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Industry Vendors
To view K12 Data Mining Industry Vendors, click on
the below listed companies:
Data
Mining and Management Tools Overview
Vendors
TetraData
Software Technology, Inc.
ConfluentEDU
eScholar
EduSoft
SchoolNET
SAS
Data Warehousing
EdMin
IBM
Public School
Data Mining Services, Inc.
Pearson,
Inc.
Software
Technology, Inc.
A J Boggs,
Inc
Third Day Solutions,
Inc
EDS
Bearing Point, Inc.Pearson,
Inc.
Lightspan,
Inc.
EduPoint
Sierra
Systems, Inc.
Interplex, Inc.
Data Warehousing and
Management Tools
Data Warehousing and Management
Tools
Data warehousing and management tools
are very important because they are key to the data-based decision
making required by No Child Left Behind. It's critical that you find
out about what data warehouses are and what they will do for your
district. These tools, for example, allow school systems with
disparate data like student achievement, free and reduced lunch,
financial records, and ethnicity to combine them together. In this
newsletter, we focus on data warehouse and data management
tools:
- We tell you exactly
what they do.
- We take an in-depth
look at a range of representative products that are on the
market.
- We provide criteria
for how to purchase and implement a data warehousing solution for
your district.
Data warehousing and management tools have been around
in other industries for a long time, but are a relatively new
technology for education. They should evolve considerably in the
next two years. This whole new generation of business intelligence
and decision support software and services has evolved to address
the needs of schools. Currently, schools remain "data-rich and
information-poor." Why? First, schools can't easily get at the data
they need; many of their information systems such as student
information, Title I, and special education do not talk to each
other. Secondly, schools have put the ability to access data in the
hands of a relative few people rather than the principals and
teachers who need it.
What is a Data Warehouse?
A
data warehouse specifically refers to a centralized storage location
for data elements. However, the term is commonly used to describe
not only a central storage place for data, but also the tools that
permit you to manage all of your data and the technology that lets
you make queries and gives decision support on how to allocate
dollars or focus your instruction. Examples of such queries
are:
- How are the fifth
graders who are in the free and reduced lunch program performing
on a particular reading assessment?
- How has math assessment scores correlated with
professional-development training for a certain subset of
teachers?
- What is spending on
a monthly basis by school building or per building
principal?
Using these systems, you can access information from
your desktop instantly, sort, re-categorize, and filter data, and
visually graph it using pie charts or bar graphs or import the data
into your presentation documents. NCLB's demanding reporting
mandates and the other increasing needs of schools for reliable,
accessible data make a data warehouse a worthwhile investment.
A data warehouse can significantly reduce the time and
expense necessary to create information that you need, for example,
if you have data in different places but you need to sort and
present data on test results for students who have limited English
proficiency or who are economically disadvantaged, under the
Adequate Yearly Progress reports mandated by NCLB. These
new-generation systems integrate data into a new, reliable platform
from all the disparate sources and legacy databases that have
multiple-file formats such as Excel spreadsheets, in-house
databases, and ASCII files. These systems can also save maintenance
and programming costs by using standard data loading and refreshing
techniques.
The kind of data warehouse and management solution you
buy depends on two considerations:
- the range and complexity of your district's data
needs; and
- the ability of your
district to utilize and manage these tools.
Consider the different data warehouse
and management solutions as a continuum of customization ranging
from off-the-shelf products to very customized systems - how
customized or how off-the-shelf is the data warehouse? And, what
does your district need and can it use? A basic consideration is
whether the company is building a data model for you or are you
purchasing one.
The data warehouses on the market range from
off-the-shelf, packaged data models that will collate student test
scores with demographic information and create reports to highly
customized data models that permit limitless querying across
categories including finance, transportation, and human resources.
Generally speaking, the pricier the systems are, the more
sophisticated and customized the data warehouse solution. Do you
want something that basically collates assessment results with
instructional data, or are you going to want and use much more?
Simply put, the question boils down to how complex or
robust a system you need in your district, and how robust a system
your district will actually utilize on a day-to-day basis. Despite
the best intentions of those who design and create data warehouse
and management tools, district stakeholders such as teachers and
principals may well not know how to use data. Initial investments
into the hardware and software must be coupled with intense training
for prospective users, not only on the basics of using data tools
but also on how to interpret what they find.
Another reality check comes when building the data
warehouse: Much of your "legacy data" - the systems already in
existence - could be problematic due to inconsistent descriptive
terms and test scoring, gaps in data, and other issues. Advanced
tools have been developed to address such problems and make data
reliable and accurate. Yet those who are involved with designing and
building data warehouses say they often cost more and take more time
to put together than you will initially estimate.
In addition to the level of customization, the
delivery and management of your data warehouse is of prime
importance. You can have the data warehouse sitting on your server,
or you can choose an ASP solution in which it is hosted and
maintained by the company.
Below we consider a representative sample of the well
recognized and leading data warehousing products and provide you
with vendor-neutral, in-depth information about each. We also
present a brief glossary of key terms you'll need to know concerning
data warehouses. As you consider a purchase of a data warehousing
solution, here are some considerations you'll want to keep in
mind:
- What does the data warehouse under consideration
actually do?
- What is the core mission of our school system and
how will the data warehouse advance that mission?
- How will the use of a data warehouse impact
instruction and student achievement?
- Does our district need a simple or a complex,
customized solution for our data needs?
- Has the Information Technology Group and the
curriculum group worked hand-in-hand in the process of developing
a concept for the data warehouse and management tools that we
need?
- Do we want to have
the data warehouse sitting on the district server or is it better
and more cost- and time-efficient to have an ASP
solution?
Data
Warehouse Glossary
Data Warehouse: A single, centralized
depository for long-term storage of data, with regular data updates,
that permits a holistic view of your enterprise by combining data
from an enterprise's various business systems and source electronic
documents. Data can be selectively accessed and organized for use in
decision support, querying and reporting, and analysis of
trends.
Data Management: Using applications to
control and manage data in order to eliminate redundancy and to
ensure data reliability, integrity, consistency, and availability.
Data Cleansing: Once data is loaded
onto a system, it is prepared for storage. Data cleansing is a
process that captures data from source systems and makes it ready
for storage, e.g. straightens out inconsistencies, reconciles
differences in definitions, etc.
Data Model: Refers to a range of
different data elements including achievement, finance, personnel,
demographics, etc. that can be organized and combined in the data
warehouse. The complexity of the data model is a key differentiator
between moderately priced off-the-shelf systems and complex
customized systems.
Decision Support: A decision support
system or tool is a computer program application that analyzes data
and presents it so that users can make decisions more
easily.
ETL Tools: Stands for the words
"Extract, Transform, and Load." These tools are used in the process
of taking raw data from different locations, transforming it into
high-quality, consistent data, and moving it into a separate
``location such as a data warehouse. ETL tools have three separate
functions combined into a single programming tool. The extract
function reads data from specific locations and extracts a desired
subset of data. The transform function works with the new subset of
data to convert it to a desired and consistent state. Lastly, the
load function then writes the specified resulting data to a target
database.
Let's look at a selection of representative data
warehouse products and services from some of the well recognized,
leading companies. Data warehousing solutions can be differentiated
by the degree of customization they have. There is a continuum of
customization, basically ranging from lower cost, prepackaged data
models to products that are built for your district from the ground
up.
You need to consider the range and complexity of your
data needs, i.e., whether you have a wide variety of data that you
wish to combine, such as facilities, financial, curriculum,
assessment results, etc. You also need to gauge your district's
ability to utilize and manage these tools. Above all, you will want
to consider how your data warehouse will create the information you
need on a day-to-day basis and guide decisions about instruction in
ways that support the core mission of your schools.
We are providing you with concise and vendor-neutral
descriptions of a number of leading data warehouse solutions. This
list is intended to guide you as you consider any purchase in this
market, not only by providing some baseline information about a
number of the products, but also by helping you understand what you
should keep in mind. We compiled these summaries from interviews
with representatives of each company and from information they make
available on their products.
We examine data-warehousing products and services
through the following categories:
- Product Summary and Features
- Local Hosting/ASP Options: Is the database going to
reside on your local server or will it be hosted and maintained by
the vendor or a third-party entity?
- Training: What type of training if provided by the
vendor and at what stage of use?
- Cost Structure: How is the product and service
priced?
Products featured include:
|
ConfluentEDU |
|
Web site
address |
http://www.confluentasp.com/cn_index.htm |
|
Product Summary
and Features |
ConfluentEDU is a software data warehousing and
data mining solution that is built to work with K-12 school
districts' software. It is first a data warehouse that pulls
together data from a schools' student information system, test
scores, cafeteria management database, accounting systems,
special education records, etc. It is paired with a data
mining tool that interacts with schools' current data to
process, analyze, and "visualize" the data, meaning it lets
users create customized pie charts, bar graphs and other
visual renderings of data. Those who use the software can also
"push out" data automatically to an Excel spreadsheet or a
Power Point presentation, for example, to create customized
reports based on any number of
variables.
Confluent intended the software to be used by a
school's non-technical personnel, meaning superintendents,
principals, teachers, and administrative staffers. It
automates the process of getting a district's data into the
data warehouse. EDU is a stand-alone application, and it
launches off a user's desktop. The launch or home page of the
application is customized for each school district depending
on the needs of that school district. A user can sort,
re-sort, or filter on data across a school district. For
instance, a user can access the data for five schools
together, filter that data to determine how many special
education students there are, and then sort it to find out how
many of those special education students qualify for free
lunch and how many qualify for reduced lunch.
End users of ConfluentEDU use the application to
access and filter the data by clicking and dragging, rather
than having to type in instructions. If examining the
transportation data collated with demographic data, a support
person or administrator may click and use pull-down menus to
decide exactly which data he or she wants to examine and make
into a report. Users can create ad hoc queries, by using the
application's clicking-and-dragging interface, limited only by
the categories that all of the data logically contains.
Using Confluent's "decision support tree," which
is a visual organization of data that is branched, you can
point your mouse to an object on the screen and see the data
associated with that object (Midtown Elementary School, for
example) appears on the left-hand side. An end user can choose
any of the variables through which he or she will want to
sort, filter, and see data. Once the end user makes these
choices, graphic representations of the data can be made, such
as a pie chart or bar graph. A user can then print it or can
capture it to import into a Word document, Excel spreadsheet
or PowerPoint presentation. Each stakeholder in a district
gets a particular sign-in, with a user ID and password which
means that different levels of access to data are created,
whether it is for a teacher or administrator, etc. Data in the
data warehouse application can be refreshed daily or weekly,
though most districts have chosen so far to have it refreshed
daily.
