Managing your Data with MiDataHub
|
|
What is the cost of managing your data and how does MiDataHub help?
As with any new innovation, adoption of the Michigan Data Hub (MiDataHub) takes time and effort. In order to make that investment worthwhile, districts justifiably need to know that there is a benefit at the end for the work involved. During the first several years of MiDataHub, while systems were being designed and few vendors were connected, it was hard to argue with the logic of waiting to see how things turned out. However, we very much appreciate both the districts and the vendors who invested their efforts into a concept that had the promise of saving $56M per year statewide. Thanks to those early adopters, a cycle started that has now grown viral, bringing us to a point where the benefits in both cost savings and improved availability of timely, actionable data are undeniably worthwhile.
The first value proposition for MiDataHub was that it would save districts time and effort in moving data between the numerous, disparate systems they manage. An
ROI Study
conducted in 2015 indicated that districts could save $56 million per year in staff time and integration costs by:
- Eliminating duplicative and/or manual data integration efforts;
- Inspiring data management best practices through shared tools, validating data early and often; and
- Standardizing and partially automating compliance reporting submission processes.
Recently, the Consortium for School Networking (CoSN) studied the concept of interoperability, which can be defined as “
the ability of computer systems or software to exchange and make use of information
” and is the method used by MiDataHub to address those bulleted goals. CoSN’s work resulted in an
interoperability web page
and the publication of two tools, which are summarized nicely in an
article in Edscoop
. The first tool is a
maturity model matrix
, which allows for education organizations to rate their maturity in adopting interoperable standards on a scale from 1 (Initial) to 5 (Transformative). One goal of MiDataHub is to move districts towards being a level 5 in an equitable manner statewide. The second tool is a
Cost Calculator
, which is inspired by our own ROI study. That tool allows districts to input a few scenarios, the cost of staff involved, and the various process steps involved. It then returns a cost for that integration, which can be eye opening. MiDataHub seeks to use interoperable standards such as Ed-Fi and IMS Global OneRoster to dramatically reduce the time and effort for each and every connection needed.
So how are we doing on this first goal of saving time and money through interoperability? The short answer is that we are doing well and that the pace is increasing rapidly. Below is a short list of data connections that are driving real value and time savings.
- To date, 462 districts are live on MiDataHub and over 1.1M students. That represents more than half of our school districts and over two thirds of the students. When it comes to ISDs and LEAs, that percentage of districts grows to over 70% of districts with live data. Further, we have at least some data loaded in fifty three of our fity six ISD regions (95%).
- More than 2,800 integrations are currently in use in MiDataHub. These represent individual connections between applications currently in use by districts. This number has tripled in the last year, and all expectations are that we will continue to see exponential growth in the coming year. The estimated value of these integrations, if each were created separately, is over $20 million, showing the real power and cost savings that is starting to be realized.
- 402 districts have in place the data hub dashboards including an Early Warning System and Intervention Catalog. This provides an equitable base level of data visualization functionality for all districts statewide.
- 246 districts have the state assessment data transfer configured. Presently, that loads data for Spring 2016 and Spring 2017 M-STEP, but it will be capable of much more very soon. By Fall, the M-STEP process should be put into place allowing Spring 2018, Spring 2019 and future years. We are working closely with CEPI, DTMB and MDE on making available SAT, PSAT 8, WIDA, MiAccess, AP and the Michigan Benchmark Assessment. These assessments are then available for use with any other system a district chooses to share the data with.
- 107 districts are configured for the MDE MiLearn System, which allows Parents, Students and Educators access to M-STEP, MiAccess and WIDA assessment data for the last 3 years from their SIS/Portal login.
- 142 districts are configured to have their NWEA Assessment data flow into their data hub database, allowing that data to show on dashboards and to be used in other systems.
- 229 districts are configured to provide up to 4 years of data to Eidex for use in their Prism tool.
- 156 districts have configured the SAS EVAAS tool, which is a free educational improvement tool funded by the MI legislature. Data hub configuration allows for teacher level performance reports to be provided through EVAAS. This is a free resource that every district should take advantage of.
