(Washington, DC) The Office of the State Superintendent of Education (OSSE), today announced that the US Department of Education has awarded the District $5.7 million for the design and implementation of a student longitudinal data system. The District of Columbia and 12 states received the awards. The OSSE will manage the grant.
Ranging from $3.2 million to $6 million and extend for three years, the grants are intended to help the states generate and use accurate and timely data to: improve student achievement, meet federal reporting requirements, support decision-making, and aid education research.
Deborah A. Gist, DC State Superintendent of Education, states, “I am pleased that the US Department of Education has awarded this grant to the District of Columbia. Components of the data warehouse have been spread out throughout the city among our various education entities—DCPS, the public charter schools, early childhood programs, and adult education at UDC. The statewide system will bring these siloed systems together into a single data ware house which will house public education data down to the student level and over time. The grant provides the District with a new opportunity to provide a comprehensive, statewide approach to student data.”
The grants are authorized by the Educational Technical Assistance Act of 2002, Title II, of the statute that created the Institute of Education Sciences, which is the research, evaluation and statistical arm of the US Department of Education. All 50 states, five territories, and the District of Columbia were eligible to apply. Grantees were selected in a competition based on the merit of their proposals and funds available. The proposals were assessed based on aspects such as the need for the project, the quality of the project's design, and the quality of the management plan. Further, peer reviewers looked at how the respective projects promoted the timely generation of accurate data for local, state, and federal reporting requirements. The grantees will be expected to submit annual and final reports on the status of the development and the implementation of these systems.
For more information regarding the Office of the State Superintendent of Education, please visit the agency’s website at http://osse.dc.gov .