← Special Education Data System

The Director of the BCI initiated an exploration of options to improve the Special Education Program's Data System (SEDS) in order to meet several operational and performance targets.

This paper provides a general description of a project that can address the Director's initiative, based on almost of year of technical assistance to the MOE.

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Desired Capabilities/Features.

  • An electronic data management system that can be used by different users including:
    • Database Manager - extracts data from the system and prepares and submits reports
    • Data Analyst - monitors and ensures that data is entered into the system
    • Classroom Resource Teachers - monitors and ensures the IEP process is executed
    • Teachers - ensures that instruction and assessment is delivered
    • Others - Bus drivers, Therapists, etc., involved in various services
  • The system captures the critical data that is needed for
    • Upload to the MOE's SIS (Redikker).
    • Compliance and monitoring at least at the level of the current SEDS.
    • Upload to EDPASS.
    • Reported on the 17 Annual Performance Report indicators.
  • The system collects data primarily from:
    • Students - Student Info, IEP progress data
    • Teachers - IEP instruction data
    • Parents - Various surveys including involvement, satisfaction, etc.
  • MOE has full ownership of all the data in the system.
  • MOE has full capability to manipulate, extract, and reload the data in the system.
  • The system includes specific reporting capabilities. These will need to be specified by MOE, but here are examples:
    • Example 1: automated generation of tabular or export data that will be uploaded to MOE's Redikker system.
    • Example 2: automated generation triggers, warnings, and alerts in regards to compliance according to SEDS.
    • Example 3: automated generation of tabular data that will be uploaded to EDPASS.
    • Example 4: automated analysis and report generation for an APR indicator.
  • The system stores, manages, and disseminates operatonal policies and processes to facilitate staff knowledge and awareness.
  • The system allows MOE to quickly make functional changes and additions.

Scope and Size of the Project.

  • Because this is a special education program, the data collection is more than a typical Student Informatoin System. Below are some of the processes involved.
  • Initially, the primary focus is expected to be in getting the data collected and organized:
    • Currently there is no database. Data is kept on individual "flat" spreadsheets.
    • There are no electronic forms. Data is manually extracted from SEDS paper forms and typed into the spreadsheets.
    • Because the data is in standalone spreadsheets, there is a lot of duplicated data entry.
    • Data cleaning and validation is done manually.
    • Data capture is dependent on a single data entry person.

This is an overview of how a project may address the above.

  • Work with BCI to identify Key Performance Indicators (KPI) to be monitored by the system
  • Identify the SpEd data collection processes and procedures that the system will address
  • Develop a centralized database to store system data
  • Develop a data collection workflow to capture data into the database.
  • Develop a workflow to analyze data from the database and report on the progress of the KPIs.
  • Develop an application (eg., a web application) that enables SpEd accountable professionals and staff to collect data and generate reports.