Tuesday, February 18, 2025
February 2025: Valentines, Variables and Values
Spotlight on Strong Data: WISEdata Conference
The WISEdata 10th annual conference is coming to the Chula Vista Resort in Wisconsin Dells! Join us as we celebrate being “Ten Years WISER” on March 11, 12, and 13, 2025. The WISEdata Conference webpage has details on sessions, booking a room, and more.
To mark our first decade of the conference, we’re planning some fun games, networking sessions, and a grand prize give away! Don’t miss out!!
Data Quality Tip: School Directory Re-Opens
School Directory has completed its school year flip and is open as of February 12, 2025. School Directory runs on a January – December calendar, which is different than most of the other applications in the DPI suite, which run on a school year (July 1 – June 30) calendar.
With the reopening of the School Directory Management Portal, schools can start entering required annual updates for the 2025-26 school year. Tiles on the Home screen in the School Directory Management Portal will display notification messages for data that can start being updated now (before the 25-26 school year begins). The two tiles most likely to display these massages are Kindergarten Schedule and Staff Contacts.
If you can already confirm some of the updates, you can begin to enter them. However, it may benefit you to wait until these changes are confirmed within your local education agency to avoid making repeat or multiple updates. School Directory Management Portal User Guides are available to help you.
App Feature: Ed-Fi Credential, Changes for the 2025-26 School Year
New URLS and Year Based Credentials!
The Ed-Fi Credential application (also known as Ed Cred) is making changes: credentials and URLs will be updated more frequently. Currently, Ed Cred has new URLs for the 2025-26 school year! These URLs are needed for vendor access.
As always, reach out to your vendor representatives to learn how they need you to set up your system(s).
To locate these 2025-26 URLs, log in to the Ed-Fi Credential application and view the profile screen. You will need these new URLs along with your credentials (key and secret) to ensure data flows smoothly from your vended applications to DPI. This includes primarily your student information system (SIS) tool, and any other vended tools your LEA may use like HR, finance, or specialty vendors for discipline and special education data.
These URLs are required along with your credentials to gain access to the API (If you’re asking, “What’s an API?” please read the Ed-Fi Credential: Submitting Data to DPI webpage). You must share with your vendor to ensure data flows from your vended applications to DPI for the 2025-26 school year. Stay tuned through this coming spring as DPI provides more information about these changes to Ed Fi Credential. The Ed-Fi Credential User Guide webpage explains the difference between credentials (key/secret) and the URLs, emphasizing their unique and very important purposes. For more specific information, we recommend reading the:
The last time that Ed-Fi changed its URLs was the 2023-24 school year. The 23-24 URL change gave us a great opportunity to improve our pro-active communications on these Ed Fi Credential changes. DPI is ready to provide you with advanced information that aims to keep your data flowing! The changes will begin when the 2025-26 school year opens on July 1, 2025. A very likely source of information will be the Tuesday WISE User Group. Check out the WISE Events Calendar webpage and the Upcoming Events newsletter section.
WISEdash: Featured Dashboard, FAFSA® (Free Application for Federal Student Aid) Completion Status Dashboard
Access to the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) completion status dashboard for 12th graders is now available in WISEdash for Districts. To view this dashboard, you must have the WISEsecure user role of either 'FAFSA Access' or 'Economic FAFSA Access.' The dashboard is located under: Topics, Postsecondary, FAFSA Completion Status by Subgroup.
The U.S. Department of Education gives states limited access to student-level FAFSA application status data to designated staff who have a legitimate educational interest in the data shared in the agreement.
DPI encourages districts to grant school counselors and homeless liaisons the role of “Detail FAFSA Access” or “Economic FAFSA Access” in WISEdash for Districts so they can support students in completing and filing the FAFSA. District FAFSA Data Sharing Agreements are required to access the data. An agreement needs to be submitted once to DPI and does not need to be resubmitted each year. This information was also shared in the EdLeaders Dispatch.
Upcoming Events
View the WISE Events Calendar
Recurring Training:
- Every Tuesday in January: WISEstaff User Group Call, 11:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m.
- Please continue to address your WISEstaff preliminary audit results and prepare for the final certification. You can make corrections to your WISEstaff data until the final certification deadline on March 18, 2025. Once the certification deadline passes, this user group call is only hosted every other week, starting in April.
- Every other Tuesday in January: WISE User Group Call, 1:30 p.m. – 2:30 p.m.
Upcoming WISEdata Events
Return to WISE Insights Landing page
Data Milestones
Civil Rights Data Collection Closes SOON:
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The CRDC collection cycle closes on March 7, 2025.
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NOTE: The final step is to click the “Certify” button on the Certification Dashboard. Your data is not certified until you click the “Certify” button!
WISEstaff Preliminary Certification, Final Reporting Deadline Approaching
- March 18, 2025: Final reporting deadline.
- Please continue to address your WISEstaff preliminary audit results and prepare for the final certification.
- You can make corrections to your WISEstaff data up until the final certification deadline.
Plan for May Demographics Snapshot
- The May Demographics Snapshot is May 13, 2025.
- Review the Snapshot Preparation Guidance webpage to get ready for that snapshot.