Arizona Department of Education (ADE) Automation Plan

Arizona Department of Education (ADEi) Automation Plan
Vito Amato
January 16, 1996

Introduction

The following automation plan for the Arizona Department of Education represents the technological medium through which Superintendent of Public Instruction Lisa Graham's vision of Access to Extraordinary Education by Arizona students may be realized. The primary goal of any department plan is to contribute toward the end result of improved academic achievement for each student in Arizona.

Toward this end Lisa Graham has developed and presented an Education Finance Reform Plan to create true equity and local control through financial and academic accountability at the level closest to the student. Itsi tenets of current-year funding directly to schools and financial and academic information systems at the school level create a need for automated systems. These systems would collect student enrollment, school level academic and fiscal information, and report information on a real-time basis to all concerned with education of Arizona’s students.

Objectives

Better data for education policy making

Automated data collection and access to current relevant student achievement and school funding information will provide educators, parents and the communityi with measures of how efficiently and effectively we are teaching Arizona students. From this information legislators, administrators, and educators can make more informed policy decisions.

The quality of education data will improve dramatically as the use of data motivates everyone toward accuracy, and the source of data becomes the information systems at schools.

Community access to education information to support community involvement

When educators, news media, researchers, parents and others need information, they will access data directly through an electronic network, in their own homes or offices. School level academic and fiscal information will allow parents to make more educated decisions about which school environment will best educate their children. In addition, information will support the communities, efforts to contribute to education in their neighborhoods.

Reduced paperwork and costs of student data collection

A 1992 study by the California Department of Education indicated that they conduct forty-four independent data collections from schools, districts and county offices each fiscal year which are estimated to cost an average of $35 million statewide. The study also estimated that current state reporting costs for schools and districts could be reduced by more than 80 percent by retrieving existing information electronically in local student information systems similar to this proposal.

With this system, schools won't have to fill out forms, most of the existing data collection will be automated. Schools and school districts will not complain of the paperwork burden imposed on them, because most of it will be transparent to them--accomplished as routine within their own automated information systems.

Schools will improve more quickly

With an open information system informing decision making, improvements in the quality of instruction and management of schools will occur at an accelerated pace.

Current year funding

Automated tracking of student information will allow for more accurate and timely school funding. The funding will follow the student.

Mobile student information can be effectively transferred between schools

Mobile student transcript information will be transferred electronically between schools. Student identifiers will allow for the easy tracking of students on a state and national level.

Background

Historically, the Arizona Department of Education has collected and processed information from the school districts in the state for purposes of funding, planning, and to meet State and Federal reporting requirements. The various data systems to collect the data were developed for each individual State or Federal program in isolation of other existing programs. This disparate system development has created islands of unrelated and duplicate data within the department. The impact on schools and districts has been that they receive multiple and duplicate uncoordinated data requests from State and Federal agencies, which limits their ability to focus on their main responsibility, teaching.

The primary medium used to collect data from schools has been paper. In 1991 the ADE began collecting some of this data electronically by way of magnetic media such as diskettes and tapes. Whether submitting data by paper or magnetic media, this process requires districts to summarize their data in reports rather than simply submitting the raw data from which the reports are compiled.

The current data collection process is burdensome for schools, school districts and the ADE. School districts are required to complete lengthy forms to provide mandated data. Then ADE staff must verify the information submitted by school districts, then key much of the information into an automated information system.

In addition, because data is collected at different intervals from multiple sources it is difficult to develop accurate statistical information such as drop out rates and graduation rates.

The public has no ability to access the information that the ADE collects.

Proposed Solution

In recognition of both the drawbacks of the current procedures, the need to review the School Finance system, and the fact that other states and the federal government are making strides toward new models of education information exchange, the ADE conceived the idea of a new automated system. This vision involves one interrelated automated education data exchange system composed of public school student, financial and human resource data. Such a system will allow schools to electronically submit raw data rather than summary reports on paper or diskette. This method of reporting will facilitate better and more efficient ways of analyzing, publishing and reporting to the federal government required information after it is collected. The implementation of such an automated system will also provide the ADE and the public with more accurate up-to-date information on the academic performancei of students within Arizona as well as the information necessary to make payments to schools based upon current student counts rather than a formula based on prior year school counts.

This vision will also enable parents and the community to examine school performance indicators. For example, if a parent wants information on how much money a particular school spends on technology and how high the student achievement levels of that school are, then all the parent would have to do is access the information via the Internet.

Vito Amato, Director of Management Information Systems
Arizona Department of Education
1535 West Jefferson Avenue
Phoenix, AZ 85007      602-542-7886
vamato@ade.state.az.us