Project Planning

Request for Certification and Release of Funds Form

All Certified Projects Must Follow NM State Policies and Procurement Code

Project Name

/ NMPED Education User Interface (EdUI)
Project Number / Date / June 10, 2008
Lead Agency / PED / Agency Code / 924
Other Agencies / None / Project Phase

Executive Sponsor

/ Veronica C. Garcia
Project Manager / Austin Buff
Agency Head / Veronica C. Garcia
Agency CIO/IT LEAD / Robert Piro
Project Description (Provide a brief description and purpose for this project)
NMPED has successfully deployed the STARS data warehouse. The collection, validation and reporting model is the first major step towards being able to utilize data both at the state and district levels. In the project the roll out of the NMPED Education User Interface will allow users the ability to easily access STARS data to make quality decisions through the use of information.
With the previous appropriation NMPED developed the Proof of Concept for the NMPED Educational User Interface. It is a prototype model of the Education User Interface that will be further developed and rolled out is stages as funding permits to key stakeholder groups through out the state. The primary purpose of this Request for Certification and Release of Funds is to execute the planning activities required to initiate this development initiative. Based on this certification, it is NMPED’s intent to return to DoIT for implementation certification, with all of the required planning documentation complete, including the Project Management Plan (PMP), IV&V review of project risks, and Vendor contracts in place.
When fully funded there are two primary objectives for the EdUI:
1.  To provide district’s users with an easy-to-use interface to access disaggregated student information which can be utilized to improve instruction and student achievement. This currently funded portion of the EdUI will develop the framework and deliver the mechanism for a comprehensive web-based program interface that enables users to readily access reports, manage curriculum, administer benchmark assessments, track teacher professional development, manage district website content, and provide access to individual student performance data.
2.  To continue direct district support by developing and rolling out a district outreach program to help district users understand and utilize the data resident in STARS. With the availability of a District’s longitudinal Student, Staff, and Financial data all resident and readily accessible in one system, districts have the unprecedented ability to analyze and utilize the data to enhance student and staff performance. Having the data available and utilizing it to make informed decisions will challenge many districts. By further developing our data quality campaign, implementing common best practices, and developing user friendly dashboards, districts within the State of New Mexico will have information and tools to effectively use the data they have submitted. Unfortunately, some districts still do not have the capability to effectively access and utilize the data in such a way. This appropriation will allow PED to develop a statewide program that will centralize best practices, yet allow for district autonomy. The appropriation will also allow PED to develop additional data quality tools and provide additional support to smaller rural districts to allow them the same opportunity to improve student performance through use of data as the larger urban districts.
EdUI further develops the agency’s goals and objectives as defined in the initial STARS Project Plan where New Mexico recognizes the need to develop a system that:
·  Meets requirements of Federal and State Law
·  Addresses Concerns/Directives of the Legislature
·  Capitalizes/Builds on existing and future technologies
·  Ensures cost effectiveness and accountability
·  Emphasizes student performance
·  Ensures the validity, reliability, and reportability of respective data sets
·  Presents information in a meaningful way to clients, and
·  Is easy to use
To help the State of New Mexico meet its educational goals, EdUI will provide the following benefits:
·  EdUI will feature a powerful and actionable means with which to examine present and apply data.
·  EdUI will enable easier compliance with district and school reporting through enhanced tools and processes for reporting and decision making.
·  EdUI will further train key stakeholders on effective ad-hoc reporting and data query techniques.
·  EdUI will position the State to include Pre-K and post secondary student data into STARS
·  EdUI will enable districts to make standards-aligned benchmark testing an integral part of the data warehouse.
·  EdUI will provide a framework to integrate curriculum and instruction and diagnostic data from ongoing assessments to help curriculum and instruction leaders, as well as teachers, influence student performance
·  Widespread adoption, along with consistent use of “best practices,” is the critical key to tapping the true power of STARS. EdUI will develop the framework to incorporate end-to-end professional development services to facilitate these objectives.
·  EdUI will provide the framework to apply to tools to create a “connected learning community” - an engaged and flourishing community across all PED stakeholders.
·  EdUI will offer a powerful collaboration and communications solution.
Planned Start Date / July 1, 2008 / Planned End Date / June 30, 2009
Amount Requested this Certification / $550,000
Amount Previously Certified / $400,000
Remaining Appropriation not Certified / $700,0000
Total Appropriated Amount (include any new funds) / $1,650,000

Certification History (Include any previous project or phase certifications)

Date
/ Amount / Funding Source(s) (use specific citations to laws, grants, etc.)
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.
$2,500,000 / HB 2 (2007), Section 7, page 258, line 1, item 32.
Proposed Certification Schedule for Current Fiscal Year (agency to complete for all phases)
Phases / Amount Requested /

