The Challenge
Our client aimed to help states to efficiently integrate Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) data systems with their statewide longitudinal data systems (SLDS), to improve the use and impact of special education data. Our client needed a tool or resource to facilitate this integration, however the process for integrating two education data systems had never been documented.
The Client
Center for the Integration of IDEA Data
What We Did
The approach for a state to integrate Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) data systems with their statewide longitudinal data systems (SLDS) systems had never been documented, which results in confusion on how to best support states. AnLar developed the Data Integration Toolkit to carefully document the integration process. Our team also convened a group of experts to define integration best practices.
AnLar identified the major steps necessary for data integration, breaking the complicated process down into small incremental steps. Our team developed individual documents for each step in the process, describing the step’s purpose, required activities, recommended state personnel to include, anticipated timeline, and lessons learned from peers and CIID experts. The development of these documents allowed states to independently, or with CIID support, understand, plan and implement each component of the Data Integration Toolkit, resulting in a fully integrated data system, including SLDS and IDEA data.
Skills Used
- Facilitation of discussion of subject matter experts to identify industry best practice
- Refinement of multiple practices into a single coherent process
- Facilitation of multi-stage editorial review of sophisticated process document
- Publication and graphic design (print version)
- Website design & development (online version)
Service Areas
Technical Assistance
AnLar has been a good partner on CIID. In their role, they helped to develop the Data Integration Toolkit. The organization of the steps, tasks and resource in the toolkit did not previously exist in the education data management space and has been used by CIID as a meaningful resource for providing technical assistance to state education agencies.
Bill Huennekens, CIID Project Director
