Education Data Dashboard
Pilot Project
PROJECT MANAGEMENT PLAN
(PMP)
Executive Sponsor –Hanna Skandera, Secretary of Education
Agency Owner – Hipolito J. Aguilar, Deputy Secretary
Business Owner –Michael Archibeque
Project Manager – Brian Salter
Original Plan Date: November 1, 2012
Revision: 1
1.0 Project Overview
1.1 Executive Summary- rationale for the Project
The Public Education Department (PED) currently collects education data from all school districts within the state of New Mexico. This data has traditionally been collected and analyzed to meet state and federal reporting mandates. PED’s administration has directed that PED IT begin to look at any and all technological avenues for dissemination of data to the front-line providers of education. PED leadership developed a plan with the Michael & Susan Dell Foundation to leverage their Ed-Fi PoweredDashboard system to bring data into the classroom to support daily education decisions.The foundation offers the data dashboard source code and data set at no charge to the PED. The Ed-FiPowered Dashboardsare a secure, FERPA-compliant online system that can display student, staff and other educational data to teachers and school, district, and state administrators in a timely, reliable, and easy-to-use manner. This will allow for teachers, principals, superintendants and other educational support staff to have relevant information at their workstations.
This effort will build upon a previous contract, wholly funded by the Michael & Susan Dell Foundationand performed by a vendor (Double Line Partners), to map the data elements between the dashboard application’sdata structures and the New Mexico Student Teacher Accountability Reporting System (STARS). This project was successful and produced a clear mapping of data elements that New Mexico currently can provide to power several critical metrics on the dashboards. The mapping of the data systems alsoprovided a clear window into the limitations of what can be powered due to lack of data currently collected centrally in a timely, consistent manner. Based on the Michael & Susan Dell Foundation’s experience implementing dashboards in other states, capturing limited additional data on course attendance, program participation, and school calendar would bring significant incremental value to classroom teachers and school administrators.
As a first step toward a successful statewide implementation of the Ed-Fi Solution, this project seeks to execute a pilot implementation with 3 districts (Farmington, Portales, and Rio Rancho)that would make good partners. These districts should be willing to provide additional key data elements to supplement the STARS system data, and as a result will immediately gain additional high-value analysis capabilities through the dashboards that are not possible today. The pilot will prove out an implementation, training, and roll-out process. Incorporating lessons-learned from a successful pilot, PED will then seek to replicate the process statewide per an incremental roll-out plan of all districts and charter districts that are willing to participate.
At the conclusion of this project, critical data to support daily education decisions will be available to classroom teachers and school administrators across the state. New Mexico will realize benefits from empowered teachers, principals, and superintendents that have been seen in other states after implementing the Ed-Fi Powered Dashboards.
1.2 Project Approach Detail
Overall Project Structure
Mapping & Analysis Phase
This phase is complete and was funded by the Michael & Susan Dell Foundation, executed by Double Line Partners with subject matter expertise provided by PED staff.
The Mapping & Analysis phase focused on mapping data elements between the dashboard application’s data structures and the New Mexico Student Teacher Accountability Reporting System (STARS). For data elements that New Mexico already has centralized,this phase produced a clear mapping to power critical metrics on the dashboards.
The mapping of the data elements also provided a clear path to enriching data analysis capabilities by collecting a limited set of key missing data elements.Based on the experience of Double Line Partners, who has implemented education data dashboards in other states, capturing this limited additional data would bring significant incremental value to classroom teachers and school administrators. Specifically, Double Line Partners recommended the collection of the following data elements not already collected today:
- School calendar
- Section attendance
- Section tardiness
Additionally, Double Line Partners recommended increasing the reporting frequency of the following data elements already collected today:
- Discipline incidents
- School attendance
- School tardiness
- Section grades
Targeted Pilot Phase
Approach
To ensure a successful statewide implementation, this project will first execute a pilot implementation with 3 districts or district charters that would make good partners.
Pilot partnership criteria include:
- Have a high desire and willingness to participate, with a committed internal champion identified
- Use a Student Information System that is used by a number of other school districts in New Mexico
- Have characteristics (e.g., demography, school size) representative of a large subgroup of school districts in New Mexico
These districts should be willing to provide additional key data elements to supplement the STARS system data, and as a result will immediately gain additional high-value analysis capabilities that are not possible today. The pilot will prove out an implementation, training, and roll-out process. Incorporating lessons-learned from a successful pilot, PED will then be in a position to replicate the process statewide per an incremental roll-out plan of all districts and charter districts that are willing to participate.
The pilot will involve engagement of stakeholders at the selected districts to identify that the student-level metrics and dashboard features most necessary to meet their needs. Initial functionality of the dashboards will be limited to that core set of student- and classroom-level metrics and features (to be expanded after statewide rollout, including enabling campus-level and district-level screens). The pilot will involve partnering with the vendors of the Student Information Systems (SIS) used by the pilot districts to build data connectors between each district’s SIS and Ed-Fi.
