As authorized by the Educational
Technical Assistance Act of 2002, Title II, the Statewide
Longitudinal Data Systems (SLDS) Grant Program has awarded
competitive, cooperative agreement grants to states since 2005.
Through grants and a growing range of services and resources, the
program has helped propel the successful design, development,
implementation, and expansion of K12 and P-20W (early learning
through the workforce) longitudinal data systems. These systems are
intended to enhance the ability of States to efficiently and
accurately manage, analyze, and use education data, including
individual student records. The SLDSs should help states,
districts, schools, educators, and other stakeholders to make
data-informed decisions to improve student learning and outcomes;
as well as to facilitate research to increase student achievement
and close achievement gaps. The SLDS grants extend for three to
five years for up to twenty million dollars per grantee, and
grantees are obligated to submit annual reports and a final report
on the development and implementation of their systems. All 50
states, five territories, and the District of Columbia are eligible
to apply, and each state can apply multiple times to develop
different aspects of their data system. Since November 2005, 97
grants have been awarded. In addition to the grants, the program
offers many services and resources to assist education agencies
with SLDS-related work. Best practices, lessons learned, and
non-proprietary products/solutions developed by recipients of these
grants and other states are disseminated to aid all state and local
education agencies. The request to formalize the annual SLDS
Interim Progress Report (IPR) as the SLDS Survey, intended to
provide insight on state and U.S. territory SLDS capacity for
automated linking of K-12, teacher, postsecondary, workforce,
career and technical education (CTE), adult education, and early
childhood data, and to conduct the annual SLDS Survey from 2017
through 2019 was approved in February 2017 with the latest change
request approved in August 2019 (1850-0933 v.1-7). The SLDS Survey
helps inform ongoing evaluation and targeted technical assistance
efforts to enhance the quality of the SLDS Program’s support to
states. This request is to conduct the annual SLDS Survey from 2020
through 2022, and introduces a new online form for data
collection.
US Code:
20
USC 9543 Name of Law: Education Sciences Reform Act of 2002
On behalf of this Federal agency, I certify that
the collection of information encompassed by this request complies
with 5 CFR 1320.9 and the related provisions of 5 CFR
1320.8(b)(3).
The following is a summary of the topics, regarding
the proposed collection of information, that the certification
covers:
(i) Why the information is being collected;
(ii) Use of information;
(iii) Burden estimate;
(iv) Nature of response (voluntary, required for a
benefit, or mandatory);
(v) Nature and extent of confidentiality; and
(vi) Need to display currently valid OMB control
number;
If you are unable to certify compliance with any of
these provisions, identify the item by leaving the box unchecked
and explain the reason in the Supporting Statement.