SIF Data Collection 101

Melissa MarinoData Collection SupervisorOctober 2014

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Agenda Status of SIF initiative

How to approach reporting via SIF

SIF Error Reports overview

Common issues

SIMS Data Transmission with SIF

SCS application with SIF

What’s new for October 2014

Contact Information and Questions

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Status of SIF initiative SIF = Schools Interoperability Framework

SIMS and SCS currently configured for SIF

3rd SIMS collection with SIF

2nd SCS collection with SIF

197 districts live in SIF as of September 17th

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SIF: A Different Approach

SIF changes the way we think about report date

Legacy flat file approach: the report date is when you start working – you cut the file and then clean errors

SIF approach: the goal is to view and clear your errors prior to report date, so you are ready to submit on report date

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SIF Error Reports

To view your error reports, click on the SIF Error Reports link on the Security Portal home page

In order to see the SIF Error Reports link, make sure you have the below security roles

For SIMS, the security role is:  SIF Adhoc District

For SCS, the security role is:  Student Course Schedule

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SIF Error ReportsDepending on your access, you will see a list of

the different collections, then the different reporting levels for districts or schools

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SIF Error ReportsFor instance, by clicking SIMS>District Reports, we see

the report links shown below

Choose Report 2 – SIMS Validation Error Report – District Level for a breakdown of all errors by error

type

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SIF Error Reports When you select any report link, a prompt page

opens where you select your district from a drop-down list. Click Finish to run the report and view the report details.

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SIF Error Reports Report 2 displays a list of errors by type with

counts of each error type

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SIF Error ReportsThe error detail link displays the error message, the SASID affected, and the values of all the relevant data elements

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SIF Error Reports When changes are made in your SIS, they are

detected in our system. Quick validations are run every 15 minutes and full validations are run every hour for districts whose data has changed. The upper right corner of the error report displays the dates and times that the data was last validated.

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Common IssuesYour error reports say “No Data Available”

There is most likely a connectivity issue.

Contact your SIS vendor to ensure that your SIF agent is on and sending 2014-15 events.

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Common IssuesYou are making changes in your SIS but your

error reports are not refreshing

If the error you expect to see cleared is a quick validate error, wait 15 minutes. If it is a full validate error that you expect to clear, wait an hour.

If you don’t see the report refresh after that, contact your SIS vendor. They should be able to check the event transaction logs to confirm that your agent is working properly and that events are being pushed to ESE.

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Next Steps When your data is error free, you will see the

below message. Your data is now in submitted status.

You are now ready to move on to the SIMS/SCS application(s) to view summary reports and freeze your data

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SIMS Data Transmission The SIMS Data Transmission application will

display the number of QV and FV errors in your data

There is the option to download your data and view summary reports

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SIMS Data TransmissionIf your data is error free, you will see the below screen when you go to SIMS Data Transmission. From here, you can either freeze your data, or go to more options to download your data or request summary reports

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SIMS Data Transmission Click Freeze to take a snapshot of your SIMS

data. The Request Final Summary Report button will be enabled and the Freeze button will become Unfreeze

Click Request Final Summary Report to review your data.

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SIMS Data Transmission If you discover an inaccuracy in the summary

reports, click the Unfreeze button and make the necessary changes in your SIS. Those changes will be captured when the next quick or full validation is run

If the summary reports are accurate, click proceed to certify

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SIMS Data TransmissionClick the Certify button. A final full validation will be run on your data to make sure no errors came through since last full validation was run. If the certification is successful, you will get a confirmation message.

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SIMS Data Transmission If you do have an error when clicking certify,

you will see a message like the one below. You must unfreeze, correct the error, and request new summary reports before clicking certify again.

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Student Course ScheduleThe Transmit Data and Validate Data screens will display the total number of records and total number of errors. There is also the option to request summary reports.

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Student Course ScheduleWhen your data is error free, you can proceed to Step 4, Cross validate.

Click Freeze to take a snapshot of your SCS data.

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Student Course ScheduleWhen you click Freeze, a final full validation will run to make sure no errors came through since last full validation was run. If you do have an error, when clicking Freeze, you will see a message like the one below.

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Student Course Schedule

If you don’t have any errors when you click the Freeze button, the Cross Validate button will become enabled

Click Cross Validate to validate the SCS data against certified SIMS data and submitted EPIMS data. Cross validation errors are displayed the same way as with legacy reporting

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Student Course ScheduleWhen your cross validation errors are cleared, you

are ready to certify

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New for October 2014: SCS

SCS4034 and SCS4036: 2 new SCS data validations that are looking for at least one ELA and one Math course for general education students in grades 6 through 10, to assist the Early Warning Indicator System (EWIS).   

We anticipate the need for exceptions and will grant those where necessary.

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New for October 2014: EPIMS

Educator Evaluation Fields (SR28-34) should be reported as “99” for all staff for the October submission.

Staff Attendance (SR36 and SR37) should be reported with the attendance numbers as of October 1 for all active staff. Exited staff should be reported with 0 for each field.

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Contacts

For questions about data collection, contact your ESE Data Collection Support Specialist

Locate the name of your specialist at

http://www.doe.mass.edu/infoservices/data/fts.html

My contact information:Melissa MarinoData Collection Supervisormmarino@doe.mass.edu

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QUESTIONS?