One of the questions we hear is “how do we know OSSE data is accurate?” The quick answer is that OSSE does not publish anything without confirming its accuracy. Collecting, confirming and publishing data is a year-round process that is divided into three distinct efforts:
- The Annual Enrollment Audit & Child Count
- Data Validation
- Metric Calculation Confirmation (MCC)
Data Validation is the process OSSE uses to work with local education agency (LEA) data managers to review, resolve and confirm the accuracy of student and teacher data for every public school in the District. As DC’s education data collection and reporting hub, OSSE collects data several different ways ranging from a daily student attendance feed to once-annual statewide assessment results. LEAs use a variety of different student information systems (SIS) to collect, store and share their own data with OSSE, so OSSE consolidates these data into a centralized, secure and accessible platform for LEAs to work.
At the opening of the Data Validation window, OSSE sends tables and visualizations to each LEA. LEAs have a few weeks to review everything and, if they see something wrong or have a question, they can ask OSSE for help to fix the problem. At the end of that support window, LEA Heads of School officially sign off and certify the accuracy of their data, giving OSSE permission to proceed with publication. These data are then considered authoritative.
To narrow the focus on the most important issues, OSSE runs a number of data checks to catch and flag potential errors and inconsistencies. Some examples of issues that we resolve during Data Validation are:
- Missing attendance codes (i.e., the reason why a student was absent)
- Errors in economically disadvantaged designations for students
- Discrepancies in student information such as English learner status
As you can probably tell, this process gets down to the nitty gritty. OSSE and LEA data managers spend a lot of time and care talking about individual students to make sure that they are accurately represented in our data. OSSE appreciates all of the hard work from our LEAs to make it happen every year!
If this post made you want to learn more, we have more for you to read! OSSE’s full Data Validation Policy and other supporting documents are available on our website.
