Longitudinal Data System Overview

What is Wisconsin’s Longitudinal Data System (LDS) Project?
The Wisconsin Longitudinal Data System (LDS) Project is intended to create tools to facilitate data-driven decision-making for school and district improvement, and to assist educators looking to raise individual student achievement and close achievement gaps.

The value of longitudinal data is widely recognized, and the federal government, in particular, encourages the analysis of student-level information, over time. The U.S. Department of Education Institute for Education Sciences (IES) sponsors the State Longitudinal Data System Grant Program. Funding from that program allowed for the initial development of our LDS (with a grant for 2005-2009), and continues to support the development of additional LDS applications and data capacities (with our current grant, received in mid-2009). With new initiatives and momentum, DPI recently (December 2009) applied for a third federal grant to enable Wisconsin to advance and enrich our current LDS work.

Current key components of Wisconsin's LDS:

A comprehensive data warehouse storing student and school data from a variety of sources
A security application (Access Manager) that ensures only authorized personnel view confidential data
Secured reporting tools such as MDAT—the Multi-Dimensional Analytic Tool--that allow authorized users to analyze and provide access to key data, including individual student records
Public reporting on WINSS and in our School Performance Reports
Professional Development

Student-level data are linked from a variety of DPI data collections to create a rich picture of student performance. Reporting tools such as MDAT take advantage of this longitudinal view of student performance.

What's Unique About an LDS?

Brings data together at the student-level for granular analysis at multiple levels (cohort, school, district, state), over multiple years
Includes data collections beyond test scores, creating a richer picture of student performance
Includes reporting and analysis tools that take advantage of longitudinal data

Development of our longitudinal data system is an ongoing project involving many components.
Continued development of our Longitudinal Data System (LDS) enables DPI to satisfy key aspects of our state’s educational priorities: closing the achievement gap, building 21st century skills and moving toward a PK-16 data system in which all stakeholders can make informed decisions based on sound data. Overall development initiatives include:

Adding new datasets to the LDS, including Career and Technical Education, Course Completion, and Postsecondary enrollment data
Building new reporting tools for public and/or secured reporting
Building new reports (such as Growth Reports) to support research, public reporting and secured reporting
Enhancing current tools

What about WINSS?
WINSS will continue to be the face of Wisconsin’s education data and will include access to tools that utilize the LDS via the WINSS homepage.

Wisconsin LDS Vision
Provide a cost-effective, integrated educational analysis and reporting system to support

Teachers and school administrators making informed decisions to improve student achievement
Parents and community members learning more about their schools
Accurate and timely data reporting to meet Federal, State, and local requirements
Diagnostic and policy-relevant research
Data-informed decision-making at the state, district, school, classroom, and student level

Wisconsin Data Warehouse & Reporting Team

Alexis Bourgeois, Education Consultant
David Jakobson (Jake), Analyst
Jim Agans, ETL Developer/DBA
John DeLap, Analyst
John Valenzuela, DBA
Jeff Perry, Analyst/Help Desk
Mahilal Abeysiri (Max), Developer
Melissa Straw, Project Manager
Mukesh Ranjan, Developer

Please click LDS Overview for a summary presentation on the Wisconsin LDS.

View the knowledge base, or submit questions, comments, and suggestions about the Wisconsin Information System for Education (WISE) to the 24x7 DPI Online Helpdesk.
If you are having trouble accessing the tool or you need additional help, please view Helpdesk Information.

Last updated on 1/9/2012 5:59:44 PM