Major Deliverable(s) / Performance Measure(s)

/

Due Dates

Initiation:
/ $150,000 / Project Certification
Planning:
/ $550,000 / Project Management Plan including Vendor Contracts. / August 1, 2008
Staff:
/ $200, 000 / Term Staff (2)
IV&V:
/ $ 50,000 / July 1, 2008
Implementation: / $700,000 / Technical Specifications, System Rollout; Training; Operational System / June 30, 2009
Closeout: / Closeout Checklist / July 2009

Appropriation History (Include all Funding sources, e.g. Federal, State, County, Municipal laws or grants)

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.
FY08 / $2,500,000 / HB 2 (2007), Section 7, page 258, line 1, item 32.
Budget
Comments: Per HAFC/H 2,3,4,5,6 and 10, aa – Page 259. Section 7, page 259, line 7, Item 35.
PUBLIC EDUCATION DEPARTMENT:1,650.01,650.0
For the implementation of the student and teacher accountability reporting system educational interface and enhanced data collection and reporting. 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 upon the public education department reengineering its business processes before proceeding and expending additional funds, developing and enforcing reporting compliance and moving two term full-time-equivalent positions paid from non-recurring funds to permanent full-time-equivalent positions in the base budget.
Description
/

FY07 & Prior

/ FY08 / FY09 / FY10 / FY11
Staff - Internal
/ Term Employees / $200,000
Consulting Services / ·  Project Mgmt Support
·  QA & IV&V
·  MOSS Programming Support
·  Education Content Expertise
·  MOSS Security SME
·  Cognos Training/ Report Writing
·  Microsoft Reporting Services / $1,300,000
Hardware / Microsoft Server/Hosting / $50,000
Software / License/ Support fees for MOSS / $100,000
Total / $1,650,000

IT System Analysis

The proposed development meets the technical objectives of NMPED. It is NMPED’s intent to house and support the development environment with the confines of the NMPED data center. The system administration personnel (platform administration) will be located at NMPED. During development, the production technical requirements will be developed and the location of the production environment will be determined. To reduce network traffic, the present strategy is to locate the application software, system administration, and security administration as close to the data source as possible.
One of the objectives of this project is to identify and evaluate the alternatives available to PED for the continued operational support of the STARS environment.

business Continuity Strategy

One of the objectives of this project is to identify and evaluate the alternatives available to PED for the continued operational support of the STARS environment.
STARS is hosted at an off-site location with all security, backup and disaster recovery addressed by the hosting vendor. The Backup & Recovery plans are part of the original proposal which can be provided upon request.

Security Strategy (Application and Data Security Process, Plan, or Standard)

The EdUI Proof of Concept has identified several security requirements to comply with privacy and confidentiality, specifically with FERPA. PED will develop a plan to conduct a ‘security assessment’ during the 40th day data submission period. This assessment will allow PED to develop an action plan to address the data exchanges specifically for students and staff.

Independent Verification & Validation (Include Status of IV V Process)

The STARS implementation has been completed and all “project” related objective of STARS have been accomplished. STARS is in production and the remaining activities are in operational support. As such, PDS, STARS IV&V contractor, has completed their post implementation and project close-out reviews. Although, STARS is in full operation, this phase introduces a new development effort associated with the Education User Interface. PED realizes the value that an independent view point brings to execution. NMPED will continue to use the periodic monitoring of PDS to periodically review the EdUI.
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 EdUI project meetings and review project activities.
3.  Conduct reviews earlier in this development effort versus post-activity reviews. PED needs issues identified early in the development when they can be addressed.

Significant Risks and Mitigation Strategy

Risk 1: Technical Expertise with MS SharePoint.

Mitigation 1: Three members of the PED staff are experienced and will be committed to this development effort. Training and coaching will be funded as needed.

Risk 2: Funding availability.

Mitigation 2: Break this portion into two components – planning and implementation. Request adequate funding to plan and develop the project plan.

Record Retention Policy (Describe the Agency’s records retention requirements for this project)

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 to 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 based on the needs of all constituents and consistent with procedures currently in place.

Maintenance Strategy (Describe how the agency plans to maintain this project after deployment)

In support of the state’s direction to consolidation internally, PED employees will be responsible for the development and maintenance of the Education Interface. Training and updates are an integral part of the planning and funding requests.

Interoperability (Describe how this project interfaces with existing systems/Applications within the agency)

STARS receives data from ’source systems’ state-wide using a ‘data extract, transform, and load’ (ETL) strategy with predefined data templates and procedures. Information retrieval (reporting) is done using the standard web interfaces (primarily Micro Soft Explorer).
STARS does not introduce or require any software or hardware for access.

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Revision: 2/14/08 Page 5