MDAT Glossary

Glossary

See below for short definitions of key variables used in the Multi-dimensional Analytics Tool (MDAT).

Demographics

Disability Status: Indicator that a student is or is not IDEA-eligible. IDEA-eligible students are considered students with disabilities. See also Primary Disability. [More]
Economic Status: Indicator that a student is or is not economically disadvantaged based on his or her household income. [More]
ELP (English Language Proficiency) Code: [More]
English Proficiency Status: Indicator that a student is or is not limited English proficient (LEP/ELL). Limited English proficient students are students with ELP Codes 1-5. [More]
ESEA Group: Groups required by ESEA (Elementary and Secondary Education Act) for disaggregated reporting. Migrant status is not included because it is not included in MDAT at this time. [More]
Gender: Gender of the student. [More]
Grade Level: Level of the educational program studied by a student.[More]
Primary Disability: The identified impairment of an IDEA-eligible student. For an IDEA-eligible student with more than one identified impairment, the most disabling impairment. See also Disability Status. [More]
Race/Ethnicity: Racial/ethnic group to which the student belongs or with which a given student most identifies. [More]

Demographics (Mobility)

FAY (Full Academic Year) Status This District/School: Indicator that student has or has not been enrolled in the district/school for a full academic year. In general, if Months in School/District/State as of the Third Friday September count date is 9.25 months or more, then the student is assumed to have been enrolled in the school/district/state for at least a full academic year. FAY status comes from the Wisconsin Student Assessment System (WSAS) collection although other mobility data come from ISES. Data about FAY status in a school may be based on FAY status in the district if the lowest grade level in the school during the prior year was the grade level of testing in the selected year.
WI Schools Attended: Count of distinct WI public schools where a student was enrolled during the school year. Counts are based on records for submitting schools in the Individual Student Enrollment System (ISES).
Years Enrolled This/Single District/School: Number of school years the student has been enrolled in the district or school. Generally, years enrolled is determined by Months in School/District/State divided by nine with digits to the right of the decimal dropped. Caution: Since Months in School/District/State comes from the ISES Third Friday September (CD) and Year End (YE) records and ISES was not implemented until summer 2004, the maximum number of years possible is limited by the full years of ISES. [More].

Student Behavior

Att Level WI: One of five attendance rate ranges that reflects a student's actual and possible days of attendance in WI public schools during the school year. For mobile students, days of attendance are summed across all schools where the student was enrolled that year. [More]
Days Removed IS IAES (In-School Suspensions and/or Placements in Interim Alternative Educational Settings): Sum of school days during which a student with disabilities was removed from his/her educational placement, e.g. the student's regular classroom, for disciplinary purposes during the school year as a result of in-school suspensions (IS) or placements in interim alternative educational settings (IAES). Note that IS and IAES removals are collected only for students with disability status as of the removal date. Users interested in studying the association between this variable and student outcomes in MDAT may wish to, on the MDAT Report Options page, select "Students with Disabilities" or one or more "Primary Disability" options as filters. [More]
Days Removed OS EX (Out-of-School Suspensions and/or Expulsions): Sum of school days during which a student was removed from a school's grounds for disciplinary purposes during the school year as a result of expulsions (EX) or out-of-school suspensions (OS). [More]

More Variables

Accommodation Any Subject: Indicator that one or more asssessment accommodations were used for the student in one or more subject areas.
Charter Status: Indicator that a school is or is not a charter school. Charter schools are schools established under s. 118.40, Wis. Stats.

Data Labels and Sources

Note that labels for MDAT variables and filters are sometimes followed by a code in ( ) to indicate the source of the data when multiple sources are possible. "(WSAS)" is Wisconsin Student Assessment System. "(CD)" is ISES Third Friday September records. "(YE)" is ISES Year End records. "(DISC)" is ISES Discipline records. Some variables do not include information about the source because DPI has only one source of these data.

Some MDAT variables are followed by multiple source codes. For example, data for "Primary Disability (WSAS or CD)" comes from WSAS except when the WSAS primary disability code is a Y. In that case, if the student has CD primary disability code other than N for the same school year, then that code is the "Primary Disability (WSAS or CD)" .

Information about source may help explain differences in data values. Most differences in data values across sources reflect change, but occasionally these differences indicate local data submission errors. Knowledge of the source of the data is provided to facilitate understanding of changes and the prevention of future errors.

"Not Available" Category

"Not Available" means the student was counted as enrolled at WKCE test time but has no data for the selected variable. This may happen when the source of the data for the selected variable is a collection other than WSAS, e.g. ISES, and the relevant data about that selected variable is not available for the student from the other collection. Examples are provided below.

Students without an ISES Year End (YE) record for the prior school year with possible attendance days greater than zero. These students would be included in the "not available" category if the user selects a variable labeled with a "(YE)" at the end (e.g. an attendance variable) or any discipline ("days removed") variable.
Students without an ISES Third Friday September (CD) record for the selected year. These students would be included in the "not available" category if the user selects a variable labeled with a "(CD)" at the end (e.g. "native language" or "years enrolled").

Where can I get more information about MDAT?

For information about the Multi-Dimensional Analytic Tool topic One-Year Change in WKCE Scale Scores, see Using MDAT, About the Data, and/or MDAT Frequently Asked Questions.

Questions or comments about MDAT should be directed to the ldshelp@dpi.wi.gov.

Last updated on 10/3/2011 3:50:49 PM

Multi-Dimensional Analytic Tool (MDAT)

Glossary