Executive Summary

Executive Summary for DataWarehouse and Web DataPortal - http://goo.gl/cR2jHk

Why is this necessary?

The Ardent ISD has a clear and urgent need to institute a data warehouse that is easily accessible by district/campus level staff. All Curriculum Department Offices, as well as Business and campus level staff, have need for a locally-controlled, central repository of all--Eduphoria Aware only provides some access--student/staff data, making it a time-consuming (e.g. hours to weeks) chore to correlate data from multiple sources (e.g. SMI/SRI and STAAR). Lack of a customizable data aggregation and reporting functions that are automated and easy to produce, force reliance on a single person to generate reports (e.g. DropOut Reports) for various locations. Staff spend hours per day, even weeks, tracking and sifting through data to create end of course (EOC) student lists that could be generated with a custom query that had access to all data sources. Furthermore, staff must keep track of alternative measures using Excel spreadsheets, which they assert is time-consuming and error-prone.

The District currently has to provide ALL or nothing access via Open DataBase Compliant (ODBC) connection to staff, making it difficult to grant general users access to a subset of sensitive, confidential data they need to work. This means that both district and campus staff have to correlate data between iTCCS and vendor systems--whose disparate systems are unable to “talk to each other”--to get the results needed to serve special populations.

What happens if we don’t implement?

If nothing is done, increasing demands for data-driven decision-making on the part of Curriculum and Campus staff will result in inaccurate decisions that impact student achievement, children's lives.

How will we measure success?

Success is achieved when obstacles to data-driven decision-making outlined in the needs are are addressed.

When will this happen?

Pending budget approval, this would be put in place during the 2013-2014 school year.