Request for Certification and Release of Funds Form
Initiation / Planning / Implementation / X / CloseoutProject Name
/ Student, Teachers Accountability reporting System (STARS)Project Number / Date / July 25, 2007
Lead Agency / PED / Agency Code / 924
Other Agencies / None
Executive Sponsor
/ Veronica GarciaProject Manager / Daryl Landavazo
Agency Head / Veronica C. Garcia
Agency CIO/IT LEAD / Robert Piro
Project Description (Provide a brief description and purpose for this project)
Comments: New Mexico Public Education Department (NMPED) was charged to develop clear, concise, consistent guidelines, procedures, and protocols for the collection, verification, analysis, dissemination, and communication of all data collected, and used by the agency as well as that related data and information requested by outside entities. Following the CCSSO (The Council of Chief State School Officer)/DSAC (Decision Support Architecture Committee) recommendations, NMPED selected an e-Scholar based data warehouse and Cognos based decision support tool set. Following the evaluation and selection of the e-Scholar/Cognos based solution, an operational prototype of STARS was developed, reviewed and approved to validate the concept of the STARS design. Following the acceptance of the operational prototype, NMPED further developed the STARS design through a district based pilot program. 11 districts, representing the vast array of districts within New Mexico, volunteered to participate in the STARS Pilot Program. After a successful pilot, STARS was rolled-out to collect data from all 89 districts, 6 State Schools and 52 Carter Schools
Based on the districts ability to submit their SY2007 data for 40th, 80th, 12/1, 120th and End of Year (EOY) via STARS, PED is considering the development, implementation, and roll-out of STARS is almost complete. All student and staff reporting comes directly from STARS data and the STARS Decision Support Tools. FY2006 Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) was reported through STARS, School Budget utilized STARS to compute their 40th day Growth calculation for State Equalization Guarantee (SEG). School Budget utilized STARS to calculate the SY2008 budget projects from 80th and 120th data. Educator Quality calculated and report Highly Qualified Teacher (HQT) utilizing STARS. Federally required data has been submitted to the Federal EdFacts Reporting System utilizing the STARS EDEN Functionality. SY2007 Special Educations performance indicators are being calculated and reported utilizing STARS. Finally, FY2007 testing (New Mexico Student Assessments) and the associated AYP is loaded and calculated in STARS.
STARS is operational. After only 24 months, from concept through implementation, to collecting a full year of Student, Staff, and Financial data, New Mexico Public Education Department has been recognized as having one of the nation’s leading accountability data systems.
As STARS moves into full production mode, NMPED will now focus on enhancing STARS and provide the users with the additional tools and training necessary to make effective use of the readily available data and reports.
The FY2008 legislature appropriated $2,500,000 to support this focus. The appropriation is contingent on PED:
1. Reengineering its business processes before proceeding and expending additional funds.
To conform to this requirement, PED has redesigned the following processes:
· Data Review – districts are now being held accountable for the data they are submitting. In the past PED would often change district data. For the first time districts are now able to submit and review their data immediately after submission and prior to the data being available for reporting. Programs are now able to review and audit data prior to developing reports. If a discrepancy arises between the districts and the PED program, the program must convince the district that their data is incorrect and to resubmit the corrected data.
· Reporting – in the past district and PED users would ask PED IT to run specific reports and send them to the districts. With improved reporting and processes, districts and users are now able to run their own reports based on their needs. Also, powerful decision support tools are available to users to assist them in their reporting needs.
· Program Improvements: With the roll-out of STARS several program have improved their operations
1. Highly Qualified Teacher (HQT) is now automated and documented;
2. Special Education data is electronically created and submitted through EDEN to the Federal reporting system;
3. Error correction for Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) is down from 50,000 errors to 93
4. New Mexico Student Assessment results are now available to the benchmark level.
2. Developing and enforcing reporting compliance
For the first time districts were able to review their data for accuracy prior to submitting their data for reporting. Instead of a massive data review work load on the districts, PED decided to focus each reporting period on a separate data review, based on federal reporting need. Due to this district submissions took longer this year; 40th approximately 66 days; 80th day approximately 60 days; 120th approximately 60 days; EOY approximately 21 days.
1. At 40th day, the focus was on SEG. Like similar years School Budget worked with the districts to complete their data submissions.
2. 80th day, was focused on Bilingual and Special Education and Assessment.
3. 120th day was focused on Educator Quality and HQT
4. EOY focused on SPED, AYP, Perkins Funding, Truancy, and Mobility.
For SY2008, it is expected that the districts knowledge will continue to increase and the time to submit and approve data will continue to improve. To assist the districts, PED will continue to monitor submissions and begin to enforce the submission schedule. PED has defined and documented the data submission processes, requirements, and performance measures to continue to track and improve the time required to submit and certify district period data.