In working with districts to build the data
warehouse for use in mining, Confluent has handled all types
of data sources ranging from legacy equipment such as old IBM
equipment to modern Student Information Systems, a company
official said. Confluent, which has created applications for
multi-chain convenience store and restaurant management
industries, launched its education data warehousing/mining
application at the beginning of calendar year 2002. Its
software is being used in 400 school buildings located in six
states, and the company is moving into other states. The
company has worked with districts ranging from ones with small
enrollment up to 86,000-student
districts. |
|
Local
Hosting/ASP Options |
Client schools
and districts can choose for Confluent to host the data and
provide technical services relating to the ConfluentEDU data
warehouse and tool. Or, they can choose to host the
application locally and have local technical personnel be
responsible for the application. About half choose the ASP
model, while the other half of client schools goes the other
route, said a company official. |
|
Training |
Confluent
provides one day of training that comes as part of the set-up
fee. This training
is provided according to how the district would like to do it,
whether it is in training IT staffers, who will then teach the
use of the application to end users, or by training a
particular population of non-technical end users themselves.
Districts can obtain additional training depending to meet
their schools' needs, for instance if they later want to add
on additional end users. |
|
Cost Structure
|
ConfluentEDU is
priced per student. The cost ranges
from $2.50 to $3.50 per student, for the first-year set-up of
the application. There is also a 50-cents per student per year
charge for maintenance. For schools that choose to have
Confluent Technologies host the application, the cost ranges
from $300 to $750 per
month. |
|
EduSoft |
|
Web site
address |
http://www.edusoft.com/login.jsp |
|
Product Summary
and Features |
Focused primarily on assessment analysis and
use, the Edusoft platform is an integrated suite of tools for
use by teachers, principals, and district administrators for
all of their assessments. This includes: (1) the importing and
analysis of state and district exams; (2) the creation,
paper-based administration, scanning and scoring of district
benchmark exams through Edusoft's patent-pending scanning
technology; and (3) tools to help teachers create in-classroom
paper exams, grade them and use the results to drive
instructional tools, determine curricular pacing,
etc.
Data warehouse: Edusoft's data warehouse takes a
district's assessment data and integrates with the student
information system for roster and demographic data. The
district obtains a Web-based analysis tool, with reports
accessible to district administrators, principals, teachers,
and parents.
The highlighted features of Edusoft's product
include:
- Intervention groups: Schools can specify
performance and demographic criteria.
- Printable reports: Schools can generate
aggregated or individual student reports for results of
statewide exams.
- Longitudinal analysis: End users can compare
by student, teacher, grade, and school year over year. Cross
sectional and cohort matched analysis is
available.
- Comparison
Tools: Performance can be compared against state standards.
End users can break down results by content areas, strands,
and sub strands.
The date warehouse supports the following: state
tests, district tests, SAT, AP tests, any additional test
scores, GPA, attendance, citizenship, discipline, any
additional performance metrics. All data can be aggregated or
disaggregated by school, grade, teacher, gender, ethnicity,
federal and state programs, and customizable, user-defined
groups. The system supports all score types: NPR, NCE, scaled
scores, gender, stanine, percentage correct, and performance
bands.
Edusoft's patent-pending scanning/scoring
technology aims for maximum flexibility, performance, and
speed. Along with every test, Edusoft generates answer sheets
as PDF documents that can be printed out on regular 8.5-by-11
inch copy paper and photocopied. Answer sheets can
automatically be configured so that students need not
bubble-in a student ID, but rather just select the single
bubble next to their preprinted name.
These answer sheets are scanned in and scored
using an inexpensive off-the-shelf multi-functioning
scanner/printer device. Edusoft-compatible scanning devices
can be purchased at most office supply stores for
approximately $500. Tests are scanned and graded automatically
(districts can have one or more scanners in each local school
site), and the results automatically uploaded back to the
Web-based service. Once graded, reports and online tools are
immediately available for teachers, principals, and
administrators.
Instructional tools and item bank: Edusoft's
instructional tools enable teachers and administrators to
create tests and plain-paper answer sheets in five minutes,
all aligned to state and/or district standards. Educators can
either choose to use Edusoft's item bank and their own
questions to create tests in the system, or can simply use
their existing tests and just use Edusoft for the answer
sheets. Once tests are scanned and scored, teachers can use
Edusoft's instructional tools to automatically generate
customized review sheets for each period of students, driven
by their performance on past assessments. Edusoft's 2003
question bank contains 15,000 questions, with an additional
8,000 available by year's end. Questions are available in ELA,
math, science and social science. |
|
Local
Hosting/ASP Options |
Edusoft hosts the Edusoft platform for all of
its 115 districts currently. According to Edusoft, with the
ASP model, the product is able to evolve constantly and
support the developing needs of the school district
customers. |
|
Training |
Training for the
Edusoft platform is provided as part of the overall sale of
the Edusoft product to school districts. Districts then
typically purchase one planning day at the beginning of their
deployment, and two days of training in the first
year. |
|
Cost
Structure |
The Edusoft platform is priced as an annual
per-student license.
|
|
eScholar |
|
Web site
address |
http://www.escholar.com/ |
|
Product Summary
and Features |
eScholar is a standards-based product set that
creates a data warehouse giving school systems access to data
through a three-stage process of collecting, standardizing,
and distributing. The core of the eScholar product is a
standardized data model and the company's data management and
Web-based reporting tools, which are intended for districts
that have complex data needs.
The data model captures more than 29 separate
domains of data including over 300 individual fields. The data
domains include student demographics, course attributes, daily
student attendance, course-level student attendance, student
assessment results, course grades, quarter grades, final
grades, assessment item-level detail, discipline referrals,
discipline responses, transportation information,
extracurricular involvement by student, special education
data, classroom locations, staff demographics, staff
attendance, among other domains. With the product's ETL
framework, data is transformed from many differing source
systems into a standardized format.
Because eScholar's design is based on an open
data model, any contemporary query, reporting, or data mining
tool will work with it. eScholar provides the ability to
analyze data combined from various sources. School districts
that use eScholar can use both packaged functionality and
their own custom applications.
In the building of the warehouse, eScholar can
pull data from any electronic form, from student information
systems to a cafeteria program or an Excel spreadsheet. The
data warehouse permits the storing of unlimited longitudinal
data. Districts setting up the eScholar product can also have
an unlimited "data-refresh" schedule. Because the company is
aware that no one reporting and analysis tool is good for
everyone, eScholar goes from the user interface backward,
determining how a district's data works and how it is
described from the inside out. The company works with the
district to structure and clean the data so that the school
system will have accurate, reliable data. It is then paired
with a flexible, Web-based reporting tool. The secure
management system allows different levels of access for
different users, e.g. administrators, teachers, support staff,
etc.
The company has had enhancements of the product,
and released version 4.1 of eScholar on March 1. As of summer
of 2002, more than 700 school districts in nine states have
implemented this data-warehouse product.
The Readiness Workshop is considered a crucial
part of the implementation process of a data warehouse. The
Readiness Workshop is designed to clearly identify the costs
involved, resource requirements, skills needed, funding, staff
participation, data required, technology infrastructure, and
all other considerations to create a successful data
warehousel. From this workshop, The Blueprint for Action is
produced that outlines everything necessary to better use
information to improve education. |
|
Local
Hosting/ASP Options |
eScholar is
available as both a stand-alone application and a hosted ASP
solution. With the ASP
model, eScholar hosts the districts data at our secure data
center. Costs for hardware and software acquisition, system
maintenance and support can be reduced with this option.
eScholar provides all hardware and network connectivity, as
well as reliability monitoring, configuration maintenance,
software updates, and upgrades on a continuous
basis. |
|
Training |
eScholar training is comprised of two days of
end-user training in using standard query tools to explore
eScholar data and one day of training in more complex query
design. The company offers technical staff a three-day class
in using the eScholar ETL tool. |
|
Cost
Structure |
There is a fixed-cost or a variable-cost option
for districts purchasing eScholar. With the fixed cost, the eScholar license and
any hosting are priced per student (full-time enrolled
student). This makes the eScholar pricing definable and
scalable. Under the variable-cost option, the eScholar license
is a one-time charge and includes all of eScholar's currently
covered data domains; maintenance, billed yearly also by
full-time enrolled student, provides updates and standard
reports.
Schools can choose from these options to fit their
needs. Districts that decide to have eScholar host the data
eliminate costs for hardware and free up their own IT staff
for other needs. Hosting has a one-time set-up charge and
annual charges for the hosting service and supervision of a
district's data by an eScholar database administrator.
|
|
IBM
Insight at School |
|
Web site
address |
http://www-1.ibm.com/industries/education/doc/content/solution/309650110.html |
|
Product Summary
and Features |
IBM Insight at School, which was launched in
2001, is the IBM data-warehouse solution through which schools
can access and analyze different sources of information stored
on multiple computing platforms. Through Insight at School,
schools bring together integrated data from multiple
operational sources, such as student information systems,
demographics, attendance data, instructional courses and
grades, and normed or criterion test scores. A packaged
offering includes both products and services: project
management; data warehouse strategy; a complete project plan
and the data warehouse deliverables such as data model,
database design, deployment plan, etc.; and hardware and
software.
The IBM solution is for districts that have a
wide variety of data, e.g. financial, facilities, curriculum,
assessment, staffing, that they wish to combine, and complex
data management and analysis needs.
Many school districts have a variety of software
programs and extract-transform-load tools. IBM decided to
create an open solution that can be used with any
industry-standard operating tool. The underlying data model
has been culled from building data warehouses in various
industries for some eight years. The predefined education data
model in use by IBM has been implemented in school districts,
educational agencies, state and provincial departments of
education, charter school management companies, and private
school organizations. The data warehouse integrates data
across subject areas, and affords analysis through some 2,000
attributes. Both ad hoc queries and online analysis can be
done through the IBM enterprise data warehouse. The system
allows predefined as well as customizable reports available
for use. Reports are available that address No Child Left
Behind requirements. Schools can monitor student achievement
and assess the quality of learning in order to meet adequate
yearly progress (AYP) requirements.
Using IBM Insight at School, a school
administrator, for example, can create reports showing the
financial expenditures at the school level for specific
educational programs and then compare the assessment results
with particular financial expenditures. Or, an administrator
can correlate professional development data with student
achievement. The data-warehouse package uses graphical
representation in order to help administrators and other end
users identify trends and correlations.