- 115 districts are configured for Career Cruising and the new system they are moving to called Xello. This integration and application are also being configured to take advantage of the MiDataHub Single Sign-On.
- Speaking of the MiDataHub Single Sign-on (SSO), the list of applications leveraging the SSO continues to expand. This means that users can get to an increasing number of applications like Algebra Nation, Discovery Education, MiLearn, MiRead, MiStrategyBank, Xello and more with just one login.
- The MiDataHub SSO can be connected to district AD (Microsoft) and Google logins, so that districts can use their own logins rather than those provided by MiDataHub. There are currently 33 entities that have connected their logins, allowing more than 60 school districts to use their own logins in the MiDataHub ecosystem.
- 105 districts have signed up to use MiRead, which completely relies on MiDataHub for data. Those same 105 will also use MiStrategyBank the MiDataHub SSO.
In addition to the cost savings, the second value proposition of MiDataHub is that it helps to facilitate timely, accurate, and actionable data usage. Districts have numerous data systems. Estimates range from at least a dozen, to potentially hundreds of systems based on all the different things teachers are using in the classroom. It is a struggle to get all of the data in one place, so it can easily be accessed and used to improve educational processes. Beyond merely bridging connections between data systems, MiDataHub has become an ecosystem upon which collaborative solutions can be built that leverage the data from all connected systems. The value of this part of MiDataHub is difficult to gauge, but could easily outweigh the cost savings from time and effort managing data. Having the data in MiDataHub not only addresses current district needs, but provides the opportunity to address new issues as they arise using data already in place, rather than tackling each as a new data collection task. Here is the short list of items that have been developed and that are in process.
- MiLearn – Although referenced above as an integration, the MiLearn system was one of the earliest initiatives to leverage MiDataHub. MDE was able to quickly connect and receive data from any district regardless of SIS, as long as they were active on MiDataHub.
- Early Warning Intervention Monitoring System (EWIMS) – Leverage the early warning system and intervention catalog in the data hub dashboards, a 7-step research-based process was developed by the Great Lakes Comprehensive Center in collaboration with MDE and MiDataHub. This detailed guide, videos, resources and more are available at no cost on the MDE EWIMS web page. So often we get data systems in place, but with no plan for how to use the data to make a difference. EWIMS provides you with the plan that allows you to use the tool effectively. Look for regional training's to be held around the state this fall.
- MiRead and MiStrategyBank – In response to the 3rd grade reading law, a need for a statewide solution for creating and managing the required individual reading improvement plans (IRIPs) was identified. MiRead was developed in partnership with Ottawa Area ISD as a tool to leverage roster and assessment data held in MiDataHub to identify student literacy needs and to create a plan to address those needs. A companion tool called MiStrategyBank, created in partnership with Ingham ISD, is designed to be a repository of research and evidence-based strategies that can be easily pulled into the IRIPs created in MiRead, making the process both efficient and impactful for teachers. The system is designed in such a way that IRIPs can flow to a new district as a student moves. Both solutions leverage the MiDataHub SSO in order to make educator access as easy as possible.
- The Michigan Continuous Improvement Planning Process (MICIP) - is slated to replace the current school improvement process. Design and development have begun to design a system that will leverage the data in both MiDataHub as well as State of Michigan resources (the Statewide Longitudinal Data System, MI School Data, and others) to deliver a tool that lets districts look at the data to identify areas for improvement and develop a plan to address the identified needs. This tool could not be built as quickly or effectively if the data hubs were not available with data to populate it. This tool is expected to be ready in the Fall of 2020.
