Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education Data
Currently collected to ensure compliance with state and federal education laws, DESE maintains a variety of student-level data sets including information on all students receiving public funds for elementary and secondary education in the state of Massachusetts. Data include student academic performance including standardized tests scores, English proficiency, behavioral records, attendance, and post-graduation plans, among a variety of additional information regarding both public school students and teachers.
Students served by the Massachusetts public elementary and secondary education system.
Access
This database is available to researchers affiliated with an academic institution or an independent, nonpartisan research group. On occasion, other public agencies and DESE-contracted private firms, such as testing organizations, may access DESE data. Individual-level data (on students and educators) are available by application.
There are four types of data available for researchers: aggregate data at the school, district, and statewide levels; confidential student-level data; non-confidential student-level data; and data on educators. Most of the listed data is publicly available on the DESE website.
Initial contact should be directed to the Office of Planning and Research at [email protected] to determine whether the proposed research project meets the basic criteria for data sharing. Researchers must then submit a proposal that includes all relevant details of the research project, explicitly states how the research purpose aligns with the research agenda of DESE or will inform future policy decisions, and outlines what data are being requested and how the data will be used.
Confidential, personally identifiable information is available in limited circumstances using the research exemption contained in the Federal Education Rights and Privacy Act. Researchers who are interested in obtaining confidential information should contact the Chief Strategy and Research Officer and include a one-page overview of their research proposal, specifying the purpose of the research, research question(s), and the relevance to DESE’s research priorities.
Once the proposal is approved by OPR, researchers must sign a memorandum of understanding (MOU) that details the data-sharing agreement and the procedures that researchers agree to implement to ensure the security of the requested data. Researchers must comply with requirements and limitations outlined by the Federal Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) and the Massachusetts Fair Information Practices Act (FIPA). Following the establishment of the MOU, OPR requests the data from the Data Analysis and Reporting group, and the data are delivered to the researcher. A draft of any presentations or publications that use DESE data must be supplied to OPR at least thirty days prior to release to ensure that no confidential data are included.
Timeline for Access
Review and approval of the initial application generally takes between a few weeks and one month. Establishing and agreeing upon the data-sharing terms included in the MOU may take between a few weeks and a few months. Once these steps are complete, it can take between a few days to two weeks to receive data. In total, several months may elapse between submission of the initial application to receipt of data. The Data Analysis and Reporting group’s primary responsibility is to fulfill federal and state data reporting requirements, so the timeline for data requests tends to be longer around the time that annual reports are due.
Any data that have identifiable information that come from DESE must be returned or destroyed within the twelve months following research publication.
Lag Time
Record submission varies between DESE data sets; however, data are typically submitted following the beginning and end of each school year. For a more detailed listing of data availability, please see the section titled “Confidential Student-Level Data” in the ESE Researcher’s Guide to Massachusetts State Educational Data.
Cost
There is no cost associated with accessing these data from DESE.
Linking
The data-linking process is typically determined on a case-by-case basis; researchers will be asked to include and justify what matching variables they need. Researchers can link SIMS, EPMIS, and SCS data.
However it is preferred that researchers link the data themselves, so long as the procedure is compliant with laws to protect student data confidentiality. The primary exception to this preference would apply to In the case that researchers are interested in working with graduation cohort data OPR will remove identifiers from the data set after linking, unless the identifiers are explicitly necessary for the research project.
Researchers may request a sample based on a description of the desired cohort (e.g., “All students aged 10-15 of English Language Learner status”).
Identifiers Available for Linking
- Date of birth
- First and last name
- Massachusetts Education Personnel Identifier (MEPID)
Linking to Outside Data Sources
DESE has contracts with external data providers including the College Board, the National Student Clearinghouse, and local education authorities. In addition, DESE houses data provided by the state’s testing contractors: Measured Progress, Educational Testing Service (ETS), and the World-Class Instructional Design and Assessment (WIDA) Consortium. These relationships allow DESE to measure its students’ standardized testing performance, college enrollment and persistence, and other data. For a more detailed explanation of DESE’s relationships with other data providers, please see the DESE Researcher’s Guide to Massachusetts State Educational Data.
