Tuesday, November 18, 2025
November 2025: Thankful for Good, Clean, Student Data
Announcements:
WISEstaff: Collection In Progress for 2025-26
The preliminary certification deadline occurred a week ago, November 11. Review updated WISEstaff Assignment Codes and the 2025-26 school year timeline for the annual staff audit and snapshot on the WISEstaff Data Collection: Reporting Information page. As well as being in the WISEstaff application, Assignment Codes are located in the Technical Documentation section, and the calendar dates for this year’s audit schedule are listed in the Timeline. If you’re looking for assistance with the annual staff audit process, please visit the following:
- The WISE Events Calendar for training opportunities, like the WISEstaff Weekly User Group calls that occur from October through March.
- The WISEtraining Slides and Videos webpage to access a recorded video and the slide deck used for this year’s WISEstaff Preliminary Certification Training.
Recent Communications Sent:
- 10/14/2025: A December Student Snapshot communication specific to economically disadvantaged data applies to all schools.
- 10/7/2025: Snapshot communications were sent.
- 9/30/2025: WISEstaff is open for preliminary certification data. A communication was sent to WISEstaff primary and secondary contacts, and a separate communication was sent to WISEstaff DSAs.
Spotlight on Strong Data: December 9, 2025: December Student Snapshot
On this day at 9:00 a.m. (CT) the orange "Queue Import & Validation" button in the WISEdata Portal is disabled, preventing LEAs from manually triggering the validation processes. Other aspects of WISEdata Portal, as well as other applications, may be "locked" during the morning of snapshot to prevent errors in the system.
The data collected for the December Student Snapshot spans multiple school years:
- Previous year/s: Student year-end data, such as enrollment counts, discipline, attendance, graduates, and Roster data.
- Current year/s: Demographics; Third Friday of September and October 1 Child Count of students with disabilities data; district library plans, graduation plans, and the optional but highly recommended digital opportunity data.
Data Quality Tip:
Rounds 1 and 2 of Data Quality Alerts for December Student Snapshot
Round 1 of the December Snapshot Data Quality Alerts were posted in the WISEdata Portal on Wednesday, November 5. DPI recommends checking these alerts in WISEdata Portal and addressing any issues to get your data ready for the December Student Snapshot. Visit the WISEdata Portal Alerts mini tutorial webpage for information on how to make the best use of these notifications.
Round 2 of the December Student Snapshot Data Quality Alerts will be visible in the WISEdata Portal starting December 3, 2025.
You can also visit the Snapshot Preparation Guidance webpage and the Snapshot Data Quality Auditing Information landing page for helpful information on preparing your LEA data for the December 9, 2025, snapshot.
WISEstaff Preliminary License Audit Results
The WISEstaff preliminary reporting deadline was November 11. All agencies should have submitted staff and assignment data for those staff with assignments that require a license, passed validations, reviewed all staff reports in WISEstaff and indicated that they are certified for the “Preliminary Agency Certification.” The preliminary snapshot only requires info for assignments and staff who require a license. Non-licensed staff and Contract data will be required to be entered by the final certification.
The Bureau of Educator Licensing will use the preliminary snapshot to generate three audit reports. New this year, the audit results will be available by late November. Using automated functionality with the audit software will return your results a full month earlier than past school years.
As this is the first time the department is not manually reviewing the results, reach out to licensing if you have questions about the results. Please note, the audit is generated based on the information from WISEstaff as of the date of the preliminary snapshot and licenses issued on the date of the audit.
Any changes are made in WISEstaff after the preliminary snapshot will not be reflected in your preliminary audit results.
Once your preliminary audit is complete, make corrections to assignment coding as needed.
WISEid: Change Requests Pending
Remember to look for Change Requests with a status of “Pending District Verification” so that you can review and approve them. Changes aren’t applied to WISEid data until that status changes to Approved.
App Feature: WISEstaff Staff Collection Checklist
Step 3: Review Preliminary Audit Results and Apply Corrections.
The Staff Collection Checklist picks up on Step 3 with the completion of the preliminary staff audit.
