Kentucky Receives $2,8 Million Grant for Longitudinal Data System

The Statewide Longitudinal Data System (SLDS) Grant Program, as authorized by the Educational Technical Assistance Act of 2002, Title II of the statute that created the Institute of Education Sciences (IES), is designed to aid state education agencies in developing and implementing longitudinal data systems. These systems are intended to enhance the ability of States to efficiently and accurately manage, analyze, and use education data, including individual student records.

Kentucky was among twenty seven states that were awarded grants in March.

The data systems developed with funds from these grants should help States, districts, schools, and teachers make data-driven decisions to improve student learning, as well as facilitate research to increase student achievement and close achievement gaps.

These competitive, cooperative agreement grants extend for three years and range from one and a half to six million dollars per state. Grantees are obligated to submit annual reports and a final report on the development and implementation of their systems.

Kentucky' s grant application called for support for

a multi-agency project which builds upon the success of the K-12 statewide longitudinal data system and the systems that have been developed independently by the Council on Postsecondary Education (CPE) and the Education Professional Standards Board (EPSB).

Other agencies such as the Kentucky Higher Education Assistance Authority and the Department for Workforce Investment will be included in the planning phase of the proposed initiative.

The proposed initiative will provide, for the first time, a seamless view of the P-20 educational landscape in Kentucky which will serve to facilitate the analysis and research necessary to improve student academic achievement and close achievement gaps.

Kentucky will link data from preschool, P-12, educator preparation and certification programs, career and technical education, postsecondary and adult education, workforce, facilities and other sources. The agencies involved in this new initiative represent the three key state educational entities, each of which collect and store their own data. Under a P-20 Governance structure each agency will individually control what data is shared, what analytic functions use that data, and who has access to data.

The project is designed in three phases, each 12 months in duration. The first phase encompasses critical initial planning activities and the inclusion of additional data into the KIDS warehouse. In the second phase data collected by EPSB and CPE will be merged with P-12 data to generate a more holistic snapshot of education. Finally, in the third phase an interface and process for external and agency researchers to access the de-identified data for analysis purposes and to extract information that can be used in studies and to create reports on P-20 related issues will be developed...

SOURCE: NCES