Wisconsin’s School

Performance Report

Redesign

Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction125 S. Webster St.P.O. Box 7841Madison, WI 53707-7841

John T. BensonState Superintendent

Presented byLinda Zach

• The Wisconsin Department of Public (DPI) outlined two major phases for data development.

• SPR data collection software revisions incorporated changes in state law, new reporting requirements from the Office of Special Education Programs (OSEP), and changes in data definitions adopted by DPI in order to comply with recommendations from NCES.

• Streamlining the processes by which the data collected are summarized, published, and made available to the public.

• This process allowed the department to eliminate a data cycle, which included updating a software program and distributing 426+ diskettes to education agencies.

SPR Data Collection Software

• First implemented in1992

• Electronic collection

• The software did not function consistently for all users, creating an undue burden on end-users and DPI staff providing technical support.

• Data collection software was recompiled using Clarion, version 4.

• Software and hardware technology changes prompted to run under the Windows environment (16 and 32 bit) instead of the DOS environment.

• DPI revised the SPR to incorporate changes in federal, state law, and to comply with data definitions with the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES).

• Dropouts: The department changed the definition of dropout to conform with NCES.

• Graduation rate: The calculation is the number of graduates divided by the sum of graduates plus dropouts over four years (9DRS are 9th-grade dropouts three years ago, etc.). Graduates / (Graduates + 9DRS + 10DRS + 11DRS + 12DRS)

• Habitual Truancy: The Wisconsin Legislature, in 1997 Wisconsin Act 239, changed the definition of habitual truancy. "A habitual truant means a pupil who is absent from school without an acceptable excuse for part or all of 5 or more days on which school is held during a school semester."

SPR Data Collection Revisions

• Dropouts and Graduates: are collected by disability.• Expulsions: are collected by disability. Additionally, expulsions

are divided into those that are weapon or drug related, and those that are not.

• Unduplicated Count of Expulsions: unduplicated count, by grade, gender, race, and disability, of the number of students expelled one or more times for any reason during the school year.

• Out-of-School Suspensions: are collected by disability and by whether 10 days or < 10 days or > 10 days. Additionally, suspensions are divided into those that are weapon or drug related, and those that are not.

• Unduplicated Count of Suspensions: unduplicated count, by disability, of the number of students suspended one or more times for any reason during the school year.

SPR Data Collection Revisions for Special Education

• Unilateral Removals—now called Interim Alternative Educational Settings (IAES): instances in which school personnel (not the IEP team) order the removal of children with disabilities from their current educational placements to an appropriate IAES for not more than 45 days due to weapon or drug related acts. All removal data is collected by grade, race, gender, and disability.

• Unduplicated Count of IAES: unduplicated count of students removed by school personnel to an IAES.

• Removals, Drug Related: total number of removals resulting from drug related acts.

• Removals, Weapon Related: total number of removals resulting from weapon related acts.

SPR Data Collection Revisions for Special Education

• Multiple Short-Term Suspensions Summing to > 10 days: Unduplicated count of students subject to multiple short-term suspensions (each 10 days or fewer) summing to greater than 10 days. This data is collected by grade, race, gender and disability.

• Removals due to Hearing Officer Determination: unduplicated count of students with disabilities removed from their current education placement to an appropriate IAES based on a hearing officer’s determination.

• Unduplicated Count for Federal Reporting: unduplicated count of children with disabilities subject to a unilateral removal (IAES), a long-term suspension/expulsion for non-drug and weapon related incidents, or multiple short-term suspensions for non-drug or weapon related summing to greater than 10 days. Each student is counted only once regardless of type of disciplinary action. This information cannot be derived from the other data in the suspension/expulsion file.

SPR Data Collection Revisions for Special Education

• The SPR Web application was developed using Active Service Page (ASP) technology, Microsoft's solution for creating database driven Web applications.

• Through simple interaction with standard HTML form controls users pass search criteria to the Web server.

• The server, in turn, passes these variables to the Oracle data warehouse in the form of a query.

• Oracle returns the resultant data set to the Web server where it is formatted using standard HTML tags and this page is then sent to the client's browser.

• Because no client-side processing occurs, the application is compatible with a wide variety of browser brands and versions.

Streamlining the Publishing Process

Internet

Firewall

Firew

all

Demilitarized Zone (DMZ)

Network

Production InformationServer (IIS)(Leonardo)

OracleData warehouse

(Venus)

OracleData warehouse

(Saturn)

Environment

Venus data warehouse is refreshed nightly from the Saturn data warehouse.

A firewall is a program that protects the resources of one network from users from other networks.

DMZ is a network added between a protected network and an external network in order to provide an additional layer of security.

The Flow of the SPR Web Application

Internet

Client

DPI - DMZ Domain

Venus Receives Request

Finds Files

Interprets ASP(gets data if

necessary from Oracle)

Sends files back to client

Leonardo

Data returned

Data request

Default.asp

Topselect.asp

Sprframeinit.htm

Noframe.asp

Direct.asp

Various Reports

Active Server Pages

Various Reports

Frames No Frames

Various ReportsACT Advanced Coursework

Advanced Placement Test Attendance

Dropouts Expulsions

Extra/Co-Curricular Activities District Cost

District Revenues Graduation

Habitual Truancy High School Grad. Requirements

Open Enrollment (Part-time) Postgraduation Intentions

Pupil/Staff Ratios Retentions

School-Sponsored Community Act. Suspensions (Out-of-School)

The application can be accessed at www2.dpi.state.wi.us/spr

Future Plans• DPI identified the creation of a web-based collection tool as a high

priority, but this goal has yet to be realized. It is feasible to expect all of Wisconsin’s education agencies to report data via the web.

• DPI cannot proceed with the development of its secure data collection environment until we know what hardware and software we will need to interface with the state's e-government environment.

• The state of Wisconsin is currently working on a plan that will allow customers to authenticate to the state's e-government applications through a common Novell directory structure.

• Under this plan a person could conceivably sign into the system and apply for a fishing license with the Department of Natural Resources and then go to the Department of Public Instruction and apply for a teacher's license without having to re-authenticate. The state hopes to have its e-government architecture proof of concept testing done by August 2001.

• DPI will have to migrate Oracle from a Netware platform to a MS 2000 platform by December 31, 2001 due to Novell's not supporting Oracle on Netware.

• Using Oracle on Novell, we could not easily configure an environment that would allow us to write 2-tier ASP applications from our IIS server which resides in the DMZ to our production Oracle database, which is secure inside our LAN environment. Currently we only collect non-confidential data and store it on an Oracle server which resides in the DMZ. Under Oracle on MS 2000, we will be able to do so.

Future Plans

Questions

Thank you and enjoy the rest of the conference.