There are a variety of ways for districts to
distribute the reports. IBM promotes what is called a "push
strategy" in which an end user can create a report and e-mail
it out to the e-mail list of the user's determination. The
Web-enabled data can be viewed at home or school through any
Web browser. Typically, however, schools keep it within
district firewalls because they do not want to have student
information beyond that firewall. |
|
Local
Hosting/ASP Options |
IBM offers
districts and other entities the option to host the data or to
have IBM host it, in which case
it is backed by data centers that operate 24 hours/7
days. |
|
Training |
IBM provides
what it calls a "knowledge and skill transfer" with client
districts so that districts and build and maintain data
warehouse solutions once IBM departs, both on the IT side and
the business/instruction side. |
|
Cost
Structure |
IBM charges a
set-up cost for the building of a data
warehouse. Typically,
costs start at $50,000 and go up, depending on the
specifications established by the district. There is a
separate FTE price (full-time equivalency) cost for any
hosting, which is done under an annual contract.
|
|
SAS
Data Warehousing |
|
Web site
address |
http://www.sas.com/technologies/dw/ |
|
Product Summary
and Features |
SAS Data Warehousing is part of a suite of data
quality applications. The SAS data-warehousing component
allows a client district or department to leverage existing
hardware, software, data, and human resources in order to
integrate legacy and non-legacy data into one flexible
information management platform.
SAS Data Warehousing is a customizable solution,
not an off-the-shelf product, company officials note. It is
intended for schools with a wide variety of data they wish to
combine and analyze to support instruction and student
achievement. The SAS solution is mainly targeted to larger
school districts, although the company will work with small
and mid-sized districts as well.
With the SAS structure, the company's ETL
process - data extraction, transformation, and loading - is
combined with enhanced value-adding data-quality technologies
(in essence, desktop data-cleansing tools) that cleanse and
eliminate duplicate data from multiple sources and ensure
accuracy. The ETL process consists of all the steps necessary
to extract data from different locations, transform the raw
operational data into consistent data, and load the data into
a data warehouse.
The SAS product allows a district to build and
manage a data warehouse from a single point of control, but in
flexible ways according to user needs. With the SAS product's
extractive technologies, for example, a district can take data
from a Microsoft Excel sheet, import it through a
data-warehouse structure into the district's Student
Information System, do some analysis of the data, and then
send it back out to the Excel sheet.
SAS works with the client - say a school
district - in a whiteboard session and conceptualizes an
end-to-end solution that is custom-built for the district. The
SAS product can run across every platform. With more than 100
native access engines - covering all databases, operational
systems, external data sources, e-sources, etc. -- SAS
provides access to data regardless of source. It also reads
relevant metadata and associated
information.
SAS supports multiple models of client/server
computing, providing control over how platforms address each
other in a mixed hardware and network protocol environment.
The examples of client/server architecture and computing
services available include remote computing services, which
allow applications to work where the data resides instead of
bringing the data to the application. Another example is data
transfer services -- enable the transfer of SAS data sets,
catalogs, graphics catalogs, entire data libraries and
external files between local and remote systems. The SAS
storage options are flexible so that districts can leverage
existing hardware but also avenues for growth as the storage
needs of a district expand.
Through SAS Public Sector, the company offers a
pilot program, for a cost, in which school systems can try out
the data warehousing solution by getting a "slice" of their
data into a model depository. The SAS implementation team
works to develop a thorough understanding of your existing
technology environment and investments, which we then
incorporate into the SAS solution. At that point, we recommend
a plan. There is a 100-percent money-back guarantee for
participation in the pilot. |
|
Local
Hosting/ASP Options |
SAS data
warehousing is a software solution designed for local
hosting. Currently, SAS
in Schools is working on an Application Service Provider
model. |
|
Training |
Customers such
as school districts can purchase training outright as part of
the software solution from SAS. When districts
participate in the SAS Public Sector pilot programs, training
is included in the pilot. "We have a knowledge transfer with
the pilot. We do a majority of the project on-site and working
with school personnel. We provide summary documentation of
what we did," says a company official. Clients can receive
training at various regional offices of SAS. |
|
Cost
Structure |
The price of SAS
data warehousing is customized for each district or other
client of its services. Company
officials declined to give exact
figures. |
|
SchoolNet: Account™ |
|
Web site
address |
http://www.schoolnet.com |
|
Product Summary
and Features |
Account™ enables districts to focus on student
performance data in order to increase academic achievement.
Account™ is a Web-based data analysis and querying tool
powered by a data warehouse. District clients have the option
of deploying Account™ with their existing data warehouse
(Account™ can run off of the eScholar data warehouse) or
SchoolNet will work with districts to build a data
warehouse.
Account™ focuses on student performance data and
the relative indicators that provide districts with the data
to inform the decision-making process. Account reports are
constructed specifically with goal of enabling schools and
districts to answer critical questions including: Adequate
Yearly Progress analysis and predictions, flagging curricular
gaps, identifying students in need of special services or
interventions, recognizing outstanding teachers, etc.
This product is student performance-focused,
with an AYP analysis package. It is targeted to medium to
large districts and consortia of districts. It is modular with
other online applications such as Instructional Management
Systems.
Flexibility is provided in the type and expanse
of reports that can be generated from the system through the
Account ad-hoc query tool, which enables users to build report
across multiple dimensions suited to the user's specific
analysis.
- Longitudinal (Trend) Analysis
- Relational Analysis
- Cohort Analysis
- NCLB Analysis
- Growth
Analysis
In addition to the ad hoc reporting tool,
Account™ has a battery of pre-formatted reports, providing
users with an easy means to access the most common report
types generated within the system. In addition, Account™ has a
comprehensive analysis spreadsheet, data export tools, and a
report publishing facility. Reports generated in Account™ can
easily be saved, emailed, or published.
SchoolNet has closely followed the NCLB
legislation since its passage and has been following the
states' adoption and regulations in order to ensure that
Account™ will assist principals and superintendents in
understanding their assessment data in light of the Adequate
Yearly Progress requirements. SchoolNet has developed a
proprietary analysis package and statistical tool to measure
how close or far away a school or cohort of students is from
meeting its AYP objectives. By using this analysis throughout
the school year, building principals will be able to
understand if they are on track to satisfying AYP and to take
corrective action well in advance of high stakes test
administration, if needed.
Types of data integrated for
analysis:
- Student information system data (e.g., student
information, demographics, attendance, enrollment history,
special program, course information, etc…)
- Student performance data (e.g., state tests,
national tests (e.g., SAT-9), local benchmark tests, online
testing, etc…)
- Teacher data
(courses, tenure, etc…)
Integration routines between the native district
data sources (e.g., SIS) and SchoolNet's data warehouse are
built to extract the data and load into the SchoolNet system.
These routines can be set to run on a quarterly, monthly, or
even daily basis depending on the needs of the
district.
Account™ is a modular application that
integrates with SchoolNet's other Web-based applications -
Align™, the instructional management system that integrates
student performance data with district standards and
curriculum, and Outreach™, the Web portal and content
management system for K-12 school districts that publishes
reports generated in Account™. This modularity affords
districts the flexibility to expand their data-driven
decision-making platform into instruction, communication, and
collaboration. |
|
Local
Hosting/ASP Options |
SchoolNet's products are Web-based and can
either be hosted locally by districts or hosted by SchoolNet
using an ASP model.
SchoolNet has also worked with Intermediate
Units and Education Service Agencies to provide its products
to consortia of districts enabling smaller districts to
utilize a data warehouse and the analysis
tools. |
|
Training |
Training and
professional development are included in the services that
SchoolNet provides. A core training
package is included with district contracts; districts can
purchase additional training and professional development
services according to their needs. SchoolNet operates on a
train-the-trainer model to build capacity in the district. All
training is context based so that users learn not only how the
product works, but also how they use it to inform their
decision-making and planning. |
|
Cost
Structure |
SchoolNet's
applications are modular so that a district can purchase one
or all (or any combination thereof); a district can
structure exactly the products and the rollout strategy that
suits it best. Each module is moderately priced on a per
student per year basis for ASP licenses. Discounts begin as
districts add more than one module. The per-student costs also
decrease with increasing district sizes. In the first year,
there is a one-time set-up cost that is dependent on the
district's data sources and extraction
abilities. |
|
TetraData: EASE-e Data
Analyzer |
|
Web site
address |
http://www.ease-e.com/ease-e/default.asp |
|
Product Summary
and Features |
The EASE-e Data Analyzer is a combo data
warehouse, mining, analysis, and reporting system designed for
use at any level of education. This data product allows
schools to build a data warehouse and to have built-in tools
to generate graphs and reports.
TetraData is custom-built; the company works
with districts to design and build the data warehouse based on
what sorts of information the district believes should make up
the data warehouse.
TetraData developed the EASE-e suite of data
solutions, in conjunction with a number of school districts,
as a specially customized warehouse and analysis tool for
educators to be able to have instant access to accurate,
up-to-date data and to make decisions based on that data. It
contains a data manager, data analyzer, and a reporting tool,
all of which are available from a single point of entry and a
portal from which all data can be accessed.
A school district can use its own unified login,
which means that a separate log-in does not have to be created
to have access to the data warehouse. According to TetraData
Chairman and CEO Martin Brutosky, some of the partners in the
original project are married to teachers, and the development
of the EASE-e program was driven by firsthand knowledge of the
needs in education for better data warehousing.
The query engine that TetraData built, for
example, is unique to K-12 and incorporates educational
measurements such as correlation coefficients and standard
deviation, etc. A user can query the data in real-time. The
program is made up of a number of products and services:
" EASE-e Data Services is a complete data
collection and warehousing solution in which TetraData takes
all of a district's student demographic, teacher, school and
test information from varied sources (Excel spreadsheets,
ASCII files, in-house databases, SASI, or OSIRIS) and places
that raw data into a customized EASE-e date warehouse. EASE-e
Data Services works with school districts to figure out what
sorts of information should make up the data warehouse and
which types of data sets are most useful. Typically, the
company goes on site to a school with a project manager and a
designer in order to analyze district goals and to devise a
road map for extraction of the data into a warehouse. The
process then for data transferring the data, cleansing it,
loading it, and running it through QA. A new warehouse is
usually delivered within 66 business days, according to the
company.
