1998 EdTech Update Report
IMS Report
The IMS is radically changing the way the ESE conducts business. Early indicators show that collecting and storing data electronically is a dramatic improvement over paper systems.
The Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education is developing a comprehensive, web-based information system to replace the paper-based data collection and information system that is currently used to exchange information between the Department and school districts. The new system is being designed to fulfill the accountability requirements of the Education Reform Act and to improve the timeliness and accuracy of information. The goals of the Information Management System are to:
- Improve data collection methodology by
- reducing or eliminating paper-based systems;
- Shift from reliance on school and/or district aggregate data to individual student data;
- Track students within and across districts over time; and
- Reassign ownership of data from the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education to districts.
IMS Systems - IMS Development
The IMS consists of four strands:
- District Information Management System (DIMS)
- Student Information Management System (SIMS)
- Personnel Information Management System (PIMS)
- Administration Information Management System (AIMS)
These strands represent different aspects of the education process in Massachusetts. Each has particular requirements that will be addressed by the development of software applications.
District IMS (DIMS)
The focus of the DIMS is on developing "Smart Forms" (web forms that validate data before it is submitted to the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education) to replace existing data collection forms. The Smart Forms will be implemented for all school or district-based data collection, such as for grants management or the child nutrition program.
In the short term, Smart Forms will be used as an interim step for those data collections that involve counts of students in aggregated form. Districts that are not ready to transmit individual student data to the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education will use Smart Form versions of existing student data collections, such as the Individual School Report.
The first Smart Form, the Technology Plan Update, required as part of the application for the FY'99 Technology Grant, was implemented in April, 1998. The End of Year forms—School Attending Children and Special Education Exit Data—were available as Smart Forms in June/July 1998. The FY'99 Smart Forms are scheduled to be available as listed on the following page.
Student Information Management System (SIMS)
The SIMS is intended to collect the information necessary to meet mandated State and Federal reporting and to support Education Reform requirements for student assessment and evaluation of school programs. For example, the most significant of these requirements - the MCAS - creates the need for the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education to collect information about individual students since MCAS results will be used to certify each student's eligibility for a high school diploma.
Consequently, the SIMS must be able to track individual students across the state over time in order to match students with tests scores and other pertinent data. In addition, the Education Reform Act's accountability and program evaluation requirements can be satisfied only with information on each student and the programs in which the student is involved.
The SIMS consists of four components:
State Student Registration will register each student with a state-assigned identification (SASID) number, using a locally-assigned student identification number (LASID), first name, middle name, last name, gender, date of birth and place of birth to establish uniqueness for each student. The Student Filter will allow districts to consolidate, validate and transmit files that contain the 35 data elements that must be collected, maintained and submitted for each student who enrolls in a district during a school year. These data elements have been specified in the "Data Standards Hand book for the Massachusetts Student Information Management System" that was distributed to Superintendents in October. Student Reconciliation will validate the student data at the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education and reconcile inconsistencies for student records across all districts in Massachusetts. Student Publication will manage requests for data, extracting and aggregating the data as appropriate, and make the data available for use.
The FY'99 plans for the SIMS include the development of the State Student Registration application and the Student Filter to support the submission of individual student data in the 1999-2000 school year. The schedule for SIMS roll-out is listed below:
| SIMS Schedule |
|---|
| State Student Registration to assign identification numbers to all students | September, 1999 |
| Submission of Category 1 Data Elements using the Student Filter | Fall 1999 |
Personnel Information Management System
 The PIMS will include the existing certification and recertification systems as well as systems to collect individual staff data to support State and Federal reporting requirements. Current development efforts focus on the migration of the existing systems to a new platform and ensuring that the systems are Year 2000 compliant. In addition, aggregate data collection forms that involve district staff will be converted to Smart Forms prior to the development of the individual staff system.
Administration Information Management System (AIMS)
The AIMS involves several internal Department of Elementary and Secondary Education components as well as those components required to administer the IMS across all districts. For example, the AIMS must provide security in order to meet the Department's ethical and legal responsibility to protect the confidentiality and the integrity of the data collected. During the 1998-99 school year, the current two-tiered user name and passwords will evolve into a distributed security administration and management protocol that will support the assignment of user names and passwords, the authentication of user access, the management of application authorities, privileges and permissions and the identification of user roles.
Security for the IMS will be accomplished by a combination of technical and policy mechanisms that will be designed to protect the information without destroying its utility. Technical approaches to security, such as encryption, will be utilized where appropriate, and the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education will implement policies to control access to data.
IMS Implementation - IMS Rollout
The implementation of the IMS in Massachusetts school districts has been supported by ten field technologists since the fall of 1996. These ten field technologists, combined with a District Roll-out Team Leader and a Training Manager, constitute the IMS Roll-out Team. Each field technologist provides training and support services to about 37 school districts. These services include analysis of each district's readiness to participate in the IMS, assistance in upgrading browsers to a minimum standard, browser training, technical support for completing Smart Forms, and detailed analysis and assistance for meeting the Category 1 Data Standards.
In the 1998-99 school year, the District Roll-out effort will focus on assisting districts in:
- The collection and maintenance of the directory data elements required for the State Student Registration that will assign an identification number to each student in Massachusetts;
- Implementation of the Smart Forms as the mandatory process for submitting data to the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education;
- Implementation of the distributed username and password system to provide secure access to Department of Elementary and Secondary Education applications; and
- The collection and maintenance of data as specified by the Category 1 Data Standards for the SIMS.
During the past two years, the Roll-out team has conducted site visits to each of the operational districts to determine their current technological status relative to the IMS and to provide information related to Educational Technology. These site visits also set the stage for the development of the District Implementation Plans specific to each district. These plans outline the goals and objectives the district must meet in order to implement the SIMS. During the winter of 1999, Field Technologists will be reviewing these plans with the districts.
| To Prepare for the roll-out of these two SIMS applications, districts must have: |
|---|
| Need: | DATE |
| 1. Access to the Internet and a computer capable of running Internet Explorer 4.0 or Netscape 4.0 | Now |
| 2. A unique, unduplicated and permanent locally assigned identification number for each student | Spring 1999 |
| 3. The seven data elements required to participate in the State Student Registration - first name, middle name, last name, gender, date of birth and city/town of birth (in required format) | June 1999 |
| 4. The data represented by the Category 1 Data Standards for each student | Fall 1999 |
| SmartForm Schedule: |
|---|
| Form: | | Availability |
| Technology Profile Update FY'99 | District/School | October |
| Mathematics, Science & Technology Survey | District/School | October |
| Foundation Enrollment Form | District | October |
| Special Education Federal Child Count | District | December |
| Student Exclusion Form | School | January/99 |
| Grants RF-1 | District | Spring/99 |
| School Attending Children | District | Spring/99 |
| Special Education Exit Data Collection | District | End of Year |
| Year End School Indicator Report | District | End of Year |
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last updated: January 1, 1998
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