Overview of the Annual Performance Report Development:

See Overview of the Development of the Annual Performance Report on page 1.

Indicator #20: State reported data (618 and State Performance Plan and Annual Performance Report) are timely and accurate.

(20 U.S.C. 1416(a)(3)(B))

Actual Target Data for FFY 2005:

Discussion of Improvement Activities Completed and Explanation of Progress or Slippage that occurred for 2005-06 School Year:

• The increased demands and complexity of federal IDEA and NCLB data collection and reporting required in 2005-06 has had a significant effect on the ability of staff to meet timelines and data demands. As a result some of the planned activities to conduct reasonability checks, complete verification procedures and to provide technical assistance were not completed.  Plans were developed during the year to secure additional staffing and to continue to train existing staff.

As reported in the summary table above:

• All required federal reports were submitted by their due dates.

• One report required revision in April 2006 due to a data compiling error.

• Several changes were made to data for Indicators #16 and #19.

• NYS relies on a final report submission date of July for its December 1 child count and LRE data and previous school year’s data on exiting, discipline and personnel. NYS collects data through a web-based aggregate data reporting system that includes all edit checks for internal data consistency, however additional time is required to complete all reasonability checks and verification procedures. Beginning in the 2007-08 school year, SED anticipates collecting special education data through an individual student record system called Student Information Repository System (SIRS). It is anticipated that this system will have data validation rules and verification reports to ensure data accuracy and final data should become available for the State’s use earlier than with the aggregate data reporting system. See the current SIRS system manual for description of the reporting system and examples of verification reports at http://www.emsc.nysed.gov/irts/SIRS/documentation/UserManual.doc

Some activities completed or enhancements made to the systems that collect section 618 data during the 2005-06 school year were as follows:

• All the required data to complete the 2005-06 APR were collected, edited and analyzed in a timely manner. Data collection requirements escalated during the 2005-06 school year. A new web-based data system was developed to collect self-review monitoring protocol data for Indicators 4B, 9, 10A, 10B, and 13. NYS contracted with two different vendors to manage the data collection and reporting for Indicators 8 and 14 and two new PD forms were developed to collect data for Indicators 7, 11 and 12 through the web-based PD data submission system.
   

• NYS enhanced its PD data collection process by implementing regularly scheduled advance notices of the web-based PD data submission system’s availability for PD forms and provided advance notices of the due dates for most of the PD reports to all schools, agencies and school districts that submit data to the Department.

• NYS enhanced its dunning and error correction processes by providing regularly scheduled and more frequent notices of missing information and reminders for data error corrections to all schools, agencies and school districts that submit data to SED.

• NYS implemented the revision to the IHRS to collect resolution session information and to begin monitoring the July 2004 NYS regulatory change which limited the length of extensions to a maximum of 30 days.
   

• In March of 2005, IHOs received individualized performance summaries. The performance summaries were developed and structured to provide information regarding the number of extensions granted for greater than 30 days to prepare the IHOs for the increased monitoring requirement that was implemented in April.

• NYS made substantial progress towards the development of CSEIS. This system began implementation during the 2006-07 school year and will ensure data for Indicators 15 and 16 are timely and accurate. Once fully implemented, this system will also enable the Department to track compliance of school districts on other indicators that require compliance within one year from identification.

In addition to the data required under IDEA, section 618, SED made a major enhancement in its capacity to assist schools to use data to enhance instruction:

• The Office of Elementary, Middle, Secondary and Continuing (EMSC) Education in consultation with other offices including VESID developed and implemented through a contract with Grownet a set of accountability and verification reports and other reports for school district personnel and for parents to review student level, school building and school district level data on State assessments (including disaggregations for students with disabilities subgroup). This new web-based system of reports called NyStart is intended to encourage the use of State assessment data in making instructional decisions to improve student achievement at all levels within the school district and to encourage parents to assist their children. This secure system has become available during the 2006-07 school year. See description of NyStart at:   http://www.emsc.nysed.gov/irts/nystart/

Revisions, with Justification, to Proposed Targets/ Improvement Activities/ Timelines/ Resources for 2006-07 School Year:

Improvement activities were added to the revised SPP and submitted in February 2007.  Additional resources will be sought for VESID to ensure timely, accurate data collection, analysis, and reporting activities are completed.  Data reside in many systems and sufficient personnel are needed to:

• Collect and correct data from all schools, agencies and school districts that provide data to SED

• Gather data from various systems

• Verify data accuracy (complete reasonability checks)

• Provide technical assistance

• Complete comprehensive data analysis

• Complete the federal reports

• Identify school districts that have disproportionality based on race/ethnicity

• Identify school districts for self-review monitoring for Indicators 4, 9, 10A, 10B , 11, 12, and 13.

• Identify school districts that are “in need of assistance”, “in need of intervention” and “in need of substantial intervention”

• Prepare data for public reporting of section 618 data and APR data on Indicators 1-20.

• Complete data requests for internal Department and technical assistance network staff to enable them to assist school districts to improve results

• Calculate federal IDEA allocations

• Prepare data reports and assist with the review of applications to exceed the 1% cap under NCLB.

• Provide data support to other Department offices to meet increasing needs.

NYS was not able to submit data for Indicators 1, 2, and 3 and Table 6 in this APR for the 2005-06 year due to delays in developing the State’s reporting database. NYS launched a new reporting system in September 2007 that made State assessment results available to all parents, teachers and administrators to enable them to use data to improve instruction. See the press release announcing this new reporting system at http://www.emsc.nysed.gov/irts/press-release/20060907/GROW-Reports-Release.doc .
 

SED anticipates it will have the 2005-06 State assessment data in a reporting database so that all required reports may be created by April 1, 2007.