As part of an overarching strategic direction to improve student performance and meet the requirements of No Child Left Behind (NCLB), The Council of Chief State School Officers (CCSSO) working with the Center for Educational Leadership and Technology [CELT], provided the Tennessee Department of Education with a series of recommendations on how to improve data governance and utilize data warehouses to enhance efficiency and student education. The Tennessee Department of Education selected Oracle to create a solution to meet these challenges. Working closely with Oracle Consulting, the organization developed a data warehouse based on Oracle Database, Oracle Warehouse Builder and Oracle Fusion Middleware components including Oracle Application Server, Oracle Business Intelligence Standard Edition and Oracle Portal.

"The Oracle team has been a tremendous asset to the Tennessee Department of Education," said Tim Webb, deputy commissioner for the Tennessee Department of Education. "The Department has greatly benefited from Oracle Consulting's professionalism, work ethic and proactive approach to challenges. The team used the Oracle tools to build high-quality systems in very short time-frames. The data warehouse, Report Card system, Highly Qualified Teacher application and accompanying reports will serve Tennessee schools well."

Integrating Data to Generate Valuable Reports
The state of Tennessee has a very complex school system that comprises 136 districts with 1,700 schools. The Tennessee Department of Education needed a solution that would allow it to generate reports across the entire state and make that data available to both the department and individual school districts. Historically, the department has relied on aggregate data collections from school districts to generate consolidated reports—a time-consuming and often error-prone process. The department also was limited in its ability to drill down into the data to the individual student level and provide useful, timely reports back to each district. The Oracle software allows the department to easily and quickly generate accurate, up-to-date student reports.

For many years, the department has been able to collect data at the individual student level across the state. With the Oracle tools and data warehouse, the department can better cleanse, combine, and report the data, improving data accuracy and reporting for the department's data managers and districts. The department's Oracle-based data warehouse generates comprehensive reports in five key areas: assessment data (state-level standardized assessment grades), attendance data, exit status data (student enrollment, student withdrawals and graduation rates), student discipline data (suspensions and expulsions) and truancy data. The department is also working to allow districts and schools to access data on student course enrollment, reporting on Special Education (to comply with IDEA) and teacher qualifications.

Streamlining Regulatory Compliance
With the Oracle system, the department also was able to more easily meet reporting requirements for NCLB's Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) and attendance reports. The attendance report requires each district to provide attendance records for each of eight individual student subgroups—African American, Caucasian, Hispanic, Asian, Native American, English Language Learners (ELL), Free and Reduced Price Lunch or Economic Disadvantaged and Special Education.

With Oracle Business Intelligence Standard Edition, the department can now quickly create reports from its data warehouse helping it to more easily meet reporting requirements for NCLB and deliver quality data back to each individual school district.

With its Oracle-based data warehouse, the Department was also able to release its redesigned annual state Report Card (http://www.tennessee.gov/education/reportcard/), which provides a profile of academic achievement, demographics, discipline, and attendance and graduation rates for the entire state, as well as for each school district and individual school. The report card provides educators, parents and the public with important information about Tennessee's public schools.

"The Oracle system helped us to issue the most accurate, comprehensive Report Card we have released in ten years," said Connie Smith, assistant commissioner and head of accountability, Tennessee Department of Education.

"The Tennessee Department of Education is focused on providing superior and consistent data in order to comply with government regulations and identify areas for improvement so it can enhance education and student services," said Mark Johnson, senior vice president, Oracle Public Sector. "Oracle's technology solutions—paired with the department's aggressive technology strategy and commitment—enabled the organization to leverage its wealth of data to help improve student performance."

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