" EASE-e Data Matrix Is the behind-the-scene tool
that establishes and structure of a data warehouse and it
creates the data's shell, the structure the users see when
they view the data warehouse.
" The EASE-e Data Analyzer is
the core product that allows districts to drill down into the
data and analyze it. It comes in a Client PC version, which
has the familiar Windows look and feel, or the Web version, in
which users can access data from any computer with a browser
and Internet access. It has a tab interface that walks users
through the process of creating a query.
Brotosky said that the EASE-e data suite was
developed to help districts be in complete compliance with the
requirements of No Child Left Behind. It is has the capability
to track Adequate Yearly Progress. There are other components
of the suite specifically intended for classroom-level
analysis by teachers and for importing the data analyzer and
classroom analyzer into customizable report layouts.
|
|
Local
Hosting/ASP Options |
TetraData's EASE-e data products and services
can be purchased in four ways: (1) A pure ASP model, in which
a district or other entity can subscribe for the use of the
software and let TetraData manage the network, data, and
computer operations; (2) Districts can purchase the suite and
get the right to run it on their own LAN; (3) Utilize
TetraData as an ASP solution the first year, and train and
establish the district to bring all hosting and network
services in-house in subsequent years; and (4) Use a
third-partry entity to house all of the
technology. |
|
Training |
TetraData has a
staff development plan that goes along with the customized
plan chosen by the customer. It is priced separately according
to customers' objectives and needs. (TetraData's Brutosky says
that it was difficult to build the training in when the needs
of customers vary.) Professional development course modules
range from warehouse consultation and introductions to the
data analyzer to measurement training and data-manager
training for database administrators, among others.
|
|
Cost
Structure |
There is a six-tier pricing structure for EASE-e
based on the size of school district. Typically, there are
three major blocks of fees - license fees in order to obtain
the suite of software programs; maintenance fees to secure
support; and services fees for professional development costs
and to be able to "turnkey" the data warehouse. While tiered
to size of district, the costs are figured on a per student
per year basis. Professional development is charged on a per
classroom basis. |
|
EdMin.com |
|
Web site
address |
http://www.edmin.com |
|
Product Summary
and Features |
Virtual EDucation is a standards- and Web-based
learning management system designed to accelerate learning and
track student performance as measured against standards. The
product functions as an academic data warehouse and serves as
the centralized storage location for student/teacher/course
data, the state and/or district curriculum standards, and
student performance data for high-stakes testing, norm- and
criteria-referenced assessments frequently used for district
testing, and classroom performance data. Virtual EDucation
seeks to help educators meet the reporting requirements
mandated by NCLB.
Virtual Education is an integrated instructional
management system and data warehouse. It focuses on
performance management by providing an integrated suite of
communication, collaboration, and continuous improvement tools
for teachers, principals, and state and district
administrators to use for timely interventions to help improve
student learning and track student achievement. A large part
of the system involves data warehousing and management tools.
The system enables users to see student progress
across the state or district by specific grade level, site,
classroom, or individual student. Virtual EDucation provides
real-time access to current student progress as measured by
classroom observation and learning activities, high-stakes or
required state testing, and multiple measures of required
district assessments. Virtual EDucation is currently being
used in schools in 22 states, and it covers nearly 1 million
students.
EDmin's academic data warehouse takes a
district's assessment and classroom performance data and
provides tools to align the data to curriculum standards.
Virtual EDucation acts as middleware; it uses an automated
extraction process to pull pertinent student data from the
district's student information system for roster and
demographic data. It provides the capability to disaggregate
subgroups. This integration enables school districts to have
access to Web-based analysis tools accessible at any time and
from anywhere, allowing educators to track real-time student
achievement reports. Student performance information is
available and accessible to any authorized district
administrator, principal, teacher, student, or
parent.
Virtual EDucation features include: longitudinal
analysis; comparison tools; timely intervention; aggregated
and disaggregated reports; and online portfolios permitting
the storage of authentic student work.
All data can be aggregated or disaggregated by
district, school, grade, teacher, gender, ethnicity, federal
and state programs, and customizable, user-defined groups. The
system supports all score types: NPR, NCE, scaled scores,
gender, stanine, quartile, quintile, rubric, percentage
correct, and performance bands.
In addition to the student demographic data,
Virtual EDucation includes other data elements, such as
teacher data associated with courses, periods, and grade
levels; courses aligned to each student and teacher; academic
curriculum standards for the state and/or the district; and
student progress monitoring using multiple measurement
indicators of achievement. It also features lesson plans
developed using standards-based instruction and Individual
Education Plans.
Virtual EDucation comprises a suite of
integrated applications that contain tools to improve
communication and collaboration, and to support continuous
student progress.
Virtual EDucation is also integrated with
Microsoft Class Server and Scantron Testing and Assessment's
Assessment Connection to create an integrated on line testing
and data management solution. Microsoft and HP recognize
Virtual EDucation as the academic data warehouse management
application for the enterprise education solution.
Additionally, the system is compatible with all electronic or
Web-based student information systems, as well as varied
assessment content. |
|
Local
Hosting/ASP Options |
Virtual EDucation is available as an ASP model,
or districts may elect to host their own data locally. Turnkey
solutions are also available by which EDmin initially serves
as the ASP, but turns the service over to the district on a
predetermined date. |
|
Training |
The Virtual EDucation System requires
implementation planning prior to beginning training. Districts
typically purchase "implementation planning" days, based on
the size of the district. Training days are determined by the
size of the district and the implementation plan (i.e., is the
system being deployed at elementary, middle, or high schools
at different times; are all schools involved or is the
implementation to occur incrementally, etc.).
The Virtual EDucation System employs several
professional development models (i.e., "Train-the-Trainer,"
onsite, tutorials, and help desk). The system's professional-
development focus is on increasing assessment literacy, so
training extends beyond the typical technical or navigational
training.
Training has been designed to effectively target
all end users (i.e., system administrator, district/site
administrator, teacher, student, parent). Typically, school
districts purchase several training days for the system
administrator, and plan for on-site training of the district's
trainers, or schedule EDmin's trainers to conduct the onsite
training. |
|
Cost
Structure |
The Virtual EDucation solution is based on an
annual student subscription pricing model. One-time
installation costs include the district and site installations
at $1,500 per site. Additional costs include data import
services, data format review, implementation planning,
professional development, and help desk (depending on the size
of the school district and the extent of internal resources
the school district has to support its own help-desk
function).
The Virtual EDucation system's pricing is
between $5-10/student. The price is determined by the size of
the district and whether a district purchases all 12
applications, or only some of the applications. Virtual
EDucation's applications may be unbundled for incremental
implementation within the school
district. |
Poway Unified School District, California
Poway Unified School District (PUSD), a district of
32,700 students in California's San Diego County, is aggressively
using data to manage and direct system-wide change and to make
decisions about instruction. A data warehouse PUSD has implemented
is key to this strategy.
Like many other districts, PUSD had data stored in
different places. Working with SAS, PUSD has developed a data
warehouse and data management tools that bring together disparate
data under a unifying set of goals and business practices, and the
district has significantly reduced the time it takes to access data
as well as create and deliver reports. Inherent to the district's
commitment is the active collection, storage, delivery and reporting
of student information and student learning data to teachers,
students, parents, and school administrators. Charlie Garten,
executive director of Educational Technology and Information
Services, said using the data warehouse is enabling PUSD to get the
"big picture" and "focus on the student."
PUSD, which includes 21 elementary schools (K-5), five
middle schools (6-8), four comprehensive high schools, and one
continuation high school, has a core mission of ensuring that each
student will master knowledge and develop the skills and attitudes
essential for success in school and in a diverse society. In 1998,
PUSD declared that the district was going to be a "data-driven"
organization and set about to make this a reality at Poway, which
has 3,340 employees. The voluminous amounts of data collected by the
district were not being used to support the district's core mission.
How the Process Started
"We were
data-rich and information poor. We wanted to be data-driven, but the
data was driving us," says Ray Wilson, director of instruction in
PUSD's Learning Support Services. "We wanted to use data as
information." At the time, all reports were paper reports, and PUSD
staff was telling the IT department that while they had "tons of
data," they did not know what to do with it and they found it hard
to access.
The district was channeling data only
to school principals at the time, and principals weren't using it.
District officials believed that data should go to teachers,
parents, and students, whom PUSD terms the core users of
information. Another problem: Because district data such as student
information, finance, and special education sat in different places,
district personnel had difficulty in finding and collating what they
needed. The district's "customers" - administrators and teachers -
told PUSD leaders that they wanted a single point of entry to data;
a more user-friendly, "point and click" environment; and
accessibility from their desktops.
The school district culture presented
another impediment at the time: There was no strong linkage between
the IT side and the instruction side in the form of the Learning
Support Services. The district created a user group comprised of
members from both sides and worked to build a partnership within the
organization. PUSD set about creating a proof of concept (POC),
which would define the components of a data-integration project, and
then detail what each would do and establish the stages for
implementation. This was an important process, and it took about a
year on a $30,000 budget. "People don't know what they want until
they see it. They know functionally what they want, but they don't
know in realistic terms what they mean until they see it," Wilson
says.
The concept of building a data warehouse evolved. It
was not first on the agenda; in the beginning, the district was
aiming to create a very specific project oriented toward student
assessments. But it became apparent that PUSD needed a robust data
structure that incorporated all of PUSD's varied databases and would
get all types of data out front to users. "I say the data warehouse
found us. We weren't looking for it," says Tracy Jones, PUSD
supervisor of data systems, another leader in this project.
Building the Data Warehouse
PUSD
considered two companies with whom to work in designing and building
the data warehouse. The district chose SAS (see the Products section
for details on their products and services). The company offered a
strong information system, PUSD staffers liked the company's
philosophy, and PUSD believed it was getting a lot for its
investment. PUSD had data stored in many different places that it
wanted to bring together: Transportation, Human Resources, Student
Information Systems, Learning Systems, Finance, and Special
Education, etc.
Integrating the legacy data was a very
difficult task. The biggest job has proven to be organizing and
cleaning up years of data. Taking raw data and "cleansing" it in
order for it to be consistent and reliable requires such steps as
eliminating duplicate data; getting rid of erroneous data;
standardizing terminology; and using specific tools to analyze data
in the data tables, among other things. One example: In going
through old data, PUSD discovered that there literally were five
genders identified, not only M and F, but "X" and "null." Another
example: Scoring had changed so that the number "7" had a different
meaning for different years.
