for longitudinal data systems
  • State Action 5 – Provide timely, role-based access to data

Data Quality Campaign score: 7/10

[1] DQC’s annual survey, Data for Action (DFA), is a powerful tool to inform efforts in education to better use data in decision making. It is a series of analyses that highlight state progress and key priorities to promote the effective use of longitudinal data to improve student achievement
[2] DQC’s 10 Essential Elements of Statewide Longitudinal Data Systems and 10 State Actions to Ensure Effective Data Use provide a roadmap for state policymakers to create a culture of effective data use in which quality data are not only collected but also used to increase student achievement
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Contact

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Schematic

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State Response

SLDS stakeholders listed under Contacts (above) have been provided a copy of this State Profile and given an opportunity to provide comments in response.  No comments have been received for this state to date.

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