The Center for Educational Performance and Information (CEPI), in partnership with the Michigan Department of Education (MDE) and intermediate school districts, recently completed the first development phase of a new education information website called MI School Data. The launch of this site on August 15 at https://www.mischooldata.org is poised to become the home to all state-level education data covering preschool through postsecondary education. Some of the information in this first release includes state assessment results and the Annual Education Report, which contains Adequate Yearly Progress, student counts, School Report Cards, and various measurements at school and district levels stemming from the Michigan Education Dashboard.
The Michigan Education Dashboard metrics provided in MI School Data include several of the data elements necessary to meet the education dashboard best practices that schools must make publicly available to qualify for incentive funding under the State School Aid Act.
"We are pleased to provide citizens and school officials with this new site," said Thomas Howell, Director of CEPI, an office within the Michigan Department of Technology, Management and Budget. "This provides an effective and easy way to obtain important education information."
The new site was initially made available to public school officials on August 1 to allow them to preview their information and to prepare federally required notifications to parents of the Annual Education Report and Adequate Yearly Progress status now found on MI School Data.
"This offers users the opportunity to review data crucial to the improvement of our schools and critical to improving the education of the children of Michigan," said Joseph Martineau, Executive Director of MDE’s Bureau of Assessment and Accountability. "This gives a new location for comprehensive information on local schools and where they are in meeting the instructional needs of their students."
CEPI is already preparing for the next MI School Data release planned for late September. The second release will include high school graduation rates, non-resident enrollment data, college readiness indicators, ACT results, principal effectiveness measures, and postsecondary enrollment and persistence rates for public high schools.
The Macomb Intermediate School District, Calhoun Intermediate School District, and Shiawassee Regional Education Service District were key partners in this effort. In addition to partnering for on site development, they also were instrumental in providing training and helpdesk support for the initiative. The work has included many other stakeholders from early childhood and postsecondary groups as well. The MI School Data site will bring greater focus to these groups in the years ahead.
"We are proud of this collaborative effort," concluded Howell. "The MI School Data website will provide better access and transparency to the information gathered by various state agencies pertaining to education in Michigan. We will continue seeking input to improve the site and to identify other useful information that will inform taxpayers about their investment in early childhood, K-12, and postsecondary opportunities across the state."