Key decisions were made about the structure of the
data warehouse, e.g. defining the data tables, how much data is
enough, which systems were to be integrated. The district also
discovered that it had a lot of "holes" in the data that school
officials were not aware of, for example, years when assessments
weren't administered to certain grades.
In addition to the $30,000 cost for the proof of
concept, the initial startup costs included: initial pilots (2),
$30,000; staff training, $8,000; SAS software, $64,000; and
hardware, $15,000, for a total of $147,000.
Defining the "Center" of the Data Warehouse
Those involved in PUSD's data warehouse project say a
critical decision was made early on concerning this question: What
is the center of the data warehouse, meaning the organizing
principle? "Student learning is the center of our data warehouse,"
says Wilson, adding, "My own personal `ah ha!' happened what I could
see how this wasn't going to work with a certain company because
student learning wasn't the center of it."
This question is similar to a company that says, "What
is our core mission?" At PUSD, student achievement became the center
of the data warehouse. This guiding principle is important to how
the data warehouse is organized and how data is integrated. "We
haven't come up with any data yet that doesn't in some way affect
student learning. As we pull different systems into the data
warehouse, they all affect student learning, whether it's the
credentials of the teacher, library services, the transportation
system," Wilson says. The impact has been system-wide of looking
through all data and asking what is the effect on student
achievement - whether it is changes in transportation, personnel
transfers, or funding allocations to certain
programs.
Seeing the Results
The data
warehouse is being rolled out for use by principals, teachers, and
all other user groups in the district. It is accessed through a Web
browser from a user's desktop. PUSD estimates that the data
warehouse will be completed at the school level by November, and a
rollout to homes in the district is about a year away. It has been
implemented in all of the district's high schools and most of the
middle schools, and next will be the elementary schools. Some 1,900
user accounts were set up for the data warehouse and management
system; currently, about 250 PUSD personnel are already using the
system. Stacey Campo, a teacher and the PUSD technology specialist,
is overseeing and conducting training at the PUSD school
sites.
The system is already paying off for PUSD's teachers
and principals who are able to use it to generate all types of
queries, turn the data into usable information that guides decision
making and instructional allocations, and create customized reports
and presentations. Some examples:
- A middle school principal was able to examine math
scores for "feeder students" coming from fifth grade into the
middle school. An examination of the math scores revealed that the
students were already far ahead in grasping sixth-grade math
skills and concepts. This gave the principal time to restructure
the math course for the new sixth grade to make it more
appropriate for the incoming group of students.
- Principals are using the data warehouse and
management tools in identifying students for summer school,
according to Campo. Facing budget cuts, the administrators have to
look even more closely at how funds for summer school are spent.
They need to make sure the money for summer school is targeted
first and foremost at students who are most in need of
remediation, she says. Examining data and sorting and filtering by
grade level, assessment results, and other factors, the principals
have "gotten a much clearer picture of what the specific needs
are" and which students are the best candidates for summer school,
Campo explains.
- Administrators and teachers have been able to assess
whether the Reading Recovery program is having a positive impact
by examining reading scores collated with the use of the program.
Campo notes that such analysis is especially important because of
California requirements that school improvements be tied to "hard
data."
- A PUSD chemistry teacher, after being trained on the
use of the data system, went back to the classroom and analyzed
the reading level of the students in a class. The teacher
discovered that the chemistry textbook is at a reading level that
is above half of the students in the class, and thus, the teacher
can make adjustments.
- The district has
also built in some user-friendly capabilities for its teachers,
such as the ability to pull out a parents' contact list; parents'
e-mail list, student's schedule; list of other teachers for the
student; students' medical concerns such as allergies, etc. It is
literally putting the data at people's fingertips.
Once the system is completely rolled out, both Wilson
and Jones expect teachers, administrators, and other staff to
generate reports that have not even been conceived of and for the
data warehouse to be the engine that allows true "data-based
decision making." Moreover, PUSD officials say the data warehouse
will be indispensable to meeting the requirements of No Child Left
Behind. Currently, the PUSD system is being tweaked to add
particular filters in order to meet NCLB. This is the kind of
ongoing enhancements that will happen with the data warehouse and
management tools of PUSD. The district has an SIS-TIM team (Student
Information System-Total Information Management) that meets daily.
After designing, creating, and building a system-wide
data warehouse and management system, those at PUSD say there are
important lessons learned, which they share:
- Develop centralized technical support
standards.
- Customers will know what they want when they see
it.
- It takes longer than planned.
- It costs more than the estimates.
- Data cleansing requires a lot of work.
- Know your business rules.
- Training, training,
training.
For Further Information
For more
information on the Poway Unified School District data warehouse
implementation, see the presentation made to the National School
Boards Association's Technology and Learning Conference last
November:
http://powayusd.sdcoe.k12.ca.us/teaching/DataWareHousing/NSBA%20presentation_files/frame.htm
Poway Unified School District site: http://powayusd.sdcoe.k12.ca.us/default1.htm
E-mail: Tracy Jones, tjones@powayusd.com
E-mail, for information on classroom-level experience:
Stacey Campo, scampo@powayusd.com
Data warehousing and management tools are very important because
they are key to the data
Simply
put, the question boils down to how complex or robust a system you
need in your district, and how robust a system your district will
actually utilize on a day-to-day basis. Despite the best intentions
of those who design and create data warehouse and management tools,
district stakeholders such as teachers and principals may well not
know how to use data. Initial investments into the hardware and
software must be coupled with intense training for prospective
users, not only on the basics of using data tools but also on how to
interpret what they find.
Another
reality check comes when building the data warehouse: Much of your
"legacy data" - the systems already in existence - could be
problematic due to inconsistent descriptive terms and test scoring,
gaps in data, and other issues. Advanced tools have been developed
to address such problems and make data reliable and accurate. Yet
those who are involved with designing and building data warehouses
say they often cost more and take more time to put together than you
will initially estimate.
In
addition to the level of customization, the delivery and management
of your data warehouse is of prime importance. You can have the data
warehouse sitting on your server, or you can choose an ASP solution
in which it is hosted and maintained by the company.
Below we
consider a representative sample of the well recognized and leading
data warehousing products and provide you with vendor-neutral,
in-depth information about each. We also present a brief glossary of
key terms you'll need to know concerning data warehouses. As you
consider a purchase of a data warehousing solution, here are some
considerations you'll want to keep in mind:
Data Warehouse: A single, centralized depository for long-term
storage of data, with regular data updates, that permits a holistic
view of your enterprise by combining data from an enterprise's
various business systems and source electronic documents. Data can
be selectively accessed and organized for use in decision support,
querying and reporting, and analysis of trends.
Data Management: Using applications to control and manage data in
order to eliminate redundancy and to ensure data reliability,
integrity, consistency, and availability.
Data Cleansing: Once data is loaded onto a system, it is prepared
for storage. Data cleansing is a process that captures data from
source systems and makes it ready for storage, e.g. straightens out
inconsistencies, reconciles differences in definitions, etc.
Data Model: Refers to a range of different data elements
including achievement, finance, personnel, demographics, etc. that
can be organized and combined in the data warehouse. The complexity
of the data model is a key differentiator between moderately priced
off-the-shelf systems and complex customized systems.
Decision Support: A decision support system or tool is a computer
program application that analyzes data and presents it so that users
can make decisions more easily.
ETL Tools: Stands for the words "Extract, Transform, and Load."
These tools are used in the process of taking raw data from
different locations, transforming it into high-quality, consistent
data, and moving it into a separate ``location such as a data
warehouse. ETL tools have three separate functions combined into a
single programming tool. The extract function reads data from
specific locations and extracts a desired subset of data. The
transform function works with the new subset of data to convert it
to a desired and consistent state. Lastly, the load function then
writes the specified resulting data to a target database.
You need to consider the range and complexity of your data needs,
i.e., whether you have a wide variety of data that you wish to
combine, such as facilities, financial, curriculum, assessment
results, etc. You also need to gauge your district's ability to
utilize and manage these tools. Above all, you will want to consider
how your data warehouse will create the information you need on a
day-to-day basis and guide decisions about instruction in ways that
support the core mission of your schools.
We are providing you with concise and vendor-neutral descriptions
of a number of leading data warehouse solutions. This list is
intended to guide you as you consider any purchase in this market,
not only by providing some baseline information about a number of
the products, but also by helping you understand what you should
keep in mind. We compiled these summaries from interviews with
representatives of each company and from information they make
available on their products.
We examine data-warehousing products and services through the
following categories:
Products featured include:
|
ConfluentEDU |
|
Web
site address |
http://www.confluentasp.com/cn_index.htm |
|
Product
Summary and Features |
ConfluentEDU
is a software data warehousing and data mining solution that
is built to work with K-12 school districts' software. It is
first a data warehouse that pulls together data from a
schools' student information system, test scores, cafeteria
management database, accounting systems, special education
records, etc. It is paired with a data mining tool that
interacts with schools' current data to process, analyze, and
"visualize" the data, meaning it lets users create customized
pie charts, bar graphs and other visual renderings of data.
Those who use the software can also "push out" data
automatically to an Excel spreadsheet or a Power Point
presentation, for example, to create customized reports based
on any number of variables.
Confluent
intended the software to be used by a school's non-technical
personnel, meaning superintendents, principals, teachers, and
administrative staffers. It automates the process of getting a
district's data into the data warehouse. EDU is a stand-alone
application, and it launches off a user's desktop. The launch
or home page of the application is customized for each school
district depending on the needs of that school district. A
user can sort, re-sort, or filter on data across a school
district. For instance, a user can access the data for five
schools together, filter that data to determine how many
special education students there are, and then sort it to find
out how many of those special education students qualify for
free lunch and how many qualify for reduced lunch.
End
users of ConfluentEDU use the application to access and filter
the data by clicking and dragging, rather than having to type
in instructions. If examining the transportation data collated
with demographic data, a support person or administrator may
click and use pull-down menus to decide exactly which data he
or she wants to examine and make into a report. Users can
create ad hoc queries, by using the application's
clicking-and-dragging interface, limited only by the
categories that all of the data logically contains.
Using
Confluent's "decision support tree," which is a visual
organization of data that is branched, you can point your
mouse to an object on the screen and see the data associated
with that object (Midtown Elementary School, for example)
appears on the left-hand side. An end user can choose any of
the variables through which he or she will want to sort,
filter, and see data. Once the end user makes these choices,
graphic representations of the data can be made, such as a pie
chart or bar graph. A user can then print it or can capture it
to import into a Word document, Excel spreadsheet or
PowerPoint presentation. Each stakeholder in a district gets a
particular sign-in, with a user ID and password which means
that different levels of access to data are created, whether
it is for a teacher or administrator, etc. Data in the data
warehouse application can be refreshed daily or weekly, though
most districts have chosen so far to have it refreshed daily.
