District/School Administration  Information Services
Education Data Warehouse

The Education Data Warehouse (EDW) is a collaborative effort of the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education and local school districts to centralize K-12 educational performance data into one state coordinated data repository hosted by the Department. The purposes of the data warehouse are to:

• Place the use of robust, timely performance data at the core of educational decision-making.
• Reduce district burden and streamline data practices.
• Improve district data capabilities by providing resources and technical assistance.
• Provide data for planning, policy, and management at the state and local levels.

The project's long-term goal is to provide every district and school with the ability to easily query and analyze their organization's state-maintained data (SIMS, MCAS, MEPA, and EPIMS), and to provide districts with the option to load and analyze their own data.

The Department, after a lengthy procurement and evaluation process, partnered with IBM/Cognos Corporation to implement the project and after a pilot program in which 30 districts participated, the EDW is now available to all public school districts and charter schools across the state. As of the summer of 2008, 70 school districts and charter schools have been trained in using the data warehouse.

Additional information and instructional documentation is available to authorized EDW users on the EDW portal and/or the EDW user group on MassONE. A training program, complete with training materials, is in the process of being finalized and will be available to districts when complete.

	Statewide Rollout of Data Warehouse — Fall 2008
	Documentation and Training Materials
			Data Access Policy   A summary of the federal and state laws governing the access to data by Department and district personnel, as well as the general public.
	[3.1 MB]		Project Guide 1.2   This document includes technical information about the way data warehouses are structured and the strategies districts should employ in preparing their local data for loading to the EDW.
	[1.9 MB]	[2.0 MB]	Getting Started 1.2   Step by step instructions for accessing the statewide data and reports available to EDW authorized district users.
	Data Warehouse FAQ Frequently asked questions and answers about the Education Data Warehouse project.