North Carolina

The following profile is a representation of the North Carolina 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 Statues
DQC Contact Schematic State Response
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Download State Profile n/a n/a NCES Funding:
2012

Introduction

North Carolina is currently in the process of producing its P-20W state longitudinal data system (SLDS)[1], titled the North Carolina SchoolWorks System (NCSW)[2]. The NCSW will not have a centralized data warehouse, but rather will be a federated data system where each data supplying partner will be responsible for maintaining and managing their own data systems. The North Carolina Department of Public Instruction (NCDPI) [3] will serve as the fiscal agent for NCSW and administer the data system management responsibilities. The data provided by the NCSW will allow North Carolina to track student performance across time, education institutions and career paths, and allow the state to evaluate the effectiveness of its education programs and institutions. Ultimately, the NCSW is intended to facilitate more detailed analyses of the entirety of students’ education experience 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.

North Carolina 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 decision 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 https://nces.ed.gov/programs/slds/about_SLDS.asp
[2] The North Carolina School Works System will be North Carolina’s P-20W SLDS and will be jointly by managed by each of the state agencies and institutions that are part of the School Work’s partnership http://www.dpi.state.nc.us/data/ncp-20w/
[3] The North Carolina Department of Public Instruction is charged with implementing the state’s public school laws and the State Board of Education’s policies and procedures governing K-12 public education http://www.dpi.state.nc.us/organization/
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Evaluation Criteria

Although the NCSW is not yet functional, this review assesses the overall quality of the intended federated data system by analyzing all relevant documents produced by the system’s partners. This assessment analyzes the data governance structure of the NCSW, the nature of the system’s partners and the inputs they provide to the data system, and the agencies and institutions to which the data system’s outputs are available. The assessment will also consider the data system’s funding mechanisms and North Carolina’s current Data Quality Campaign (DQC)[1] ranking. This report considers each of these criteria with respect to the NCSW and provides contact information to the system’s managing partners. An additional analysis has been included at the end of this evaluation, commenting on the structure of a federated SLDS in contrast to the more common aggregated 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 NCSW system will not have a centralized data warehouse to consolidate data provided by the system’s various partners and stakeholders. Instead, the NCSW data will be accessible through a brokered system that will query and join data provided by NCSW partners. Each partner will be responsible for managing their own data system and adequately maintaining that system to meet the expectations set by the North Carolina SchoolWorks Executive Council.

The Executive Council is comprised of staff members from each of the main NCSW Partners, including[1]:

  • North Carolina Department of Public Instruction (NCDPI) – P-12 data provider
  • University of North Carolina General Administration (UNCGA)[2] – Higher-education data provider
  • North Carolina Community College System (NCCCS)[3] – Post-secondary data provider
  • North Carolina Independent Colleges and Universities (NCICU)[4] – Higher-education data provider
  • Labor and Economic Analysis Division (LEAD)[5]of the North Carolina Department of Commerce (NCDOC)– Work force data provider

The Executive Council is charged with the responsibility of establishing an overall mission and set of strategic goals of the NCSW, as well as providing oversight, vision and leadership to the Data Governance Committee.  The Executive Council will serve as the authority on all issues and recommendations forwarded by the Data Governance Committee and will allocate appropriate resources to support the NCSW. Lastly, the Executive Council advocates for the NCSW to key stakeholders and any potential partners that are considered to be beneficial additions to the current NCSW partner network. The current expectations agreed upon by the Executive Council for each NCSW partner include the following:

  • Retain the authority to determine which data in its data systems will be accessible to the NCSW and to transmit that data from their respective databases to the NCSW system when it is required under the terms set by the NC SchoolWorks Executive Council
  • Create or provide a database to securely protect and hold the SchoolWorks partner’s NCSW data that is subject to assessment by the NCSW information system and consistent with law and relevant contractual agreements
  • Use reasonable efforts to provide data that is accurate, complete, timely, and relevant data
  • Support and advocate best data management and governance practices to their respective School Works partner staff

The Executive Council is responsible for selecting key personal from each partner to serve as members of the NCSW Data Governance Committee. The Data Governance Committee will provide oversight and leadership to the NCSW Work Groups and address all issues and recommendations forwarded by the Work Groups. The Data Governance Committee is charged with establishing the comprehensive data governance structure for the NCSW and addressing any issues or concerns raised by the partners pertaining to the NCSW.

The NCSW Work Groups will operate under the guidance of the Data Governance Committee and will each serve a different function to ensure that the NCSW performs as a functional data system. These Work Groups include the following[6]:

  • Technology Work Group – Provide oversight, vision, and leadership on all technology-related issues
  • Research Work Group – Provide oversight, vision, and leadership on all research-related issues
  • Communications Work Group – Provide oversight, vision, and leadership on all matters related to communications
  • Operations Work Group – Provide oversight, vision, and leadership on all operations-related issues
  • Data Request Approval Work Group – Process and evaluate all data requests for NCSW data

Together, these Work Groups will maintain and manage the daily operations of the NCSW. They will work to continually improve and optimize the NCSW system and the data analysis that can be provided by the system.