The pilot districts will be:
District / Rationale for Inclusion / Student Information System / District Champion / Participation Agreement SignedRio Rancho Public Schools / Rio Rancho is a small district in terms of students, geography, and school count. They have sufficient technology staff to support the pilot and a strong willingness to participate. Additionally, proximity to Albuquerque will help with subsequent Albuquerque training and rollout. / Power School / TBD / 5/27/2013
Portales Municipal Schools / Portales is a medium sized district and borders Texas, thus having a significant number of students that transfer into and out of the New Mexico system. Knowing this characteristic often includes unique technical considerations, it is important to include a border district in the pilot. / Power School / TBD / 5/27/2013
Farmington Municipal Schools / Farmington is a large district and borders Colorado, thus having a significant number of students that transfer into and out of the New Mexico system. / Power School / TBD / 5/27/2013
Albuquerque
The Albuquerque Public Schools (APS) district represents one third of the students and one fifth of the schools in the New Mexico public schools system. Dialog with APS will start prior to the beginning of the pilot. While success of the overall project is contingent upon the successful dashboard implementation in APS, the district’s size makes it difficult to include as a pilot district. Instead, the dashboards will be implemented in APS as soon as the implementation process is proven.
This plan is contingent on APS signing a letter of intent to participating early in the statewide rollout if the pilot is successful. During the pilot, PED will keep APS stakeholders updated on progress and solicit feedback on the pilot implementation with respect to special considerations for a district the size of APS. Rollout to APS will happen in its own phase and will have multiple neighboring partner districts.
Timeline
The pilot will be executed over a period of approximately 8 months.
Resources
The pilot implementation will be led by PED staff with data analysis, business analysis, and development resources provided by a vendor (to be selected).
Statewide Rollout Phase
Approach
The purpose of the pilot is to prove out a rollout process that can be replicated statewide. Even with a proven process, statewide rollout must be executed at a careful pace to ensure suitable setup and training time to drive adoption rates, while at the same time being mindful of the relationship between longer and more costly rollout cycles.
An example statewide rollout sequence is included in Appendix B. The statewide rollout sequence will be solidified during the Pilot phase, based on the following criteria:
- Student Information System: Implementation at a district will require new data transfers from its schools’ Student Information Systems (SIS) to the centralized data store. When adding a district would introduce a new SIS to the rollout, consideration must be made for the time and effort involved in creating an Ed-Fi connector for this SIS. Therefore, districts using the same SIS would make a natural grouping for a rollout phase.
- Student Population:In order to establish a stable rollout both from a trained user adoption and system load standpoint, phases will be constructed based on the size of the student population covered. The percentage of the New Mexico total student population covered by the rollout should steadily increase with each phase. Densely populated districts, like Albuquerque Public Schools, will cause the student population coverage to spike and should be added in in their own phase.
- Commitment Level: Because adding a district to the implementation requires communications and training effort, technology work, systems testing, and other steps, significant preference will be given to districts that show strong commitment to implementation and advocating use of the system throughout the district.
- Participation in a Regional Education Cooperative: A preference will be given to districts that participate in a Regional Education Cooperative, as implementation will build momentum for expanding to other districts within the REC.
- Willingness to Partner with Other Districts: Critical to scaling any effort is establishing a growing user community that can provide a first level of support to each other during daily use. Significant preference will be given to districts that are willing to be a resource for later districts in the rollout sequence. For more information, see the “District Partnering” section below.
- Geography and Logistics: In many cases, adding a district to the implementation will require on-site visits for training and other coordination meetings. Geography and other logistical considerations will create natural groupings of districts for a rollout phase. Additionally, proximity to districts already using the system will offer natural partner districts that will increase the support resources for the newly added districts.
- Common Characteristics: School districts with common characteristics will create natural groupings of districts for a rollout phase. For example, districts that border Texas will have a higher percentage of students transferring in and out of the New Mexico public schools system; it may make sense to add many such schools in the same phase.
Partial data for the above criteria is represented in Appendix A and will be updated as the project moves forward.
Training the Trainers
With each new district, the project team will seek to train 25 to 30 key individuals in the district on setup and use of the dashboards. These individuals will then be point-people within the district to lead school staff trainings and offer initial support during the rollout. They will be responsible for escalating support issues to their partner district, to the user community, and then to the project team.
District Partnering
Key to the success of the statewide rollout is the concept of newly added districts partnering with districts already using the system. The veteran district will act as a resource to the newly added district for training support, configuration help, and usage questions. PED can offer top-tier support for those questions and issues that cannot be resolved by a district’s partner district or the user community. This approach enables the system to scale to a statewide implementation without the need to increase support staff commensurately or strain existing staff at PED.
Timeline
Statewide rollout will be executed over a period of approximately 18-24 months.
Resources
The pilot implementation will be led by PED staff with data analysis, business analysis, and development resources provided by a vendor (to be selected).