3. Providing monthly status reports to the LFC and OCIO
PED has been, and will continue to, supply status reports and executive briefings to all STARS stakeholders
The appropriation will be divided into two parts:
1. License and Hosting Fees
Estimated at $900,000.
2. Operational Support
A portion of the previous appropriation will be used to fund the legislated term positions estimated at $400,000.
The remaining $1,600,000 will be used to provide support to further develop the tools, reports and training necessary to assist users to fully optimize their use of STARS. Support will include:
§ District/Charter Level Submission Support
§ District/Charter Level Reports and Cube Development
§ Design and development of a Proof of Concept for the Statewide Education User Interface to provide PED and districts with the tools to communicate, collaborate, and manage content and data across the state.
§ Design, develop, and implement STARS security and user provisioning. As STARS is rolled-out to more and more users, Access Control will be a major component of the STARS security strategy. STARS security and user provisioning will develop and implement a plan to manage the access to confidential student, staff and financial data.
Training will continue to include specific district level training related to enhancing access and evaluating the existing aggregated and disaggregated data now available to the districts. Users now have direct access to the student, teacher, financial, and facility data necessary to better evaluate student progress. Training is required to assist district and school personnel to access and interpret the available data.
Planned Start Date / August 1, 2007 / Planned End Date / June 30, 2008
Justification for Certification (Include Appropriations Laws (i.e., Laws 200X, Chapter, Section, Subsection) or budgeted adjustment request; Business Value and/or program Results)
Comments: House Bill 2 (2007), Section 7, page 258, line 1, item 32.(32) PUBLIC EDUCATION DEPARTMENT: 2,500.0 2,500.0
To continue implementation of the student and teacher accountability reporting system. The appropriation
is from the appropriation contingency fund dedicated for the purpose of implementing and maintaining
educational reforms created in Section 12 of Chapter 114 of Laws 2004. The appropriation is contingent on
the public education department reengineering its business processes before proceeding and expending
additional funds and on the public education department developing and enforcing reporting compliance.
The public education department shall provide monthly status reports to the legislative finance committee
and the office of the chief information officer.
Total Appropriated Amount for Current Fiscal Year / $2,500,000 / Amount Previously Certified / $8,650,000.00
Requested Amount this Certification / $2,500,000 / Remaining Appropriation not Certified / 0
Certification History (Include any previous project or phase certifications)
Date
/ Amount / Funding Source(s)May 19, 2005 / $3,000,000 / HB 2 (2005), Section 7, page 249, line 9, item 35.
November 7, 2005 / $3,650,000 / HB 2 (2005), Section 7, page 249, line 9, item 35.
June 13, 2006 / $2,000,000 / HB 2 (2006), Section 7, page 258, line 23, item 29.
Proposed Certification Schedule for Current Fiscal Year (agency to complete for all phases)
Phases / Proposed Amount Requested / Major Deliverable(s) /
Due Dates
Initiation
/ · RFP Administered and solution procuredPlanning:
/ · Final Project Plan· Demonstrate and Deploy Operational Prototype
· Establish STARS hosting environment
· Prototype Acceptance
· Pilot Train and change Management plans
· Pilot Implementation
Project Phase(s)
Implementation: / · District Level Reports
· Extract Tool Pilot
· District and School Training
Implementation: Operational Support / $2,500,000 / · License and Hosting
· Operational Support
· System Enhancements
- District/Charter Submission Support
- District/Charter Level Reports and Cube
- Statewide Education User Interface
- Security and User Provisioning / September 1, 2007
September 1, 2007
December 1, 2007
December 1, 2007
November 1, 2007
February 1, 2008
Closeout:
Project Phase(s)
Appropriation History (Include all Funding source such as Federal, State, County, Municipality)
Fiscal Year
/ Amount / Funding Source(s)FY06 / $6,650,000 / HB 2 (2005), Section 7, page 249, line 9, item 35.
FY07 / $2,000,000 / HB 2 (2006), Section 7, page 258, line 23, item 29.
Budget
Comments: For estimated cost of individual tasks see attached Budget Detail Sheet
Description
/FY05
/ FY06 / FY07 / FY08 / FY09Staff Internal
/ Term Employees / 0 / $400,000 / Included in FY2006 / ($400,000 carryover funds) / $200,000Consulting Services / - Project Mgmt. Support
- QA & IV&V
- Training Services
- District/Charter Submission Support
- District/Charter Level Reports and Cube Development
- Statewide Education User Interface
- Security and User provisioning. / $5,350,000 / $2,000,000 / $1,600,000 / $7,800,000
Hardware / Hosting services / $500,000 / Included in FY2006 / $500,000 / $0
Software / License fees for eSchlor and Cognos Software / $400,000 / Included in FY2006 / $400,000 / $0
Total / $6,650,000 / $2,000,000 / $2,500,000 / $8,000,000
Independent Verification & Validation Approach (Include summary of the latest IV V report)
Comments:The development phase of the STARS implementation has been completed and most “project” related objective of STARS have been accomplished. STARS is in production and the remaining activities are to improve operational support and provide enhancements. As such, PDS, STARS IV&V contractor, has completed their post implementation review. PED realizes the value that an independent view point brings to execution. NMPED will continue to use the monitoring of PDS to periodically review the continued enhancement of STARS.
