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| DATA ANALYSIS SECTION - FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS | |||||||||||||||
What is the primary purpose of the Data Analysis Section? Data and viewing options in the Data Analysis Section are designed primarily to support local school communities working on school improvement. This is the reason WINSS has so much trend, comparison, and disaggregated data and the reason you will see a lot of, but not all, data collected by DPI. Are data for all public schools included in the Data Analysis Section? In general yes. All public schools required by law to submit School Performance Report data under s. 115.38, Wis Stats are covered by WINSS reports. Schools operated by districts (under ch. 119 or ch.120, Wis. Stats) and nondistrict charter schools (under s. 118.40(2r) , Wis. Stats.) are included if they are open on the fall count date for the school year. School status as of the fall count date is key because much of the data collected and used in the creation of WINSS reports and rates are as of the fall count date. Students need not occupy a seat in a school building to be included in WINSS reports for the district schools. Students may be served by third parties under the direct supervision of a school district. Third parties might include technical colleges, community-based organizations, nonprofit-nonsectarian agencies, universities, school to work program providers, cooperative educational service agencies, out-of-state school districts, private schools, residential care centers, Wisconsin Center for the Blind and Visually Impaired, Wisconsin School for the Deaf, County Children with Disabilities Education Board schools, etc. If a district is accountable for a student's educational outcomes then the student is expected to be included in reports for that district. WINSS does not include schools operated by the State Department of Corrections or the State Department of Health and Family Services. These schools are not required to submit School Performance Report data. Why can't I find data about private schools? The data provided on WINSS are data collected by DPI to meet data reporting requirements in state and federal law. Nearly all these requirements apply only to public schools. DPI has very little data about private schools.
How can I find data about charter schools? Wisconsin charter schools are public schools created through a businesslike contract or "charter" between the operators and the sponsoring district or other nondistrict chartering authority. Charter school data are included on WINSS because these schools are subject to almost all of the same data reporting requirements as other public schools. You can find data for any charter school by searching by the name of that school. Indicators of charter status are included in download files so data for charter schools as a group can be more readily analyzed and compared. Why can't I find data updates for the current school year? Most WINSS data are school year summary data so these data aren't collected until the summer or fall of the next school year. Examples include attendance, dropouts, graduates, retention, spending etc. Data are posted on WINSS after all data are received and certain validation and verification steps have been completed. You will normally find school year summary data on WINSS in the winter or spring of the following school year. This means, for example, that 2002-03 school summary data will be posted in the winter or spring of the 2003-04 school year. Some WINSS data are point-in-time data so are collected and typically reported during the current school year. Examples include 3rd Friday September enrollment and November statewide test results. Where can I find a ranking of schools or districts in Wisconsin? Ranking schools and districts is complex and depends a lot on the school characteristics and measures of success that you consider most important. The similar schools/districts tool on WINSS can be used to find out where your school or district stands in relation to other schools or districts, but this tool has distinct limits. Everything that is important is not measured, and some things that are measured may be less important than other things. For more information about this tool, go to Understanding the Similar Schools/Similar Districts Pages on WINSS. Can I use WINSS to compare districts or schools within my county, athletic conference, or CESA? Yes. Click on the "Compare To: Selected Districts/Schools" option above any WINSS graph. Follow the steps on the next page. Under "Step 1," if you want to view data about all districts or schools in the location, then select the second option, "Select all districts/schools in." Under "Step 2," select the location of interest and click on the "Go" button. (The settings should be defaulting to your county, district's basketball/track conference, or CESA, but you can select any county, athletic conference, or CESA.) After clicking on the "Go" button, the screen will refresh with tabular summary data for your district or school and other districts in the selected location. For publication or analysis purposes it may be useful to store the data in another format. Most WINSS data pages include a link at the bottom labeled "Download Raw Data From This Page." Click on the link to download a CSV version of the data. Alternatively, if you are using Internet Explorer as your web browser, you should be able to copy and paste the table directly into an Excel file. You can also save the page, change the filename extension to ".xls," and open the file in Excel. See also Understanding the Similar Schools/Similar Districts Pages on WINSS, Using WSAS Scatterplots on WINSS, and Using Teacher Quality Scatterplots on WINSS. There are so many questions. How do I find data about a specific topic? Data are organized under four main questions. For a brief summary of the data under each question, go to Tips for First-time Users of the Data Analysis Section Where can I find the names of schools identified for school improvement? Click on the "Annual Measurable Objectives" link on the left side of pages for the question " How did students perform on state tests at grades 4, 8, and 10?" You can also click on "View comparison to annual measurable objectives" under the graphs and tables. All WINSS graphs pages include a link labeled "View Adequate Yearly Progress report" that provides this information for any selected district or school. For more information, see Wisconsin's School Accountability System.I am a District SPR Coordinator. Can I use WINSS to meet School Performance Report Requirements under s. 115.38, Wis. Stats.? The data provided in the WINSS data analysis section include but are not limited to data required to meet the School Performance Report requirements under s. 115.38. Of the local School Performance Report requirements under 115.38, the two requirements not addressed on WINSS are listed below.