In
working with districts to build the data warehouse for use in
mining, Confluent has handled all types of data sources
ranging from legacy equipment such as old IBM equipment to
modern Student Information Systems, a company official said.
Confluent, which has created applications for multi-chain
convenience store and restaurant management industries,
launched its education data warehousing/mining application at
the beginning of calendar year 2002. Its software is being
used in 400 school buildings located in six states, and the
company is moving into other states. The company has worked
with districts ranging from ones with small enrollment up to
86,000-student districts. |
|
Local
Hosting/ASP Options |
Client schools and districts can choose for Confluent to
host the data and provide technical services relating to the
ConfluentEDU data warehouse and tool. Or, they can choose to
host the application locally and have local technical
personnel be responsible for the application. About half
choose the ASP model, while the other half of client schools
goes the other route, said a company official. |
|
Training |
Confluent provides one day of training that comes as part
of the set-up fee. This training is provided according to how
the district would like to do it, whether it is in training IT
staffers, who will then teach the use of the application to
end users, or by training a particular population of
non-technical end users themselves. Districts can obtain
additional training depending to meet their schools' needs,
for instance if they later want to add on additional end
users. |
|
Cost Structure
|
ConfluentEDU is priced per student. The cost ranges from
$2.50 to $3.50 per student, for the first-year set-up of the
application. There is also a 50-cents per student per year
charge for maintenance. For schools that choose to have
Confluent Technologies host the application, the cost ranges
from $300 to $750 per month. |
|
EduSoft |
|
Web
site address |
http://www.edusoft.com/login.jsp |
|
Product
Summary and Features |
Focused
primarily on assessment analysis and use, the Edusoft platform
is an integrated suite of tools for use by teachers,
principals, and district administrators for all of their
assessments. This includes: (1) the importing and analysis of
state and district exams; (2) the creation, paper-based
administration, scanning and scoring of district benchmark
exams through Edusoft's patent-pending scanning technology;
and (3) tools to help teachers create in-classroom paper
exams, grade them and use the results to drive instructional
tools, determine curricular pacing, etc.
Data
warehouse: Edusoft's data warehouse takes a district's
assessment data and integrates with the student information
system for roster and demographic data. The district obtains a
Web-based analysis tool, with reports accessible to district
administrators, principals, teachers, and parents.
The
highlighted features of Edusoft's product include:
- Intervention
groups: Schools can specify performance and demographic
criteria.
- Printable
reports: Schools can generate aggregated or individual
student reports for results of statewide
exams.
- Longitudinal
analysis: End users can compare by student, teacher, grade,
and school year over year. Cross sectional and cohort
matched analysis is available.
- Comparison
Tools: Performance can be compared against state standards.
End users can break down results by content areas, strands,
and sub strands.
The
date warehouse supports the following: state tests, district
tests, SAT, AP tests, any additional test scores, GPA,
attendance, citizenship, discipline, any additional
performance metrics. All data can be aggregated or
disaggregated by school, grade, teacher, gender, ethnicity,
federal and state programs, and customizable, user-defined
groups. The system supports all score types: NPR, NCE, scaled
scores, gender, stanine, percentage correct, and performance
bands.
Edusoft's
patent-pending scanning/scoring technology aims for maximum
flexibility, performance, and speed. Along with every test,
Edusoft generates answer sheets as PDF documents that can be
printed out on regular 8.5-by-11 inch copy paper and
photocopied. Answer sheets can automatically be configured so
that students need not bubble-in a student ID, but rather just
select the single bubble next to their preprinted name.
These
answer sheets are scanned in and scored using an inexpensive
off-the-shelf multi-functioning scanner/printer device.
Edusoft-compatible scanning devices can be purchased at most
office supply stores for approximately $500. Tests are scanned
and graded automatically (districts can have one or more
scanners in each local school site), and the results
automatically uploaded back to the Web-based service. Once
graded, reports and online tools are immediately available for
teachers, principals, and administrators.
Instructional
tools and item bank: Edusoft's instructional tools enable
teachers and administrators to create tests and plain-paper
answer sheets in five minutes, all aligned to state and/or
district standards. Educators can either choose to use
Edusoft's item bank and their own questions to create tests in
the system, or can simply use their existing tests and just
use Edusoft for the answer sheets. Once tests are scanned and
scored, teachers can use Edusoft's instructional tools to
automatically generate customized review sheets for each
period of students, driven by their performance on past
assessments. Edusoft's 2003 question bank contains 15,000
questions, with an additional 8,000 available by year's end.
Questions are available in ELA, math, science and social
science. |
|
Local
Hosting/ASP Options |
Edusoft
hosts the Edusoft platform for all of its 115 districts
currently. According to Edusoft, with the ASP model, the
product is able to evolve constantly and support the
developing needs of the school district customers. |
|
Training |
Training
for the Edusoft platform is provided as part of the overall
sale of the Edusoft product to school districts. Districts
then typically purchase one planning day at the beginning of
their deployment, and two days of training in the first
year. |
|
Cost
Structure |
The
Edusoft platform is priced as an annual per-student license.
|
|
eScholar |
|
Web
site address |
http://www.escholar.com/ |
|
Product
Summary and Features |
eScholar
is a standards-based product set that creates a data warehouse
giving school systems access to data through a three-stage
process of collecting, standardizing, and distributing. The
core of the eScholar product is a standardized data model and
the company's data management and Web-based reporting tools,
which are intended for districts that have complex data
needs.
The
data model captures more than 29 separate domains of data
including over 300 individual fields. The data domains include
student demographics, course attributes, daily student
attendance, course-level student attendance, student
assessment results, course grades, quarter grades, final
grades, assessment item-level detail, discipline referrals,
discipline responses, transportation information,
extracurricular involvement by student, special education
data, classroom locations, staff demographics, staff
attendance, among other domains. With the product's ETL
framework, data is transformed from many differing source
systems into a standardized format.
Because
eScholar's design is based on an open data model, any
contemporary query, reporting, or data mining tool will work
with it. eScholar provides the ability to analyze data
combined from various sources. School districts that use
eScholar can use both packaged functionality and their own
custom applications.
In
the building of the warehouse, eScholar can pull data from any
electronic form, from student information systems to a
cafeteria program or an Excel spreadsheet. The data warehouse
permits the storing of unlimited longitudinal data. Districts
setting up the eScholar product can also have an unlimited
"data-refresh" schedule. Because the company is aware that no
one reporting and analysis tool is good for everyone, eScholar
goes from the user interface backward, determining how a
district's data works and how it is described from the inside
out. The company works with the district to structure and
clean the data so that the school system will have accurate,
reliable data. It is then paired with a flexible, Web-based
reporting tool. The secure management system allows different
levels of access for different users, e.g. administrators,
teachers, support staff, etc.
The
company has had enhancements of the product, and released
version 4.1 of eScholar on March 1. As of summer of 2002, more
than 700 school districts in nine states have implemented this
data-warehouse product.
The
Readiness Workshop is considered a crucial part of the
implementation process of a data warehouse. The Readiness
Workshop is designed to clearly identify the costs involved,
resource requirements, skills needed, funding, staff
participation, data required, technology infrastructure, and
all other considerations to create a successful data
warehousel. From this workshop, The Blueprint for Action is
produced that outlines everything necessary to better use
information to improve education. |
|
Local
Hosting/ASP Options |
eScholar
is available as both a stand-alone application and a hosted
ASP solution. With
the ASP model, eScholar hosts the districts data at our secure
data center. Costs for hardware and software acquisition,
system maintenance and support can be reduced with this
option. eScholar provides all hardware and network
connectivity, as well as reliability monitoring, configuration
maintenance, software updates, and upgrades on a continuous
basis. |
|
Training |
eScholar
training is comprised of two days of end-user training in
using standard query tools to explore eScholar data and one
day of training in more complex query design. The company
offers technical staff a three-day class in using the eScholar
ETL tool. |
|
Cost
Structure |
There
is a fixed-cost or a variable-cost option for districts
purchasing eScholar.
With the fixed cost, the eScholar license and any hosting are
priced per student (full-time enrolled student). This makes
the eScholar pricing definable and scalable. Under the
variable-cost option, the eScholar license is a one-time
charge and includes all of eScholar's currently covered data
domains; maintenance, billed yearly also by full-time enrolled
student, provides updates and standard reports.
Schools can
choose from these options to fit their needs. Districts that
decide to have eScholar host the data eliminate costs for
hardware and free up their own IT staff for other needs.
Hosting has a one-time set-up charge and annual charges for
the hosting service and supervision of a district's data by an
eScholar database administrator. |
|
IBM Insight at
School |
|
Web
site address |
http://www-1.ibm.com/industries/education/doc/content/solution/309650110.html |
|
Product
Summary and Features |
IBM
Insight at School, which was launched in 2001, is the IBM
data-warehouse solution through which schools can access and
analyze different sources of information stored on multiple
computing platforms. Through Insight at School, schools bring
together integrated data from multiple operational sources,
such as student information systems, demographics, attendance
data, instructional courses and grades, and normed or
criterion test scores. A packaged offering includes both
products and services: project management; data warehouse
strategy; a complete project plan and the data warehouse
deliverables such as data model, database design, deployment
plan, etc.; and hardware and software.
The
IBM solution is for districts that have a wide variety of
data, e.g. financial, facilities, curriculum, assessment,
staffing, that they wish to combine, and complex data
management and analysis needs.
Many
school districts have a variety of software programs and
extract-transform-load tools. IBM decided to create an open
solution that can be used with any industry-standard operating
tool. The underlying data model has been culled from building
data warehouses in various industries for some eight years.
The predefined education data model in use by IBM has been
implemented in school districts, educational agencies, state
and provincial departments of education, charter school
management companies, and private school organizations. The
data warehouse integrates data across subject areas, and
affords analysis through some 2,000 attributes. Both ad hoc
queries and online analysis can be done through the IBM
enterprise data warehouse. The system allows predefined as
well as customizable reports available for use. Reports are
available that address No Child Left Behind requirements.
Schools can monitor student achievement and assess the quality
of learning in order to meet adequate yearly progress (AYP)
requirements.