The IV&V contractor will:
1. Structure an IV&V plan to oversee the project efforts and outcomes in accordance with the State PMO for this project.
2. Participate in STARS project meetings and review project activities.
Significant Risks and Mitigation Strategy
Comments: Without the proper training, the available data and reporting tools available to STARS users may be seen as complex, cumbersome, time and manpower intensive, and having limited usefulness.This appropriation will place additional emphasis on the training and external outreach to mitigate or eliminate this risk. A training plan has been developed to address user training and reporting requirements
Security Strategy (Summarize Plan for Security, Backup and Disaster Recovery)
Comments:The ETL hardware and software required is hosted at an off-site location with all security, backup and disaster recovery addressed by the hosting vendor. Both the project manager and director have visited the site.
The Backup & Recovery plans are part of the original proposal.
Record Retention Policy (Describe the Agency’s records retention requirements for this project)
Comments: NMPED record retention policy addresses the federally mandated requirements for maintaining student and staff data. Due to the new ability of longitudinal data analysis, and the future requirement of tying school level data to potential labor history, it will be beneficial for the state to be able to access student, staff, and financial data across years. As more and more data becomes available for analysis and report needs evolve, a detailed record retention strategy will be developed (after the conclusion of SY2008 data submissions, based on the needs of all constituents).Maintenance Strategy (Describe how the agency plans to maintain this project after deployment)
Comments: PED expects to continue to have e-Scholar manage the application per the RFP. PED will review at contract renewal and determine if New Mexico has the ability to run and manage this critical application for less than or equal funds; and have the ability to meet processing and response time needs. Existing maintenance agreements will be reviewed and modified, if necessary during contract negotiations.Interoperability (Describe how this project interfaces with existing systems/Applications within the agency)
Comments: STARS was designed to be the backbone of NMPED’s application architecture. It was designed in an open, web based architecture that will allow open interfaces to other applications. As STARS is further expanded to accept data from other applications, this architecture will serve the agency during data interfacing activities.Cost Benefit Analysis (Forecast the tangible and intangible life-cycle costs for five years, quantify the return on Investment (roi) and provide assumptions used in calculations)
Comments:
The benefits associated with the continued operations and enhancement of STARS the cost benefit associated with the processing and utilization of data is based on the cost avoidance of reducing unproductive activity. Actual head count reduction is based on district HR actions.
Benefits /
Cost
/ROI (Y1)
/ROI (Y2)
/ROI (Y3)
/ROI (Y4)
/ROI (Y5)
Continued
License and hosting fees
/ $900K - ReoccurringImproved Data Analysis / $1,200K
One time
Improved Data Utilization to improve education / $400K
One time
Total / $1,600K - One time
$900K - Reoccurring
Business Performance Measures for Project Life-Cycle (Complete for all phases)
Phases / Date /
Goals/Objectives/Outcomes
Initiation
/ May 2005 / Strategic Plan and ProcurementPlanning
/ Nov 2005 / Operational Prototype, Pilot CompletionImplementation / April 2006
Aug 2006
Oct 2006
Dec 2006
Feb 2007
June 2007
July 2007
Sept 2007
Oct 2007
Dec 2007
Jan 2008 / Successful Pilot of Data Extract based on Pilot Closeout Questionnaires.
Calculation and Reporting of FY2006 AYP
Successful implementation of SY2007 40th
Calculation and Reporting of FY2008 SEG
Submission of Federal Data via EDEN
Calculation and Reporting of FY2007 HQT
Successful implementation of SY2007 80th, 12/1, 120th, and End of Year submissions.
Calculation and Reporting of FY2007 AYP
District / PED Training Continuation
Enhanced Data Access for District / Charter Schools
PED/District resources effectively trained for enhanced STARS usage.
Post Production Support / Effective utilization of STARS by all users
Closeout
POCD Recommendation
Comments: POCD Recommends approval of the Certification Request contingent on an DoIT approved IV&V. Furthermore, the agency is directed to report back to the DoIT PCC on the status of the Legislative contingencies within the 2007 appropriation.
DOIT Certification Committee Recommendation
Comments:
State Chief Information Officer Approval
NOTE: All Certified Projects Must Follow The State Policies and Procurement Codes