Project Status
D3A2 is based upon a technical infrastructure which integrates and enhances existing systems to meet the following five objectives:
- Local Data Analysis - Provide access to a data warehouse and business intelligence tools for data analysis and decision making at the local education agency level - including teacher access to individual student data.
- Content Exchange - Provide educators with electronic access to education content resources aligned to Ohio’s Academic Content Standards.
- State Required Reporting - Provide an efficient and effective system for local education agencies to exchange data with ODE.
- Statewide Longitudinal Data Analysis - Provide a statewide longitudinal data warehouse for research, analysis, and decision making by a variety of stakeholders
- Federal Required Data Reporting - Provide an automated, streamlined process to support reporting of federally required data.
Current Status
D3A2 Local Data Analysis (Data Tools Application)
Version 1.0 of the D3A2 Data Tool Application permits local education agencies to analyze data about students' performance on the statewide Ohio Achievement and Graduation tests, and then points them to resources such as lesson plans and assessment designed specifically to address academic needs identified by the data. In order to access this tool, school districts must first work with their Information Technology Centers to prepare test and student demographics data for upload to the D3A2 Data Warehouse and create teacher accounts. Teachers can then log in to analyze how their prior-year classes did on the statewide tests, or analyze how students in their current class lists performed in their previous attempts.
Architecture in Use
The D3A2 Data Warehouse is an Oracle 10g database environment using Oracle Discoverer as its end-user interface. The underlying Oracle database schema and initial implementation was purchased from IBM as part of that firm’s Insight At Schools product offering. During the course of summer 2008, the D3A2 Data Tools Application is being rewritten using Oracle Business Intelligence Enterprise Edition to allow greater flexibility in programming and responsiveness. A resulting version will be made available to Ohio school districts sometime during the 2008-2009 school year. Future enhancements of the capabilities of the Data Tools application that may, or may not be included in the next available version, include the inclusion of results from various assessment types for purposes of multiple measure analyses, subgroup identification and analysis, and review of student results using the Classroom Assessment Module.
Local Classroom Assessment Module
An online Classroom Assessment Module (CAM) is being developed for use in conjunction with the D3A2 Data Tools Application. The CAM will provide tools for authoring, reviewing and maintaining a statewide assessment item collection (State Item Bank), as well as local assessment item collections (District Item Banks). The CAM will also provide tools for districts or teachers to create, maintain, and deliver assessments based on items accessed from either the State Item Bank and/or the District Item Bank to students via a web-accessible user interface. These tools will be based on the Sakai Collaborative and Learning Environment 
(an open source learning management system) and extended to meet the requirements as determined by the D3A2 CAM committee.
Proliferation and Use
The D3A2 Data Warehouse Access to the D3A2 Data Warehouse application was opened to all of Ohio's school districts in August 2007 after the successful completion of field testing.
As of 6/1/2008, more than 407 local education entities have completed an implementation request form on the D3A2 website. 219 of these districts have since become member districts by submitting data authorization documents to the D3A2 Operations Group. 185 have worked with their Information Technology Centers to have EMIS student demographic data loaded into the Data Warehouse and 108 have had test data loaded into the Data Warehouse.
D3A2 Resource Exchange
The D3A2 Resource Exchange gives educators general search capabilities to locate education content resources aligned to the Ohio’s Academic Content Standards. Fedora (Flexible Extensible Digital Object and Repository Architecture) was selected as Ohio’s resource exchange tool. The D3A2 Resource Exchange release 1.0 was placed in production status on February 12th, 2007 and is available statewide. The Resource Exchange permits users to save items in user created ‘book bags’ which can be easily shared with colleagues via email. The D3A2 Resource Exchange has since seen some minor enhancements. On June 29th, 2007 release 1.5 was placed in production. This release included enhanced search capabilities and improved page navigation. Release 2.0 went live in October, 2007 and gives system users access to more sophisticated search filter capabilities. A preliminary Gap Analysis of the Resource Exchange was performed in May 2008.
D3A2 State Required Reporting
Ohio is changing the method in which data are collected and exchanged between the state and the local education agencies through the implementation of data definition and data format standards for sharing data. These standards will be based upon the School Interoperability Framework (SIF) specifications and will be required for state data reporting. The use of SIF data specifications will replace the existing fixed length file format standards currently used for current reporting. Compliance with these new data specifications will be required for users of all major Student Information Systems (SIS) starting in the 2010 school year.
D3A2 Statewide Longitudinal Data Analysis
ODE currently has a data warehouse that contains detailed student, staff and financial data for multiple years. However, the primary focus of the data warehouse is on performance accountability data. Additionally, the data warehouse does not link students to courses to teachers and does not encompass every program area. ODE is expanding and enhancing its data warehouse and business intelligence environment to include all program areas, facilitate longitudinal data analysis on student achievement and link students to teachers via course while ensuring appropriate and secure access to data by districts, legislators, general public, and researchers.
D3A2 Federal Required Data Reporting
ODE’s process for compiling and reporting data to the USDOE is not streamlined and relies upon multiple disparate programs and systems. ODE is automating and streamlining the process of compiling and reporting federally required data to meet the required specifications for the Performance Based Data Management Initiative (PBDMI)/Education Data Exchange Network (EDEN). Utilizing funds from the grant, ODE has contracted with a vendor for three years to provide an Informatica technical resource to automate the compilation and reporting of Ohio’s data to the USDOE for EDEN. Additionally, utilizing state funds, ODE has hired a full time data manager to manage the EDEN reporting process.