VT Census Case Studies : Department of Education - Common Core of Data

Created by ziemer on 12 Aug 2015

Brief Overall Description of the Dataset:

 School descriptions, school districts, school names, address, and phone number; student counts by race/ethnicity, grade and sex and full-time equivalent (FTE) staff counts by labor category; and fiscal data, including revenues and expenditures.

Link:  http://catalog.data.gov/dataset/common-core-of-data-2006-07 

Date Inventory Completed: 6/18/15

Screening

  • Is the data collected opinion-based?
  • Is the data collection recurring (must be collected at least annually)?
  • Is there data available for 2013?
  • For Education: Is the data collected at least the school level? 
  • Can we access the data by August 15th?
  • Can the data be linked to other education/workforce datasets (e.g., K-12, higher education, workforce)? By school name

If applicable, what types of schools does it cover (e.g., public, private, charter)?

Public schools, state education agencies, Department of Defense schools, Bureau of Indian Affairs, and other outlying jurisdictions.

Purpose

  • What is the purpose of the organization collecting the data?

“To provide basic information on public elementary and secondary school students and staff for each states, the District of Columbia, and the outlying territories with a U.S. relationship.”

  • Why is it collected and how does the organization use it?

“The CCD provides essential components about public education in the United States through use of administrative data.”

  • Who else uses the data?

Schools, education officials, and teachers.

 

  • Who do they sell the data to?

N/A


 

Method

  • What is the data collection method? 

“Data for the state non fiscal survey are provided by state education agencies from their administrative records. States report these data through the U.S. Department of Education’s Education Data Exchange Network, which edits the data and forwards them to NCES. Thus U.S. Census Bureau resolves any question or errors that may remain, and prepares files for NCES.”

  • What is the type of data collected? 

Administrative data

  • If designed, who created the questions?

NA

  • What is the raw source of the collected data (prior to any aggregation)? 

Data reported by state education agencies from their administrative records.

Description

  • What is the general topic of the data (1-2 words)?

    Fiscal/Non-Fiscal education data

  • What are the earliest and latest dates for which data is available?

Depends on the data, finance data is available from 1986-2010, universal education data is available from 1986-2013, and dropout data is available from 2005-2010.

  • Is data collected and available periodically?

Yes, most data sets collected annually

  • How soon after a reference period ends can a data source be prepared and provided? 

Less than one year

Selectivity

  • What is the universe (e.g., population) that the data represents?

Students and teachers at Public Elementary/Secondary educational institutions

Accessibility

  • How is the data accessed? 

API  for apps is available, raw data is also available for purchase

  • Is it open data?

Yes

  • Any legal, regulatory, or administrative restrictions on accessing the data source?

NA

  • Cost? - One time or annual or project based payment?

Yes for raw data

Does this dataset appear to meet our needs for the Census study? NO

Explanation: Data is not available on the student level


Full Inventory 

Description

  • What is the general contents of the data source?

School descriptions, school districts, school names, address, and phone number; student counts by race/ethnicity, grade and sex and full-time equivalent (FTE) staff counts by labor category; and fiscal data, including revenues and expenditures.

  • Features
    • What is the temporal nature of the data: longitudinal, time-series, or one time point?

Time-series

    • Geospatial? If Yes, at what level?

School

Metadata

  • Is there information available to assess the transparency and soundness of the methods to gather the data for our purposes?

Yes

  • Is there a description of each variable in the source along with their valid values?

Yes

  • Are there unique IDs for unique elements that can be used for linking data?

There unique ID’s for the schools that can be linked

  • Is there a data dictionary or codebook?

Yes, codebook for each separate data set

Selectivity

  • What unit is represented at the record level of the data source?

School

  • Does this universe match the stated intentions for the data collection? If not, what has been included or excluded and why?

Yes

  • What is the sampling technique used (if applicable)? 

NA

  • What was the coverage?

Presumably 100% of public schools since they are required to report

Stability/Coherence

  • Were there any changes to the universe of data being captured (including geographical areas covered) and if so what were they?

They keep track of which county each school is in

  • Were there any changes in the data capture method and if so what were they? 

No

  • Were there any changes in the sources of data and if so what were they? 

No

Accuracy

  • Any known sources of error?

Documentation mentions nonsampling error occurring when states use different item definitions than those supplied by CCD.

  • Describe any quality control checks performed by the data’s owner.

“NCES and the SEAs work cooperatively to ensure comparability between the data elements requested and reported.”

 

Accessibility

  • Any records or fields collected, but not included in data source, such as for confidentiality reasons)? 

No

  • Is there a subset of variables and/or data that is must be obtained through a separate process? If yes, is there a separate legal, regulatory, or administrative restrictions on accessing the data source? Cost? - One time or annual or project based payment?

Yes, there are some restricted data sets that include completion data, dropout data, and enrollment bases for the dropout rates. Must submit restricted-use data License application to IES/NCES https://nces.ed.gov/pubsearch/licenses.asp 

Privacy and security

  • Was consent given by participant? If so, how was consent given?

NA

  • Are there legal limitations or restrictions on the use of the data? 

NA

  • What confidentiality policies does the source have? 

NA

 

Research

  • What research has been done with this dataset? (e.g., impact of policies, predictors of student success)

Publication provided are state fiscal reports, state non fiscal reports, school and agency reports, etc. all done by the NCES

  • Include any links to research if provided:

https://nces.ed.gov/ccd/ccd_publications.asp 

  • List any other data use notes provided by the supplier.

NA