Overview of Data at DPI
DPI collects data to meet all required school, district, state, and federal reporting mandates, e.g., Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA), Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), and Title II Higher Education Act.
These data inform education research and data analysis. Multiple teams from IT and content areas work together at DPI to build tools for data collection, to support districts in data collection, and to report on and facilitate the use of data based on federal and state reporting mandates.
Through the DPI dashboard and reporting tools, DPI staff, teachers, administrators, parents, and researchers are better able to understand and improve educational outcomes for Wisconsin students.
For more information on the data collected and reported through WISE, see the DPI Student Data Fact Sheet and the DPI Student Data Overview FAQ.
Program Areas and Data Elements
A Data Inventory is a very important tool, used by organizations to display a complete picture of all the data collected. Data Inventories are critical, both in terms of knowing what data is available for use and for practicing transparency about what data is collected and for what reasons. Student data element details collected by DPI are published by program area at DPI as listed below:
- Career and Technical Education (CTE)
- Roster
- Discipline Data - Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) and Safe and Drug Free Schools
- Enrollment
- ESSA Consolidated LEA Plan and End of Year report
- School Nutrition - Direct Certification
- Special Education
- Title I - Homeless (See ESSA Consolidated LEA Plan and End of Year report above for Homeless elements collected in the End of Year report)
- Title I - Migrant
The entire collection of data elements is available on the DPI Data Elements page.
Importance of Data Submitted to DPI
Education data is a primary tool to see if our students, schools, and policies are working effectively for all students.
Over time the data shows the results of changes we make in schools, letting us track progress and make adjustments to result in improved learning results of all Wisconsin students.
LEAs can help ensure the submission of high quality data by utilizing the WISEdata Annual Tasks Checklist, checking WISEdata portal weekly to repair of acknowledge data validation warnings and errors, and contacting the Customer Services Team whenever they need assistance on a particular task.
Making Collected Data Available
WISEdash: Wisconsin Information System for Education Data Dashboard
WISEdash is a data portal that uses "dashboards," or visual collections of graphs and tables, to provide multi-year education data about Wisconsin schools. Data on the portal is redacted and available by school, district, or state. Current and Certified data can be displayed for multiple years, and it can be grouped and filtered by a variety of demographics, including grade level, gender, race/ethnicity, economic status, disability, English proficiency, and migrant status. Data download files are also available. As a public reporting tool, WISEdash is used by districts, schools, parents, researchers, media, and other community members to view data published by DPI.
What does WISEdash Show?
Each year, all Wisconsin school districts collect information about their students, staff, and
courses based on federal and state requirements. These data sets are submitted to the
Department of Public Instruction where they’re stored and linked in a data warehouse. WISEdash gives you an interactive way to select and filter Wisconsin school data from the 2005-06 school year forward. The Department of Public Instruction is required to publish redacted data to protect student privacy. Additional historical datasets from 1998 forward can be downloaded. Links to other educational datasets and key reports are available in WISEdash. WISEdash will provide a streamlined delivery of consistent data and dashboards.
Who Should Use WISEdash?
The WISEdash Public Portal is the front door for parents and community members to discover all types of data about Wisconsin schools and districts. Educators should send parents to WISEdash for public data reports. Data is redacted to protect student privacy. Educators and school staff should use WISEdash for Districts, a secure version that requires a username and password, for student-level analysis.
Find more information on the WISEdash Public Portal.
Find more information on the WISEdash for Districts secure portal.
Protecting Student Data
Privacy Resources
The Student Data Privacy Main Menu page provides an overview of data privacy and safeguarding, information for parents and other users, also also links to training and other resources.
Requests for DPI Data
Visit our Data Request page for information on frequently requested public data topics.