Post-rollout Vision
The post-rollout vision involves improving the state of data consistency and availability across districts and moving New Mexico PED’s data analytics capabilities forward along the Education Data Maturity Model. Specifically, PED wants to move forward on the following dimensions:
Dimension / Current State / Future StateData Availability / State assigns student unique identity and starts to collect limited student-level data (e.g. demographics, assessment). / State collects statewide-consistent grades, statewide-consistent credits and academic record, and discipline data.
Update Timeliness / Up to one-year lag (specific reporting periods) / Up to one-day lag (nightly updates).
Function / Accountability reports driven off of a central data store. / Daily decision-making supported by data as a primary tool.
Users / State, district, & local administrators, power user teachers. / State & local administrators as well as all teachers to support daily decision-making.
Data Architecture / Consolidated data model, with historical snapshots / Differentiated data models for operational data store, data warehouse (longitudinal), reporting data marts (snapshotted)
The statewide rollout provides the backbone upon which the full data management vision may be built:
- Make Full Use of Dashboard Functionality: While the dashboards were rolled out statewide with limited functionality defined in the pilot phase, the Ed-Fi Powered Dashboards offer many additional metrics and features which benefit teachers and administrators. Leveraging the data transfers that will be in place post-rollout between all participating schools and the centralized data store, additional data elements will be added to power the remaining metrics and features.
- Incorporate Feedback from Users: With teachers and administrators using the dashboards statewide, additional customization may be identified. Using the Ed-Fi Powered Dashboards extensibility capability, those customizations that will most impact education outcomes will be added to the system.
- Build Training and Promotion Materials: In order to drive adoption and train new teachers and administrators, re-usable training materials will be produced. Materials and events (e.g., webinars) will be used to establish the dashboards as a tool helpful in daily decision-making of front-line educators.
1.3 Funding
This plan has the following approximate funding requirements. PED understands that for this project to be successful, it will need to offer direct funds and seek supplemental funding.
Project Chapter / Approximate Funding Requirement / Funding Source(s)Mapping & Analysis / N/A / This portion of the project was funded by a grant from the Michael & Susan Dell Foundation.
Pilot / $750,000 / Because PED is committed to this effort, PED will fund at least $250,000 directly from existing sources. PED will apply for a grant for remaining funds from the Michael & Susan Dell Foundation.
Statewide Rollout / $2,000,000[1] / By the end of 2013, PED will submit a 2014 SLDS Grant application to the Institute of Education Sciences for the full funding requirement of the Statewide Rollout and Post-Rollout Vision.
Post-Rollout Vision / TBD
1.4 dependencies
Types include the following and should be associated with each dependency listed.
- Mandatory dependencies are dependencies that are inherent to the work being done.
- D- Discretionary dependencies are dependencies defined by the project management team. This may also encompass particular approaches because a specific sequence of activities is preferred, but not mandatory in the project life cycle.
- E-External dependencies are dependencies that involve a relationship between project activities and non-project activities such as purchasing/procurement
Number / Description / Type M,D,E
1 / PEd will need 3 districtS to Participate with the project. THis will require exports and imports into the Data DashbOard / M
2 / PED will need to provide hardware and the INFRASTRUCTURE for reliable access to the system / M
3 / Pilot districts will provide staff to manage the local aspects of the data dashboard / M
1.5 ASSUMPTIONS
Assumptions are planning factors that, for planning purposes, will be considered true, real, or certain.
Number / Description1 / The Data Dashboard system infrastructure will reside within PED’s Educational User Interface domain at the State data center.
2 / PED personnel will provide overall management of system.
1.6 Initial Project Risks Identified
In this section identify and describe how each risk will be managed. Include the steps that will be taken to maximize activity that will result in minimizing probability and impact of each risk.
District Buy in
This project must have the support of the pilot district from the superintendent level to the teacher and technical staff level / ProbabilityPreliminary discussion with districts / Impact
Mitigation Strategy
Contingency Plan
PED may need to reduce the number of pilot districts in order to prevent scope creep and ensure the project success. Problems can be solved with district with a greater level of efficiency with a small group of pilot districts
2.0 Project Authority and Organizational Structure
2.1 Stakeholders
name / Stake in Project / Organization / TitleHanna Skandera / Executive Sponsor / PED / Secretary
Michael Archibeque / Business Owner / PED / CIO
Brian Salter / Project Manager / PED / IT Business Analyst
Andy Hutton / Technical Lead / PED / IT System Architect
Dr. Pete Goldschmidt / Executive Team / PED / Assessment
Leighann Lenti / Executive Team / PED / Policy
Matt Montano / Executive Team / PED / Licensure
Tony Gerlicz / Executive Team / PED / Charter
Denise Koscielnaik / Executive Team / PED / Federal
District Liaison / Local Development & Administration / TBD / TBD
District Liaison / Local Development & Administration / TBD / TBD
District Liaison / Local Development & Administration / TBD / TBD
District Liaison / Local Development & Administration / TBD / TBD
District Liaison / Local Development & Administration / TBD / TBD
Other Stakeholders
Other Stakeholders
Other Stakeholders
Other Stakeholders