Variables included in the Dataset:
K-12
- Demographics
- School
- District
- Attendance/Dropout
- Grades/GPA
- Courses
- Test scores
- ACT/SAT
- Disciplinary action
- Teacher info (salaries, etc.)
Higher Education
- Demographics
- Type of college
- Enrollment
- Courses
- Major
- Grades
- Tuition/Scholarships
Workforce
- Demographics
- Salary
- Industry
Link: http://ritter.tea.state.tx.us/peims/standards/wedspre/index.html
Date Inventory Completed: 5/22/15
Screening
- Is there data available for 2013?
- Can we access the data by August 15th?
Does this dataset appear to meet our needs for the Census study? YES
Explanation: Have received data from 2009-2013 for K-12 public school students. The data is not linked to higher ed at the student level, but is available at the district level: http://www.texaseducationinfo.org/
Full Inventory
Purpose
- What is the purpose of the organization collecting the data?
The Texas Education Agency is the state agency that oversees primary and secondary public education. It is headed by the commissioner of education. The mission of TEA is to provide leadership, guidance and resources to help schools meet the educational needs of all students.
- Who else uses the data? (make a note if they sell the data to companies)
Students, parents, teachers, educators, administrators, researchers; the Texas Student Data System provides—at no cost to districts—a set of studentGPS® Dashboards for every public school educator in Texas. These personalized dashboards show whether each educator's students, class, and campus are performing at or below customizable goals.
Description
- What is the general topic of the data?
- K-12 Student Information
- Higher Education Student Information
- Workforce Information
- Longitudinal Education Information (includes K-12, Higher Ed, and/or Workforce)
- What are the earliest and latest dates for which data is available?
1990-2013
- How soon after a reference period ends can a data source be prepared and provided?
Approximately one year.
Method
- What is the data collection method (portal, other)?
School districts submit their data via standardized computer files, as defined by the PEIMS Data Standards.
- What is the raw source of the collected data (teacher, superintendent)?
LEA Administrator
Selectivity (conversely, the representativeness)
- What is the universe (e.g., population) that the data represents?
Public and open-enrollment charter schools
Stability/Coherence
- Note any changes to the universe of data being captured (e.g., including private schools).
Unknown
- Note any changes to the data capture method or sources of data.
Unknown
Metadata
- 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?
Yes
- Can K-12 be linked to higher ed or higher ed to workforce?
Yes, but this data is only available at an aggregated level: “The agencies entered into an agreement to expand this data warehouse to include education data collected by all three agencies. This effort resulted in the development, integration and maintenance of TPEIR to provide access to comprehensive longitudinal student and educator information from pre-kindergarten through the university level and beyond. A new multi-agency web site was developed for public online access to integrated Texas public education data in January 2003. An outsourcing arrangement to integrate data from the three agencies and provide reports was successfully completed in August 2003. Additional data files from the participating agencies continue to be loaded as they become available.”
- Links to codebooks:
http://ritter.tea.state.tx.us/peims/standards/wedspre/index.html
http://www.texaseducationinfo.org/TPEIR_Documentation.pdf
Accuracy
- Any known sources of error?
Unknown
- Describe any quality control checks performed by the state (or data manager).
The data system has a standard set of definitions, codes, formats, procedures, and dates for the collection of data published as the PEIMS Data Standards; Standard edit procedures; An established database design; A production system to format and load data into the TEA enterprise database; and Written documentation describing the numeric and alphanumeric values stored in the database published as the Data Documentation.
Accessibility
- How is the school-level data accessed (note if it needs to be screen scraped)?
Open data appears to be only at the district level. School level data is available through request - see below.
- How is the student-level data accessed?
Contact the Perry Weirich, Data Manager for the State of Texas Education Agency; Perry.Weirich@tea.texas.gov; list the variables needed; Email a public information request pir@tea.texas.gov. They will review the request and grant permission.
- Note if IRB is needed or any other restrictions on accessing data.
None required.
- Any records or fields collected, but not included in data source?
Yes, fields that have 5 students or less are removed according to FERPA
- Cost? - One time or annual or project based payment?
$486
Privacy and security
- Note any confidentiality policies or legal limitations other than FERPA:
Only aggregated longitudinal data is available to the public and to researchers (P-20): http://www.texasstudentdatasystem.org/TSDS/About/Get_Involved/For_Researcher_and_Community_Members/
- What do they consider personally identifiable information?
“Any information which makes a student's identity easily traceable is considered private and confidential. A student's Social Security Number, for example, is personally identifiable information. Personally identifiable information cannot be released to third parties.”
Research
- What research has been done with this dataset?
Mainly state reports
- Research links: http://tea.texas.gov/Reports_and_Data/