Using
IBM Insight at School, a school administrator, for example,
can create reports showing the financial expenditures at the
school level for specific educational programs and then
compare the assessment results with particular financial
expenditures. Or, an administrator can correlate professional
development data with student achievement. The data-warehouse
package uses graphical representation in order to help
administrators and other end users identify trends and
correlations.
There
are a variety of ways for districts to distribute the reports.
IBM promotes what is called a "push strategy" in which an end
user can create a report and e-mail it out to the e-mail list
of the user's determination. The Web-enabled data can be
viewed at home or school through any Web browser. Typically,
however, schools keep it within district firewalls because
they do not want to have student information beyond that
firewall. |
|
Local
Hosting/ASP Options |
IBM
offers districts and other entities the option to host the
data or to have IBM host it,
in which case it is backed by data centers that operate 24
hours/7 days. |
|
Training |
IBM
provides what it calls a "knowledge and skill
transfer"
with client districts so that districts and build and maintain
data warehouse solutions once IBM departs, both on the IT side
and the business/instruction side. |
|
Cost
Structure |
IBM
charges a set-up cost for the building of a data
warehouse.
Typically, costs start at $50,000 and go up, depending on the
specifications established by the district. There is a
separate FTE price (full-time equivalency) cost for any
hosting, which is done under an annual contract. |
|
SAS Data
Warehousing |
|
Web
site address |
http://www.sas.com/technologies/dw/ |
|
Product
Summary and Features |
SAS
Data Warehousing is part of a suite of data quality
applications. The SAS data-warehousing component allows a
client district or department to leverage existing hardware,
software, data, and human resources in order to integrate
legacy and non-legacy data into one flexible information
management platform.
SAS
Data Warehousing is a customizable solution, not an
off-the-shelf product, company officials note. It is intended
for schools with a wide variety of data they wish to combine
and analyze to support instruction and student achievement.
The SAS solution is mainly targeted to larger school
districts, although the company will work with small and
mid-sized districts as well.
With
the SAS structure, the company's ETL process - data
extraction, transformation, and loading - is combined with
enhanced value-adding data-quality technologies (in essence,
desktop data-cleansing tools) that cleanse and eliminate
duplicate data from multiple sources and ensure accuracy. The
ETL process consists of all the steps necessary to extract
data from different locations, transform the raw operational
data into consistent data, and load the data into a data
warehouse.
The
SAS product allows a district to build and manage a data
warehouse from a single point of control, but in flexible ways
according to user needs. With the SAS product's extractive
technologies, for example, a district can take data from a
Microsoft Excel sheet, import it through a data-warehouse
structure into the district's Student Information System, do
some analysis of the data, and then send it back out to the
Excel sheet.
SAS
works with the client - say a school district - in a
whiteboard session and conceptualizes an end-to-end solution
that is custom-built for the district. The SAS product can run
across every platform. With more than 100 native access
engines - covering all databases, operational systems,
external data sources, e-sources, etc. -- SAS provides access
to data regardless of source. It also reads relevant metadata
and associated information.
SAS
supports multiple models of client/server computing, providing
control over how platforms address each other in a mixed
hardware and network protocol environment. The examples of
client/server architecture and computing services available
include remote computing services, which allow applications to
work where the data resides instead of bringing the data to
the application. Another example is data transfer services --
enable the transfer of SAS data sets, catalogs, graphics
catalogs, entire data libraries and external files between
local and remote systems. The SAS storage options are flexible
so that districts can leverage existing hardware but also
avenues for growth as the storage needs of a district
expand.
Through
SAS Public Sector, the company offers a pilot program, for a
cost, in which school systems can try out the data warehousing
solution by getting a "slice" of their data into a model
depository. The SAS implementation team works to develop a
thorough understanding of your existing technology environment
and investments, which we then incorporate into the SAS
solution. At that point, we recommend a plan. There is a
100-percent money-back guarantee for participation in the
pilot. |
|
Local
Hosting/ASP Options |
SAS
data warehousing is a software solution designed for local
hosting.
Currently, SAS in Schools is working on an Application Service
Provider model. |
|
Training |
Customers
such as school districts can purchase training outright as
part of the software solution from SAS.
When districts participate in the SAS Public Sector pilot
programs, training is included in the pilot. "We have a
knowledge transfer with the pilot. We do a majority of the
project on-site and working with school personnel. We provide
summary documentation of what we did," says a company
official. Clients can receive training at various regional
offices of SAS. |
|
Cost
Structure |
The
price of SAS data warehousing is customized for each district
or other client of its services. Company
officials declined to give exact figures. |
|
SchoolNet:
Account™ |
|
Web
site address |
http://www.schoolnet.com |
|
Product
Summary and Features |
Account™
enables districts to focus on student performance data in
order to increase academic achievement. Account™ is a
Web-based data analysis and querying tool powered by a data
warehouse. District clients have the option of deploying
Account™ with their existing data warehouse (Account™ can run
off of the eScholar data warehouse) or SchoolNet will work
with districts to build a data warehouse.
Account™
focuses on student performance data and the relative
indicators that provide districts with the data to inform the
decision-making process. Account reports are constructed
specifically with goal of enabling schools and districts to
answer critical questions including: Adequate Yearly Progress
analysis and predictions, flagging curricular gaps,
identifying students in need of special services or
interventions, recognizing outstanding teachers, etc.
This
product is student performance-focused, with an AYP analysis
package. It is targeted to medium to large districts and
consortia of districts. It is modular with other online
applications such as Instructional Management
Systems.
Flexibility
is provided in the type and expanse of reports that can be
generated from the system through the Account ad-hoc query
tool, which enables users to build report across multiple
dimensions suited to the user's specific analysis.
- Longitudinal
(Trend) Analysis
- Relational
Analysis
- Cohort
Analysis
- NCLB
Analysis
- Growth
Analysis
In
addition to the ad hoc reporting tool, Account™ has a battery
of pre-formatted reports, providing users with an easy means
to access the most common report types generated within the
system. In addition, Account™ has a comprehensive analysis
spreadsheet, data export tools, and a report publishing
facility. Reports generated in Account™ can easily be saved,
emailed, or published.
SchoolNet
has closely followed the NCLB legislation since its passage
and has been following the states' adoption and regulations in
order to ensure that Account™ will assist principals and
superintendents in understanding their assessment data in
light of the Adequate Yearly Progress requirements. SchoolNet
has developed a proprietary analysis package and statistical
tool to measure how close or far away a school or cohort of
students is from meeting its AYP objectives. By using this
analysis throughout the school year, building principals will
be able to understand if they are on track to satisfying AYP
and to take corrective action well in advance of high stakes
test administration, if needed.
Types
of data integrated for analysis:
- Student
information system data (e.g., student information,
demographics, attendance, enrollment history, special
program, course information, etc…)
- Student
performance data (e.g., state tests, national tests (e.g.,
SAT-9), local benchmark tests, online testing,
etc…)
- Teacher data
(courses, tenure, etc…)
Integration
routines between the native district data sources (e.g., SIS)
and SchoolNet's data warehouse are built to extract the data
and load into the SchoolNet system. These routines can be set
to run on a quarterly, monthly, or even daily basis depending
on the needs of the district.
Account™
is a modular application that integrates with SchoolNet's
other Web-based applications - Align™, the instructional
management system that integrates student performance data
with district standards and curriculum, and Outreach™, the Web
portal and content management system for K-12 school districts
that publishes reports generated in Account™. This modularity
affords districts the flexibility to expand their data-driven
decision-making platform into instruction, communication, and
collaboration. |
|
Local
Hosting/ASP Options |
SchoolNet's
products are Web-based and can either be hosted locally by
districts or hosted by SchoolNet using an ASP
model.
SchoolNet
has also worked with Intermediate Units and Education Service
Agencies to provide its products to consortia of districts
enabling smaller districts to utilize a data warehouse and the
analysis tools. |
|
Training |
Training
and professional development are included in the services that
SchoolNet provides. A
core training package is included with district contracts;
districts can purchase additional training and professional
development services according to their needs. SchoolNet
operates on a train-the-trainer model to build capacity in the
district. All training is context based so that users learn
not only how the product works, but also how they use it to
inform their decision-making and planning. |
|
Cost
Structure |
SchoolNet's
applications are modular so that a district can purchase one
or all (or any combination thereof); a
district can structure exactly the products and the rollout
strategy that suits it best. Each module is moderately priced
on a per student per year basis for ASP licenses. Discounts
begin as districts add more than one module. The per-student
costs also decrease with increasing district sizes. In the
first year, there is a one-time set-up cost that is dependent
on the district's data sources and extraction
abilities. |
|
TetraData: EASE-e
Data Analyzer |
|
Web
site address |
http://www.ease-e.com/ease-e/default.asp |
|
Product
Summary and Features |
The EASE-e Data Analyzer is a combo data warehouse, mining,
analysis, and reporting system designed for use at any level
of education. This data product allows schools to build a data
warehouse and to have built-in tools to generate graphs and
reports.
TetraData is custom-built; the company works with districts
to design and build the data warehouse based on what sorts of
information the district believes should make up the data
warehouse.
TetraData developed the EASE-e suite of data solutions, in
conjunction with a number of school districts, as a specially
customized warehouse and analysis tool for educators to be
able to have instant access to accurate, up-to-date data and
to make decisions based on that data. It contains a data
manager, data analyzer, and a reporting tool, all of which are
available from a single point of entry and a portal from which
all data can be accessed.
A school district can use its own unified login, which
means that a separate log-in does not have to be created to
have access to the data warehouse. According to TetraData
Chairman and CEO Martin Brutosky, some of the partners in the
original project are married to teachers, and the development
of the EASE-e program was driven by firsthand knowledge of the
needs in education for better data warehousing.
The query engine that TetraData built, for example, is
unique to K-12 and incorporates educational measurements such
as correlation coefficients and standard deviation, etc. A
user can query the data in real-time. The program is made up
of a number of products and services:
" EASE-e Data Services is a complete data collection and
warehousing solution in which TetraData takes all of a
district's student demographic, teacher, school and test
information from varied sources (Excel spreadsheets, ASCII
files, in-house databases, SASI, or OSIRIS) and places that
raw data into a customized EASE-e date warehouse. EASE-e Data
Services works with school districts to figure out what sorts
of information should make up the data warehouse and which
types of data sets are most useful. Typically, the company
goes on site to a school with a project manager and a designer
in order to analyze district goals and to devise a road map
for extraction of the data into a warehouse. The process then
for data transferring the data, cleansing it, loading it, and
running it through QA. A new warehouse is usually delivered
within 66 business days, according to the company.
