Group Efforts, Part Four: Meet IDC’s ED Facts Coordinator/Data Manager Data Quality Peer Group

A Date with Data

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### Episode Transcript ###

00:00:01.52 >> You're listening to "A Date with Data" with your host, Amy Bitterman.

00:00:07.34 >> Hey. It's Amy, and I'm so excited to be hosting "A Date with Data." I'll be chatting with state and district special education staff who, just like you, are dealing with IDEA data every day.

00:00:19.50 >> "A Date with Data" is brought to you by the IDEA Data Center.

00:00:24.58 >> Welcome to another episode of "A Date with Data." As part of a series of episodes about IDC's Data Quality Peer Groups, today we are featuring the EDFacts Coordinator Data Manager Data Quality Peer Group. The Data Quality Peer Groups are facilitated by IDC TA providers to bring state role groups together to discuss and collaborate on the data quality issues of greatest importance in states. To tell us about this group, I am joined by the group's facilitators, Kristen DeSalvatore and Audrey Rudick. Thank you both so much for being here.

00:00:59.80 >> Thanks, Amy.

00:01:01.51 >> Thanks for having us, Amy.

00:01:04.00 >> Great. To begin, for those who aren't part of the group or don't know much about the data quality peer groups, can you talk about what this group is like, who tends to participate? What is the structure and the format of the group, and maybe what are some of the topics that you tend to cover?

00:01:23.20 >> Sure. I'd be happy to tackle that. So this peer group was really started last year in 2023 to start facilitating conversations between part-B data managers and their EDFacts counterparts in response to the EDFacts modernization efforts that we're having. It's a little bit different in format as we send out invitations to all EDFacts coordinators and all part-B data managers each time we meet, which is monthly, sometimes every other month just depending on how much is going on in the world of EDFacts and in IDEA. During our meetings, we usually start with some sort of icebreaker and then present on topics, have conversations related to those topics. Those topics might include information about how data are reported to the US Department of Education and how they're used by OSEP for determinations in the SPP/APR. Kristen, I don't know if you had anything to add there.

00:02:24.07 >> Sure, so the 618 data is ... Really, the bulk of it is reported through EDFacts, and so that includes child count, LRE, personnel, exiting, discipline and assessment. So of course, those are topics that are going to be covered. We also do talk about things like data governance, data processes and data verification. And the way that the two roles, the EDFacts coordinator and the data manager, collaborate is different in every state. So we try and structure the topics and the meetings to provide best practices as well as that timely information that Audrey already mentioned.

00:03:10.58 >> Yeah, and I'll say, Kristen, it's been really great, working with you on this since you had both roles as EDFacts coordinator and data manager prior to joining IDC.

00:03:21.25 >> I do find that I undervalued that information when I was in a state.

00:03:30.60 >> But having that perspective I think definitely adds value to the group and as facilitator because you have been in their shoes.

00:03:38.81 >> Yes, all things EDFacts and most things ID.

00:03:46.23 >> So now that we've gone through all of the EDFacts, EDPass data collections at least once, once, I think, for everything at this point, I'm curious to know recently, especially, what are some of the themes that you have heard emerging from states during these calls?

00:04:07.59 >> So I would say a big theme that we heard in January was around the assessment data being available in EMAPS. It is now not populated in EMAPS until right before the submission deadline, and it does not allow the states a lot of time to see it in EMAPS and react to it. So it's really critical that the EDFacts coordinators and the data managers are working together outside of EMAPS ahead of that population of the data to make sure that eyes are getting on the data from the IDEA special ed folks working with the EDFacts coordinators to make sure that there are changes that need to be made or data notes that need to be written, et cetera.

00:05:03.57 >> Yeah, I think that thinking through some of that collaboration and coordination around the SPP/APR because a lot of EDFacts coordinators I think understood that the data is used but not particularly how it's used. And I think that providing that information to multiple people within the state teams who are working with the data just really helps improve that data quality and helps to ensure that every bit of data that is being reported is accurate.

00:05:38.26 >> Yes.

00:05:39.43 >> Mm-hmm.

00:05:40.20 >> So there has been lots of discussion about how the data is pulled, how it's analyzed, how it's built into the EDFacts file, which speaks to data governance.

00:05:52.41 >> Mm-hmm.

00:05:53.16 >> And so all of that has been discussed widely and deeply.

00:05:59.51 >> What would metadata?

00:06:01.41 >> Oh, yes, and metadata ...

00:06:02.71 >> Everybody's favorite piece of the collection.