Remember, the audit is not dynamic; the system only reviews what was submitted by the preliminary audit deadline (i.e., November 11, 2025). If you continue to submit data through WISEstaff after November 11, these data will not be reflected in your preliminary audit.
Between now and the final certification deadline (March 24, 2026), Step 3 of the Staff Collection Checklist asks you to complete the following:
- Review the data in your preliminary staff audit.
- Locate Entity IDs for all staff requiring a Wisconsin educator license.
- Upload or finalize contract data.
- Enter aggregate assignments for custodial and kitchen staff and/or bus drivers.
- Review the Data Quality Dashboard and verify that your data is accurate and correct. The WISEstaff application and the User Guide will both refer you to the Reports screen. Please review the reports listed and ensure that data is accurately submitted.
- Correct all errors and either correct or acknowledge all warnings. Some warnings may require you to type a comment to explain why the warning isn’t being resolved before you can acknowledge.
Please join us at the weekly WISEstaff User Group calls, which occur weekly on Tuesdays, from 11:00 a.m. – Noon, from now through March 2026. Visit the WISE Events Calendar to join.
WISEdash Featured Dashboard: Verify Graduation Cohorts and Snapshot Dashboard Overview
Verify grad cohort determination before it is too late to fix the high school entry year and grade level. It is vital that districts verify that each student's first HS enrollment year and grade level are correct while that year of data is still open for updates in WISEdata. Once set, those enrollment records can no longer be updated in WISEdata. Graduation cohorts are typically not examined until more than three years after 9th grade entry.
One way to see who is in your Grad cohort in the warehouse is to navigate to the dynamic crosstab dashboard under Topics, HS Completion, Grad Cohorts. Using a combination of the “First HS Enrl Grade”, “Grad Cohort Year,” and “Rate Year” data elements, it is easy see the cohort counts (remember to sort your columns and rows!). Click any underlined number to see the individual students if you have permission to see student-level data.
Graduation Data is one of many data topics collected in the December Student Snapshot. We hosted virtual snapshot training opportunities earlier this month on November 6th. You can visit the Slides and Videos webpage, December Snapshot section to review this training. A recorded video of the session is available with captions and a copy of the slide deck.
For Public Schools: These trainings detail how to use the WISEdash for Districts Snapshot dashboards as a way to conduct data quality review.
To find the December Snapshot Dashboards click Dashboards, Snapshots. There are eight distinct snapshot dashboards:
- Attendance / Absenteeism
- Career Ed And Coursework
- Discipline
- May Demographics
- October 1 Child Count
- Perkins
- Third Friday of September (TFS)
- Year End (YE) Completion
WISEdash updates nightly with the data you have synced to WISEdata from your SIS. If your data does not look accurate on WISEdash, it could mean that your information is not pushing: (a.) from your Student Information System (SIS) to WISEdata, or (b.) from WISEdata to WISEdash. If your school or district is experiencing problems with proper data flow, please open a Help Ticket.
Happy Cohorting & Dashboarding!
Upcoming Events
Training Opportunities:
Regional Snapshot Preparation Workshops:In-Person
- Green Bay Area (CESA 7): November 19, 10:00 a.m. – 3:00 p.m.
- Madison Area (Middleton Public Library): November 24, 9:30 a.m. – 4:00 p.m.
Recurring Training:
WISEdata New User Training: First Wednesday of the Month
- Wednesday, December 3, 2025: 1:30 – 3:00 p.m.
WEEKLY WISE User Group Call: EVERY Tuesday, September - December
- 1:30 p.m. – 2:30 p.m.
WEEKLY WISEstaff User Group Call: EVERY Tuesday, October - March
- 11:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m.
- 18th – Review Step 3 on Staff Collection Checklist. Review process for generating licensing audit reports.
- 25th – Status of preliminary audits; start to review common audit errors
Upcoming WISEdata Events
3/10/26
3/10/26
Return to WISE Insights Landing page
Data Milestones
Please refer to the Announcements and Spotlight on Data sections.