- UIC Services – While this qualifies as an integration, it is actually a part of an existing SIS integration, so it doesn’t really register as a separate integration. Where SIS vendors support it (Infinite Campus, MISTAR, PowerSchool and Skyward already do, Synergy is in process), districts can get UICs in an automated fashion as students are added, replacing the manual methods previously used to get them. This saves significant staff time and improves the accuracy of the process. More importantly, the process gets a UIC in place very quickly so that any data work going forward will have a valid UIC for the student. The service was put into place in March of 2018, and by the end of December 2018 there were over 40,000 times that the service was accessed. Expectations are that usage during the 2019 calendar will reach that number several times over as more SISs support the services and more districts take advantage of them.
- Student “Snackpack” – Part of a three-phase collaboration with CEPI, the student snackpack represents the ability to get information for a newly enrolled student for the last district a student attended. Included fields will be prior district, attendance (days attended and days enrolled), program participations such as Special Education, ELL, 504, etc., previous grade level, foster care, homeless, migrant, and special ed program details (plan dates, disability, program and service codes). The second phase (lunchbox) will include more historical information held by CEPI and the third phase (backpack) will include data from a prior district that is not state reportable, where a district chooses to make that available. The "snackpack" portion is set to pilot this fall with at least one district on one of the SISs, but it is expected that the other systems will readily adopt it shortly thereafter.
As you can see, there is already tremendous value that has been built, but that is only the tip of the iceberg. More integrations are already in place and much more is in process that will be ready for the upcoming school year. Our new
Product Catalog
is rapidly becoming the “go to” place to find out about the integrations and initiatives that you can begin to use once connected.
For those districts who are on one of the six connected systems, but still remain unconnected, we strongly recommend that you begin work to connect right away. Many districts have connected and completed extra work to back-load data as they’ve found that some vendors they work with require multiple years of information. Getting connected now, even at the end of the school year, will help to get your district up to speed with the processes for connecting, will allow for time to work through any data quality issues that are identified, and will provide the opportunity to configure usage of other systems and integrations needed. We can provide configuration assistance through our help-desk at
support@midatahub.org
and our network of more than 50 data hub support specialists at ISDs throughout the state.
If you are not sure of the status of your district, you can always find the most up to date status info on our
District Participation page
by clicking on the
"
ISD and District Status Update"
link. The spreadsheet will show if your district status is active (you signed the data hosting agreement), you are live (you have data), which school years you have data for, how many students are loaded in each year, and what state-level integrations you have in place. For privacy reasons, we don’t share out vendor proprietary status on this sheet.
Section 22m of the State School Aid Act, which provides the funding for MiDatahub, requests that we work towards 100% district adoption by September 2020. As such, we will be reaching out directly to the remaining 30% of ISDs/LEAs and 89% of PSAs that still need to connect. We want to ensure that all districts have equitable access to the growing list of benefits and that they can realize as well as the time and cost savings that will allow them to do more with the resources they have. Getting all districts connected will not be easy, and MiDataHub will not be the magic bullet for all connectivity needs. However, having all districts connected will keep the momentum going so that more systems seek to connect and that the process gets easier and more accurate over time.
From the MiDataHub team, thank you to all who have put their efforts into implementing MiDataHub statewide. It has been a collaborative effort that has spanned all levels of education, and it is a pleasure to work with all of you on streamlining the use of educational data statewide!
|
|
MiRead Closes with a Bang!
|
|
Registration for MiRead for the 2019-2020 school year closed with a bang on Saturday, June 1st with 100 districts signed
up
to use MiRead next year. This includes ISD-wide initiatives across eight ISDs, mostly in northern and western Michigan. Thanks to all of our partners who supported the creation of MiRead and the pilot districts for their time, effort, and willingness to be early adopters this year. Look for detailed information in the coming weeks.
|
|
New District Sign Ups:
- Public Schools of Petoskey
- Concord Academy of Petoskey
- Camden-Frontier School District
- Carsonville-Port Sanilac School District
- Algonac Community School District
- Charlton Heston Academy
New Live Districts:
- Camden-Frontier School District
- Carsonville-Port Sanilac School District
- Kalamazoo Public Schools
- Memphis Community Schools
- Peck Community School District
- Roscommon Area Public Schools
- West MI Academy of Environmental Science
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
