Data certification software for Portland Public Schools

Portland Public Schools (PPS), with 46,000 students, has chosen Certica’s K-12 data certification software to implement a data quality improvement process to support student achievement, ensuring the accuracy, completeness and timeliness of the data the district is required to submit to the Oregon Department of Education (ODE) several times each year. Certica’s Certify, provides daily, personalized, web-based data certification scorecards to central office and school personnel, so they can easily review, investigate and correct data errors. This capability will allow PPS to shorten the time it takes to identify and resolve data problems and improve data quality. Certify will also allow PPS to monitor data for program compliance and policy issues, such as student dropout rate, providing alerts to patterns of attendance data that could indicate that certain students are at risk of dropping out and are in need of intervention services. Like many districts across the country, PPS has been challenged by complex and changing data reporting requirements, which can be stressful and burdensome for school districts. In addition to changes in data requirements, ODE recently made changes to the frequency and content of submissions. In reviewing its approach to state reporting, PPS searched for a way to best utilize valuable personnel resources, while satisfying the changing ODE mandates. The district has adopted Certify to institute an ongoing, automated process, which reduces the time pressure associated with reconciling and verifying data just prior to state submission. In addition, Certify will allow PPS to improve the accuracy and effectiveness of all other district data reporting and analysis based on the same information. (Dona Lehr, program director for data and policy analysis at PPS.)