[1] Information provided by the North Carolina SchoolWorks System Summary http://www.dpi.state.nc.us/data/ncp-20w/
[2] The University of North Carolina General Administration provides University-wide leadership in the areas of academic affairs, business and financial management, long-range planning, student affairs, research, legal affairs, and government relations https://www.northcarolina.edu/content/system-offices
[3] The North Carolina Community College System’s mission is to open the door to high-quality, accessible educational opportunities that minimize barriers to post-secondary education, maximize student success, develop a globally and multi-culturally competent workforce, and improve the lives and well-being of individuals http://www.nccommunitycolleges.edu/mission-history
[4] The North Carolina Independent Colleges and Universities represents independent higher education in matters of state and federal public policy, in addition to being an advocate on issues in other sections of education in the state http://www.ncicu.org/who.html
[5] The Labor and Economic Analysis Division of the North Carolina Department of Commerce administers and collects data, conducts research, analyzes, reports, and disseminates information on the state’s economy, labor force, educational and workforce-related issues https://www.nccommerce.com/lead/about-us
[6] Information provided by the P-20W SchoolWorks Governance Handbook http://www.dpi.state.nc.us/data/ncp-20w/
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Data Providers

The NCSW receives data records from the following state agencies and institutions:

  • North Carolina Department of Public Instruction (NCDPI) – P-12 data provider
  • University of North Carolina General Administration (UNCGA)[2] – Higher-education data provider
  • North Carolina Community College System (NCCCS)[3] – Post-secondary data provider
  • North Carolina Independent Colleges and Universities (NCICU)[4] – Higher-education data provider
  • Labor and Economic Analysis Division (LEAD)[5]of the North Carolina Department of Commerce (NCDOC)– Work force data provider
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Funding

NCDPI applied for federal funding through the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), an agency of the United States Department of Education, in 2012 and was awarded $3,639,543 for the purpose of developing and creating a state P-20W longitudinal data system. This funding was used to pay for the various costs associated with the creation of a federated data system, including: personnel costs, travel costs, equipment costs, and contractual costs. The proposed outcomes to be produced using this funding include[1]:

  • Establish common infrastructure for each student in post-secondary education systems and coordinate UIDs with workforce data
  • Establish a data broker based system allowing agency researchers to ask questions each of the linked data systems can answer
  • Automate regular cross-agency reporting
  • Provide key data empowering the NC legislature and policy makers to make better decisions with respect to funding, program assessments, as well as identifying trends in North Carolina education
[1]Information found within North Carolina’s 2012 SLDS Grant Application  https://nces.ed.gov/programs/slds/pdf/NorthCarolina2012.pdf
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Research Accommodation

There is no established data request process in place that outside researchers can utilize to request data from the NCSW. The NCDPI encourages interested parties, including outside researchers, to contact its department if they would like to request data from the NCSW.

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Public User Portal

The NCSW does not have a public user portal.

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The North Carolina legislature passed statutes regarding the state’s SLDS in Chapter 116E of the North Carolina General Statutes[1]. These statutes designate the purpose of the SLDS, the composition of the SLDS’s governing board, the power and duties of this board, and NCDPI’s role as the local administrator of the SLDS. These statutes also define the required functional capabilities and duties of the SLDS, the allowed uses of the data contained within the SLDS, the sources through which funding may be obtained for the SLDS, and data sharing agreement requirements for parties involved in using data contained within the SLDS.

[1]Information provided by the North Carolina General Statutes Chapter 116E http://www.ncleg.net/EnactedLegislation/Statutes/PDF/ByChapter/Chapter_116E.pdf
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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.

North Carolina 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

North Carolina has currently met 7 of the 10 state actions:

  • Link state K-12 data systems with early learning, postsecondary, workforce, and other critical state agency data systems
  • Develop governance structures to guide data collection and use
  • Build state data repositories
  • Create reports with longitudinal statistics to guide system-level change
  • Develop a purposeful research agenda
  • Implement policies and promote practices to build educators’ capacity to use data
  • Promote strategies to raise awareness of available data

North Carolina has failed to meet 3 of the 10 state actions:

  • Create stable, sustainable support for longitudinal data systems
  • Provide timely, role-based access to data
  • Create progress reports with student-level data for educators, students, and parents

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

Karl Pond
Enterprise Data Manager
North Carolina Department of Public Instruction
Email: Karl.pond@dpi.nc.gov
Phone: 919-807-3241
Lou Fabrizio
Director, Division of Data
North Carolina Department of Public Instruction
Email: Lou.fabrizio@dpi.nc.gov
Phone: 919-807-3770

K C Elander
Senior Data Analyst
Department of Public Instruction
Email: KC.Elander@dpi.nc.gov
Phone: 919-807-4066

John Rile
P-20W Project Manager
Department of Public Instruction
Email: John.riley@dpi.nc.gov
Phone: 919-807-3597

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Schematic

This schematic is offered to provide a simplified, visual presentation of the NCSW and the channels through which data flows into and out of the SLDS. The entities on the far left side of the schematic represent the data record providers to the NCSW. The entities in the middle of the schematic represent the NCSW and public user portal. The entities on the far right side of the schematic represent the parties intended to receive benefits from the outputs generated by the NCSW.

North Carolina

 

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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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