"
EASE-e Data Matrix Is the behind-the-scene tool that
establishes and structure of a data warehouse and it creates
the data's shell, the structure the users see when they view
the data warehouse.
" The EASE-e Data Analyzer is the core
product that allows districts to drill down into the data and
analyze it. It comes in a Client PC version, which has the
familiar Windows look and feel, or the Web version, in which
users can access data from any computer with a browser and
Internet access. It has a tab interface that walks users
through the process of creating a query.
Brotosky said that the EASE-e data suite was developed to
help districts be in complete compliance with the requirements
of No Child Left Behind. It is has the capability to track
Adequate Yearly Progress. There are other components of the
suite specifically intended for classroom-level analysis by
teachers and for importing the data analyzer and classroom
analyzer into customizable report layouts. |
|
Local
Hosting/ASP Options |
TetraData's EASE-e data products and services can be
purchased in four ways: (1) A pure ASP model, in which a
district or other entity can subscribe for the use of the
software and let TetraData manage the network, data, and
computer operations; (2) Districts can purchase the suite and
get the right to run it on their own LAN; (3) Utilize
TetraData as an ASP solution the first year, and train and
establish the district to bring all hosting and network
services in-house in subsequent years; and (4) Use a
third-partry entity to house all of the technology. |
|
Training |
TetraData has a
staff development plan that goes along with the customized
plan chosen by the customer. It is priced separately according
to customers' objectives and needs. (TetraData's Brutosky says
that it was difficult to build the training in when the needs
of customers vary.) Professional development course modules
range from warehouse consultation and introductions to the
data analyzer to measurement training and data-manager
training for database administrators, among others. |
|
Cost
Structure |
There is a six-tier pricing structure for EASE-e based on
the size of school district. Typically, there are three major
blocks of fees - license fees in order to obtain the suite of
software programs; maintenance fees to secure support; and
services fees for professional development costs and to be
able to "turnkey" the data warehouse. While tiered to size of
district, the costs are figured on a per student per year
basis. Professional development is charged on a per classroom
basis. |
|
EdMin.com |
|
Web
site address |
http://www.edmin.com |
|
Product
Summary and Features |
Virtual
EDucation is a standards- and Web-based learning management
system designed to accelerate learning and track student
performance as measured against standards. The product
functions as an academic data warehouse and serves as the
centralized storage location for student/teacher/course data,
the state and/or district curriculum standards, and student
performance data for high-stakes testing, norm- and
criteria-referenced assessments frequently used for district
testing, and classroom performance data. Virtual EDucation
seeks to help educators meet the reporting requirements
mandated by NCLB.
Virtual
Education is an integrated instructional management system and
data warehouse. It focuses on performance management by
providing an integrated suite of communication, collaboration,
and continuous improvement tools for teachers, principals, and
state and district administrators to use for timely
interventions to help improve student learning and track
student achievement. A large part of the system involves data
warehousing and management tools.
The
system enables users to see student progress across the state
or district by specific grade level, site, classroom, or
individual student. Virtual EDucation provides real-time
access to current student progress as measured by classroom
observation and learning activities, high-stakes or required
state testing, and multiple measures of required district
assessments. Virtual EDucation is currently being used in
schools in 22 states, and it covers nearly 1 million
students.
EDmin's
academic data warehouse takes a district's assessment and
classroom performance data and provides tools to align the
data to curriculum standards. Virtual EDucation acts as
middleware; it uses an automated extraction process to pull
pertinent student data from the district's student information
system for roster and demographic data. It provides the
capability to disaggregate subgroups. This integration enables
school districts to have access to Web-based analysis tools
accessible at any time and from anywhere, allowing educators
to track real-time student achievement reports. Student
performance information is available and accessible to any
authorized district administrator, principal, teacher,
student, or parent.
Virtual
EDucation features include: longitudinal analysis; comparison
tools; timely intervention; aggregated and disaggregated
reports; and online portfolios permitting the storage of
authentic student work.
All
data can be aggregated or disaggregated by district, school,
grade, teacher, gender, ethnicity, federal and state programs,
and customizable, user-defined groups. The system supports all
score types: NPR, NCE, scaled scores, gender, stanine,
quartile, quintile, rubric, percentage correct, and
performance bands.
In
addition to the student demographic data, Virtual EDucation
includes other data elements, such as teacher data associated
with courses, periods, and grade levels; courses aligned to
each student and teacher; academic curriculum standards for
the state and/or the district; and student progress monitoring
using multiple measurement indicators of achievement. It also
features lesson plans developed using standards-based
instruction and Individual Education Plans.
Virtual
EDucation comprises a suite of integrated applications that
contain tools to improve communication and collaboration, and
to support continuous student progress.
Virtual
EDucation is also integrated with Microsoft Class Server and
Scantron Testing and Assessment's Assessment Connection to
create an integrated on line testing and data management
solution. Microsoft and HP recognize Virtual EDucation as the
academic data warehouse management application for the
enterprise education solution. Additionally, the system is
compatible with all electronic or Web-based student
information systems, as well as varied assessment content.
|
|
Local
Hosting/ASP Options |
Virtual
EDucation is available as an ASP model, or districts may elect
to host their own data locally. Turnkey solutions are also
available by which EDmin initially serves as the ASP, but
turns the service over to the district on a predetermined
date. |
|
Training |
The
Virtual EDucation System requires implementation planning
prior to beginning training. Districts typically purchase
"implementation planning" days, based on the size of the
district. Training days are determined by the size of the
district and the implementation plan (i.e., is the system
being deployed at elementary, middle, or high schools at
different times; are all schools involved or is the
implementation to occur incrementally, etc.).
The
Virtual EDucation System employs several professional
development models (i.e., "Train-the-Trainer," onsite,
tutorials, and help desk). The system's professional-
development focus is on increasing assessment literacy, so
training extends beyond the typical technical or navigational
training.
Training
has been designed to effectively target all end users (i.e.,
system administrator, district/site administrator, teacher,
student, parent). Typically, school districts purchase several
training days for the system administrator, and plan for
on-site training of the district's trainers, or schedule
EDmin's trainers to conduct the onsite training. |
|
Cost
Structure |
The
Virtual EDucation solution is based on an annual student
subscription pricing model. One-time installation costs
include the district and site installations at $1,500 per
site. Additional costs include data import services, data
format review, implementation planning, professional
development, and help desk (depending on the size of the
school district and the extent of internal resources the
school district has to support its own help-desk function).
The
Virtual EDucation system's pricing is between $5-10/student.
The price is determined by the size of the district and
whether a district purchases all 12 applications, or only some
of the applications. Virtual EDucation's applications may be
unbundled for incremental implementation within the school
district. |
Poway Unified School
District, California
Poway
Unified School District (PUSD), a district of 32,700 students in
California's San Diego County, is aggressively using data to manage
and direct system-wide change and to make decisions about
instruction. A data warehouse PUSD has implemented is key to this
strategy.
Like
many other districts, PUSD had data stored in different places.
Working with SAS, PUSD has developed a data warehouse and data
management tools that bring together disparate data under a unifying
set of goals and business practices, and the district has
significantly reduced the time it takes to access data as well as
create and deliver reports. Inherent to the district's
commitment is the active collection, storage, delivery and reporting
of student information and student learning data to teachers,
students, parents, and school administrators. Charlie Garten,
executive director of Educational Technology and Information
Services, said using the data warehouse is enabling PUSD to get the
"big picture" and "focus on the student."
PUSD,
which includes 21 elementary schools (K-5), five middle schools
(6-8), four comprehensive high schools, and one continuation high
school, has a core mission of ensuring that each student will master
knowledge and develop the skills and attitudes essential for success
in school and in a diverse society. In 1998, PUSD declared that the
district was going to be a "data-driven" organization and set about
to make this a reality at Poway, which has 3,340 employees. The
voluminous amounts of data collected by the district were not being
used to support the district's core mission.
The
district was channeling data only to school principals at the time,
and principals weren't using it.
District officials believed that data should go to teachers,
parents, and students, whom PUSD terms the core users of
information. Another problem: Because district data such as
student information, finance, and special education sat in different
places, district personnel had difficulty in finding and collating
what they needed. The district's "customers" - administrators
and teachers - told PUSD leaders that they wanted a single point of
entry to data; a more user-friendly, "point and click" environment;
and accessibility from their desktops.
The
school district culture presented another impediment at the time:
There was no strong linkage between the IT side and the instruction
side in the form of the Learning The systems, another leader in this project.
Key
decisions were made about the structure of the data warehouse, e.g.
defining the data tables, how much data is enough, which systems
were to be integrated. The district also discovered that it had a
lot of "holes" in the data that school officials were not aware of,
for example, years when assessments weren't administered to certain
grades.
In
addition to the $30,000 cost for the proof of concept, the initial
startup costs included: initial pilots (2), $30,000; staff training,
$8,000; SAS software, $64,000; and hardware, $15,000, for a total of
$147,000.
This
question is similar to a company that says, "What is our core
mission?" At PUSD, student achievement became the center of the data
warehouse. This guiding principle is important to how the data
warehouse is organized and how data is integrated. "We haven't come
up with any data yet that doesn't in some way affect student
learning. As we pull different systems into the data warehouse, they
all affect student learning, whether it's the credentials of the
teacher, library services, the transportation system," Wilson says.
The impact has been system-wide of looking through all data and
asking what is the effect on student achievement - whether it is
changes in transportation, personnel transfers, or funding
allocations to certain programs.
The
system is already paying off for PUSD's teachers and principals who
are able to use it to generate all types of queries, turn the data
into usable information that guides decision making and
instructional allocations, and create customized reports and
presentations. Some examples:
Once the
system is completely rolled out, both Wilson and Jones expect
teachers, administrators, and other staff to generate reports that
have not even been conceived of and for the data warehouse to be the
engine that allows true "data-based decision making." Moreover, PUSD
officials say the data warehouse will be indispensable to meeting
the requirements of No Child Left Behind. Currently, the PUSD system
is being tweaked to add particular filters in order to meet NCLB.
This is the kind of ongoing enhancements that will happen with the
data warehouse and management tools of PUSD. The district has an
SIS-TIM team (Student Information System-Total Information
Management) that meets daily.
After
designing, creating, and building a system-wide data warehouse and
management system, those at PUSD say there are important lessons
learned, which they share:
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