Data Contents
DESE hosts a variety of both aggregated and individual-level data sets. The individual-level data sets range in content and availability, some data sets include student data and others include educator data. DESE’s data management system aggregates information on all students attending public schools or schools that receive public funds for education in Massachusetts. Most data are reported by students and parents/guardians, collected by the local districts, and housed by DESE. Brief descriptions of each data set are provided below. For more information regarding the content of DESE’s data warehouse, please see the self-titled sections of the DESE Researcher’s Guide to Massachusetts State Educational Data.
Student Information Management System (SIMS): Individual student-level records linked by a unique statewide identifier (SASID) and including student demographics, attendance, discipline, program participation, and plans after high school. 2002 to present. Currently collected in October, March, and end of year.
Student Course Schedules (SCS): Individual student-level records on which students are enrolled in which courses, along with course completion and performance from 2011 to present. Currently collected in October and end of year; the October file is generally not shared for research purposes.
Student Safety Discipline Report (SSDR): Individual student-level records of each offense that occurs on school property and/or a student is suspended or expelled from 2002 to present.
Education Personnel Information Management System (EPIMS): EPIMS collects demographic and work assignment data on educators and school administrators from 2007 to present.
Schools Interoperability Framework (SIF): SIF creates connections between DESE's data collection tools and the student information systems (SIS) used in districts, enabling seamless transfer of student, teacher, and course information.
Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System (MCAS): MCAS collects data on student performance on all standardized state testing in English language arts, mathematics, and science and technology/engineering from 1998 to present.
National Student Clearinghouse (NSC): NSC provides data to DESE on nearly all recent graduate college enrollment, persistence, and completion and also provides limited information regarding degrees sought. Please find more information on the NSC here.
In addition, data include student performance on the Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT), American College Testing (ACT) score, Advanced Placement (AP) test scores, and Massachusetts English Language Proficiency (MEPA) and ACCESS for ELLs assessment scores, homeless status, and other data on students and teachers.
Partial List of Variables
Comprised below is a partial list of the available data elements categorized by data set.
Student Information Management System (SIMS): Local- and State-Assigned identifiers, enrollment status, city/town of residence, school identification number, grade level, days in attendance, low-income status (until spring 2015)/economically disadvantaged (as of fall 2015), Title I participation, immigration status, English language learner status, career/vocational technical education competency attainment, special education placement, high school completion plans.
Student Course Schedule (SCS): Local course code, subject area-course code, class section, course term, course enrollment status, course level, course credit available, course letter and numeric mark.
School Safety and Discipline Report (SSDR): Incident date, discipline indicator, count of student victims and offenders, count of school personnel victims, count of offenders, disciplinary actions taken, start date of discipline, appeal indicator, education services indicator
Education Personnel Information Management System (EPIMS): License/certification number, Massachusetts Education Personnel Identifier (MEPID), employment status, exit data, reason for exit, date of hire, federal salary sources, degree type, degree institution, degree subject, summative and formative evaluation rating, staff days of attendance, staff expected days of attendance, assignment location code, job classification, grade, subject area-course code, class section, full time equivalent, No Child Left Behind (NCLB) instructional paraprofessional requirements, highly qualified teacher status, subject matter competency, course term, term status at time of collection.
Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System (MCAS): Booklet numbers, assessments taken, item-level results, accommodations received and overall performance levels for state standardized assessments in English language arts, mathematics and science.
J-PAL Randomized Evaluations Using this Data Set
Abdulkadiroglu, Atila, Josh Angrist, Susan Dynarski, Thomas J. Kane and Parag Pathak. 2011. “Accountability and Flexibility in Public Schools: Evidence from Boston’s Charters and Pilots.” Quarterly Journal of Economics 126(2): 699-748. doi: 10.1093/qje/qjr017.
Other Research Using this Data Set
Please find additional reports that use DESE research hosted here.