Massachusetts

The following profile is a representation of the Massachusetts 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 MDESE Dashboard MDESE Website NCES Funding:
2009
2009-ARRA
2015

Introduction

Edwin Analytics is Massachusetts’s public education state longitudinal data system (SLDS)[1] managed by the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (MDESE)[2]. Edwin Analytics, created for the purpose of collecting and analyzing Massachusetts’s public education data at the individual, course, institution, and system levels, links data records from the breadth of the Massachusetts 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.

Massachusetts 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] Edwin Analytics is managed by the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education for the purpose of collecting and integrating Massachusetts public education data http://www.doe.mass.edu/edwin/analytics/
[2] The Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education is committed to preparing all students for success http://www.doe.mass.edu/commissioner/default.html
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Evaluation Criteria

This review assesses the overall quality of Edwin Analytics 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 Edwin Analytics 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

Edwin Analytics is governed by the Massachusetts State Board of Elementary and Secondary Education (BESE). The BESE is comprised of the following representatives: [1]

  • Paul Sagan (Chair) – Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education
  • James Morton (Vice Chair) – YMCA of Greater Boston
  • Katherine Craven (Member) – Babson College
  • Ed Doherty (Member) – AFT Massachusetts
  • Margaret McKenna (Member) – Lesley University
  • Nathan Moore (Member) – State Student Advisory Council
  • Michael Moriarty (Member) – Olde Holyoke Development Corporation
  • Penny Noyce (Member) – Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education
  • James Peyser (Member) – Secretary of Education
  • Mary Stewart (Member) – Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education
  • Mitchell Chester (Member) – Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education

The BESE closely monitors the development of Edwin Analytics and other data related projects and initiatives occurring within the department. Policy decisions are overseen by an internal Leadership Team which is comprised of all Department Policy Directors. The MDESE manages and maintains Edwin Analytics. The data system is located in-house MDESE’s SLDS project team. These team maintain, support and evaluate the technical infrastructure of Edwin Analytics, including its data security, accessibility, application maintenance, and network services.

[1] Information obtained from the Massachusetts State Board of Elementary and Secondary Education http://www.doe.mass.edu/boe/edboard.html
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Data Providers

Edwin Analytics receives data records from the MDESE, the Massachusetts Department of Early Education and Care (EEC), and the Massachusetts Department of Higher Education (DHE). The MDESE provides K-12 data records from each public Local Education Agency (LEA) in Massachusetts. The DHE provides post-secondary data records from each of the universities and colleges participating in the DHE system. 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 Massachusetts public education system. This state assigned ID is attached to Massachusetts students throughout their education careers, including their higher education efforts if they continue on their education process after high school. The MDESE 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. The DHE data records also contain a significant amount of information on each student, including course attendance and completion rates, student demographic characteristics, credit obtainment, remediation efforts, and graduation rates. [1]

[1] Information obtained from the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education online site http://www.doe.mass.edu/edwin/faq.html
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Funding

The MDESE 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 and 2015. Massachusetts was awarded three grants, the 2009 SLDS Grant, the 2009 ARRA SLDS Grant and the 2015 SLDS Grant for the purpose of developing and enhancing its state longitudinal data system. The 2009 SLDS Grant awarded Maine $5,993,464 for the purpose of building the foundational components of Edwin Analytics. This funding was used for the various costs associated with developing a data system, including: travel costs, equipment costs, supplies costs, contractual costs, and indirect costs. The proposed outcomes to be produced using this funding include: [1]

  • Development and implement the Schools Interoperability Framework
  • Establish an interagency readiness passport system
    • Establish a stronger foundation and more systematic protocols for the nascent Massachusetts PK-16 database
    • Assign a unique student identifier to children in publicly funded early childhood programs for the purpose of a continuous data stream through their transition to the K-12 education system
    • Create a school to college database that involves matching Massachusetts’ public high school graduates to Massachusetts’ post-secondary institutions to provide a continuous data stream as students transition from high school to post-secondary education

The 2009 ARRA SLDS Grant awarded Massachusetts $12,972,730 for the purpose of further expanding the capabilities of Edwin Analytics. 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: [2]

  • Create the Massachusetts Information Providing Accelerated Student Success from Preschool to Occupations in Real-Time (i-PASSPORT) to attain the following goals:
    • Integrated P-20 Data System
    • Early Indicator Warning and Opportunity System
    • School Interoperability Framework (SIF) Expansion
    • Early Identification of Prospective Educators
    • Improved Data Quality/Data Audit System
    • Interstate Data Sharing

The 2015 SLDS Grant awarded Massachusetts $6,999,761 for the purpose of further expanding the capabilities of Edwin Analytics. 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: [3]

  • Fiscal Equity and Return on Investment
    • Develop Massachusetts Resource Allocation and District Action Reports (RADAR) to allow districts to determine how their people, time and money are being used and identify opportunities to increase student achievement
  • College and Career Readiness
    • Expand EWIS (Early Warning Indicator System) to predict readiness for postsecondary education
    • Link education and workforce data to examine career outcomes
    • Develop a comprehensive training program for Edwin Analytics
[1] Information obtained from the Massachusetts 2009 ARRA SLDS Grant application https://nces.ed.gov/programs/slds/pdf/Massachussetts2009.pd
[2] Information obtained from the Massachusetts 2009- ARRA SLDS Grant application https://nces.ed.gov/programs/slds/pdf/Massachusetts2009-ARRA.pdf
[3] Information obtained from the Massachusetts 2015 SLDS Grant application https://nces.ed.gov/programs/slds/pdf/MA_FY15_Abstract.pdf
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Research Accommodation

Outside researchers interested in utilizing Massachusetts public education data for research must submit a data request to the MDOE. This request must contain the following information:

  • Requestor Information
    • Full Name
    • Organization
    • Email
    • Contact Telephone
    • Request Date
    • Date Needed By
  • Brief Description of Research
  • Data Requested Granularity
  • Data Requested Items
    • Data Items
    • Grouping
    • Sorting
  • Detailed Description of Research, Purpose, Methodology
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Public User Portal

The MDESE has created a public user portal for Edwin Analytic. The Data Warehouse puts data about Massachusetts’ 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 Massachusetts 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 Massachusetts. 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.

Edwin Analytics Public User Portal Evaluation:

  • User-friendliness:
    • The portal is easily-accessible through the MDESE online site. Edwin Analytics home 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 Massachusetts. 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 MDESE Data Warehouse 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.
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In 2011, the Massachusetts legislature passed Statute 6005 which officially created the mandate for the MDESE to develop and maintain Edwin Analytics. The statute establishes the capabilities that the MDESE must be capable of performing and state and federal laws the data system must adhere to.

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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.

Massachusetts 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

Massachusetts has currently met 8 of the 10 state actions:

  • State Action 2 – Create stable, sustainable support for longitudinal data systems
  • State Action 3 – Develop governance structures 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 2 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 5 – Provide timely, role-based access to data

Data Quality Campaign score: 8/10

[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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