State law requires that school boards ". . . distribute to parents of each pupil . . . or give to each pupil to bring home. . . a school and school district performance report. . . The report shall also include a comparison of the school district's performance . . . with the performance of other school districts in the same athletic conference. . ." View complete text of 115.38. Note that conference comparison information is on WINSS at this time. Last year we met with legislators and asked if it would be possible for districts to point parents to WINSS rather than publishing on paper, but the response was that the law requires a printed publication. Can I use WINSS to meet District Report Card Requirements under the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLBA) of 2001? Yes. We believe that one way districts can meet the NCLBA Report Card dissemination requirements is to include the WINSS URL on annual School Performance Reports published under state law with a description of the additional district and school data parents and the general public can find on this website. Districts could also publish a district webpage URL in lieu of the WINSS URL if the district webpage has direct links to the required NCLBA Report Card data. Publishing the data on paper does not appear to be required. View text of report card requirements under NCLBA. View sample district webpage with links to required NCLBA Report Card data. The following is a sample of the type of statement that could be used on these local documents: These data and more detailed district and school information about test results, graduation, attendance, other academic indicators, and much more can be found on the DPI WINSS website. To view WINSS data for [ADD DISTRICT NAME HERE], visit our district website at [INSERT THE URL FOR DISTRICT PAGE WITH HYPERLINKS TO THE DATA]. If you do not have home Web access, visit [ADD NAME OF PUBLIC LIBRARY] or [ADD NAME OF SCHOOL WHERE COMPUTER MIGHT BE SET UP FOR THIS PURPOSE WITH HOURS OF ACCESS]. For further information or assistance, [NAME OF DISTRICT REPORT CARD CONTACT PERSON]. Many but not all of the data included in the Report Card requirements of NCLBA requirements are available on WINSS at this time. Additional Report Card data will be posted to the Data Analysis section as these data become available. We have been told verbally by representatives of the U.S. Department of Education that they will understand if certain reporting deadlines are missed due to state and local constraints as long as a good-faith effort is made to meet all the requirements at the earliest possible date. View sample District Webpage - ESEA Report Card. Download optional WINSS logos. Download optional New Wisconsin Promise logos. Are printer friendly versions of WINSS data available? No. Not at this time. State and federal laws require a lot of data to be published in local report cards and performance reports. Locally-designed paper reports are available from school districts and are generally 10-20 pages long. These reports are likely to get longer as state and federal reporting requirements continue to increase. Wisconsin has over 400 school districts, and DPI does not publish printed versions of all the district reports. WINSS does however have extensive Web-based reports and links to download files. In the future, we hope to provide printer-friendly at-a-glance reports that include key snap shot information. Our printer-friendly at-a-glance reports will be much shorter than Web-based WINSS reports and be presented in a uniform format across districts and schools. Can I download WINSS data? Yes. You can download all data on WINSS for specific WINSS questions or topics. Often more data are provided in the download file than on the screen because the download files are not restricted by the same horizontal screen-space limitations. Here are two ways to download WINSS data:
Tip: Many users choose the "Download Raw Data From This Page" alternative to download data for all schools or all districts within a CESA (or county or athletic conference) because the data file is more customizable. Click on "Compare To: . . . Selected Districts/Schools" (above the graph or table on almost every WINSS page). Follow the steps on the next screen. Under Step 1, if you want data for all districts/schools in a CESA, then select the second option, "Select all districts/schools in." Under Step 2, select any CESA, and click on the "Go" button. The screen will refresh with tabular summary data for all districts/schools in the selected CESA. If this is the data you want, then scroll to the bottom of the page and click on "Download Raw Data From This Page." If not, then choose the options of interest above the table before downloading. Why are data for some student groups not reported? Certain data are not reported to protect student privacy. Care is taken to avoid disclosure of confidential information about small groups of students, either directly or indirectly. A group is considered small if the number of students in the group is five or less. Indirect disclosure occurs when data are reported both for all students in a group and for a large subset of this group leaving only a small subset not reported. Data about groups larger than five are sometimes not reported to avoid possible indirect disclosure of confidential information about the smaller group. The Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction must ensure student confidentiality in any public release of data. This includes release of data to outside individuals or organizations (including but not limited to graduate students and research groups) not working for the Department regardless of assurances provided. State law requires that the department keep confidential all student records provided to the department by school districts. [more] Why are WINSS data reported by school type? District and state data are reported by school type when school level data are available for the topic. This is because, for many topics, data vary significantly across school types. Identifying strengths and needs and possible explanations are critical steps in the school improvement process. Summary data combining data across school types are useful and are provided, but summary data tend to mask strengths and needs of a specific school type. Data about school types (elementary, middle, junior high, and high schools) are collected according to definitions provided in s. 115.01(2), Wis. Stats.. An "elementary/secondary combined" school (also known as "El/Sec") is a school that generally offers instruction at elementary grade levels through grade 12 due, in most cases, to the size of the district or other need for nontraditional structure. Fewer schools are included in the "El/Sec" school type than any other type, and schools included tend to change from year to year, so data about El/Sec schools are subject to more year to year variation. Where can I find the results of WINSS online surveys (e.g. School Climate Surveys, EnGauge, Characteristics of Successful Schools)? Survey data are included, when available, in the WINSS School Improvement Planning tool. It is also possible to view survey results by going to the survey page. Usernames or passwords may be required to identify the specific survey of interest. These surveys are designed for local use only and are optional. Many schools and districts do not use the surveys. Surveys can be started at any time and multiple surveys can be done by the same school in a single year. This type of optional survey data is not provided in the Data Analysis Section because the graphs and tables in the Data Analysis Section were designed to include data collected ANNUALLY from EVERY school and district in a standardized manner. Questions about these surveys can be sent to winss@contact.ncrel.org. See also Copyright: State of Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction Phone: 1-800-441-4563 (U.S. only) / 608-266-3390 Submit questions or comments regarding this website to: webadmin@dpi.state.wi.us
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