00:06:07.60 >> The way that data notes are handled now in EDPass is ... It's different now, so it used to be that your data was submitted, and then OSEP reviewed it, and months later you got a spreadsheet with data [Indistinct] issues that they wanted you to discuss or talk about, provide a data note for. But now all of that is done in EDPass prior to your final submission of the data, so that's a big change.

00:06:37.89 >> Yeah. How did it sound from the participants, I guess, as they got more used to using EDPass? Did it seem like there was more coordination and collaboration between the coordinators and data managers kind of as the time has gone on? Are there still challenges, I'm sure, that pop up?

00:06:57.53 >> Well, I think with staff turnover that we're seeing so regularly within states, it's great to have these ongoing conversations. So once you've been through it and you understand what's happening and you understand the data and where those data are coming from and how they're being reported within the new EDPass system, I think it makes a lot of sense, and it seems a lot more seamless, at least on the reporting side. Sometimes the EDPass side has had a few data hiccups as they're getting the new system up and running. So there's always ... is something to tweak. So it seems like everything is becoming more smooth on the state side behind the scenes as they're learning, as state people have learned their roles, their particular roles and how they're working together.

00:07:57.06 >> Mm-hmm.

00:07:58.64 >> But I think ... So this will be just our second year of Child Count, which, it's ... That submission starts in July. So we will see how that goes.

00:08:10.68 >> Probably ...

00:08:11.47 >> Oh, and we might have year-to-year edits.

00:08:13.63 >> Oh, yeah.

00:08:14.13 >> Great.

00:08:14.56 >> That will be exciting.

00:08:15.66 >> Yeah.

00:08:16.96 >> Less anxiety this time hopefully than the first time around.

00:08:21.40 >> I think so.

00:08:22.37 >> For sure.

00:08:24.48 >> I know this group was created in part because of that need to try to improve and increase that communication and collaboration, coming up with the new EDPass system between EDFacts coordinators and data managers. What tips, recommendations, strategies do you all have to share that are related to maybe improving that coordination between the different role groups that might help other states to know about?

00:08:55.29 >> So as Audrey mentioned, that knowledge of how the data is used is very, very important. It's really ... The EDFacts coordinator needs to understand the high-stakes nature of the IDEA data. It's submitted through EDFacts, and there's lots of data that is submitted through EDFacts, but the IDEA data is some of the most scrutinized data that an SEA submits to the US Department of Education, and it has monitoring and fiscal implications for a state that just don't really exist in most other data sets. So for an EDFacts coordinator to really understand that, and even though there's a Child Count certification form that has to be signed by the state director or other authorized official, I'm not aware of any other data that has an actual certification that needs to be signed and sent in after it is submitted. Or actually it has to be submitted on the day that a state submits it.

00:10:09.37 >> Not for EDFacts files, for some of the other reports, I think there's certifications, but, yeah, certainly that.

00:10:16.18 [ Chatter ]

00:10:16.40 >> Yeah.

00:10:18.30 >> And I would just say communication is key. You have to ... those lines of communication open.

00:10:26.42 >> Yeah. Our favorite, I think, phrase is just to become besties. If you're a part-B data manager, schedule some regular check-ins with your EDFacts coordinator, particularly leading up to those deadlines so that you can work together and understand the data that are going into those EDFacts files and maybe some of your state's business rules that are embedded in that file creation process.

00:10:53.83 >> Yeah. A formal data governance structure is important, but Audrey just said, that more informal besties relationship between the EDFacts coordinator and the data manager is just super important and helpful, as well.

00:11:09.49 >> And hopefully this group provided an opportunity maybe for some states that didn't have those lines of communication entirely open, and this was a good jumping-off point to improve some of that.

00:11:23.86 >> I think so.

00:11:25.25 >> Yeah. I think we've had a lot of good engagement from states, and it's fun to see when both the part-B data manager and EDFacts coordinator come to the meetings together.

00:11:37.05 >> Mm-hmm. And maybe have some of those ah-ha moments, like, "Oh, I didn't know that you did this or that was what was happening."

00:11:43.71 >> Exactly, yeah.

00:11:44.90 >> Great. Well, thank you both so much for sharing about this great group, and if anyone wants more information, has questions, is interested in learning more about the group, please reach out to IDC at the [e-mail] e-mail, and thank you both so much.

00:12:06.27 >> Thank you, Amy.

00:12:07.65 >> Thanks. This was great, to be here.

00:12:10.59 >> To access podcast resources, submit questions related to today's episode, or if you have ideas for future topics, we'd love to hear from you. The links are in the episode content. Or connect with us via the podcast page on the IDC website at ideadata.org.