Administrative Data Request

Evaluation of Strategies to Address Unfinished
Learning in Math (ReSolve Math Study)
Appendix F
Request For Student Administrative Records (Year 1 and Year 2)

May 2023

MEMORANDUM
To:

[Director of Research (or similar position)], [District name]

From:

[Project director and data manager], MDRC

Date:

[Date]

Subject:

First Student Data Request for the ReSolve Math Study

Thank you for agreeing to provide student records data for the ReSolve Math study, an
evaluation of instructional approaches delivered by digital math products. The study is funded by
the U.S. Department of Education, which has contracted with MDRC, a non-profit, nonpartisan
research and evaluation organization, and its partners, to conduct the study.
We thank you for taking the time to meet with us on [date of call] to discuss our data request and
to answer our questions. This document describes our data request in more detail.
[The school years of data requested will depend on whether a district is in Cohort 1 or Cohort 2.
The relevant school years for each Cohort are indicated in parentheticals. Each district’s data
request will include either the school years for Cohort 1 or for Cohort 2.]

Study Schools
[#] schools in your district are participating in the study, with [#] schools selected to use [product
name] in 4th and 5th grade classrooms for two school years [Cohort 1: (SY 2023-24 and SY 202425); Cohort 2: (SY 2024-25 and SY 2025-26)].
The study schools are:
•

[LIST OF STUDY SCHOOLS]

Student Sample
We are requesting student-level data for all 4th and 5th grade students who were enrolled in the
study schools listed above at any point during [Cohort 1: SY 2023-24; Cohort 2: SY 2024-25].
Additional text for districts that require a parental consent process:
We are requesting data for only the 4th and 5th grade students whose parents consented to the
release of their child’s records.
The parents/guardians of these students were asked for their permission to release their child’s
records to the ReSolve Math study team.

2

[Name, position] will provide you with a list of students whose parents/guardians have agreed to
the release of their child’s data, as well as copies of the signed consent forms. Please provide
data for only the students on this list.

School Years and Fields Requested
The study team is limiting our request to only the data that are necessary to conduct a highquality evaluation. To this end, we are requesting four types of information for each student in
the sample (see Table 1):
•

Students’ assessment and course data: We are requesting these data because a key goal
of the study is to examine the effect of digital math products on students’ test scores and
course performance, and to compare the effect of different instructional approaches used by
the products on these outcomes.

•

Students’ characteristics (demographics, special education status): We are requesting
this information so that we can describe the population of students in the study and
compare the characteristics of students in schools that were and were not assigned to use
the digital math products, as well as the characteristics of students that received different
instructional approaches from these products. These variables will also be important in our
analysis of student outcomes because they will serve as control variables that will improve
the precision of our findings.

•

Students’ school enrollment, attendance, and product usage data: Students who use
digital math products more often are expected to benefit the most from them. Therefore, we
are requesting school enrollment and attendance information to describe to what extent
students were present at the school to receive the products. Similarly, we are requesting
data about product usage to describe how often and in what ways students interacted with
the products. This information will help us understand how well implemented the products
were, which is critical to understanding why effects on outcomes were or were not
observed.

•

Data for linking across files: Finally, we are requesting information about students that
will allow us to link the data from students across different files. This linking will allow us
to identify the students that are in the study and to measure their characteristics and their
outcomes across different school years.

We are requesting the fields in Table 1 for [Cohort 1: SY 2022-23 and SY 2023-24; Cohort 2:
SY 2023-24 and SY 2024-25]. Please note that some students may not have been continuously
enrolled in a study school in [Cohort 1: SY 2022-23 or SY 2023-24; Cohort 2: SY 2023-24 or
SY 2024-25]. Please provide the requested data for all students in the sample to the extent
available, regardless of whether they were continuously enrolled in a study school in these
school years.

3

Data Type
Data for linking across files
and school years [if district
is providing de-identified
records]
Data for linking across files
and school years [if district
is providing identified
records]
School of enrollment

Demographics and special
status

Attendance
[State test name]

Table 1. Requested Fields
Fields
Student’s research ID (created by the district)
Student’s random assignment ID (provided by the product vendors)
School year
Student ID
Student name
Student date of birth
School year
School of enrollment in the fall
School of enrollment in the spring
Date of enrollment (if available) (month and year)
Unenrolled (exit) date (month and year)
Gender
Grade level
Month and year of birth (if not already provided in linking data
above)
Race/Ethnicity
Free/reduced price lunch eligibility
Socioeconomic disadvantage or poverty indicator (if your district
has universal free lunch and/or you use an alternate indicator of
socioeconomic disadvantage)
Special education status
Individualized education plan (IEP)/504 status
English Language Learner status/classification
Total days absent
Total days present
Math scaled score
Math proficiency level (Minimal, Basic, Pass, Proficient, Advanced)
Reading/English Language Arts scaled score

[Name of district’s math
formative test(s)], at
beginning, middle and end
of year (BOY, MOY, EOY)
Grades in math
Data about usage of [digital
math product name]

Reading/English Language Arts proficiency level (Minimal, Basic,
Pass, Proficient, Advanced)
Math scaled score (BOY, MOY, EOY)
Math proficiency level (BOY, MOY, EOY)
Course name
Final Grade/Mark Earned (including pass/fail, if relevant)
[Specific fields will be tailored based on which product(s) the
district is using, but will include fields such as: amount of time the
student was logged in to the product, number of lessons and
activities completed by the student, number of times the student was
assessed]
4

Data File Format
Text for districts that can provide de-identified data:
We are requesting de-identified student-level data files with no direct personally identifiable
information (PII) about students.
However, each data file should include:
•

A student research ID created by the district, so that we can link the data for each student
across files. Please create and save an internal roster that includes students’ names (and
other direct identifiers like date of birth) and their research ID, because we will be asking
for additional data on these students next year. Do not share this internal roster with
MDRC.

•

A random assignment ID created by the digital product vendor ([name of vendor and
product selected by the district]). For the study, students in schools using the product were
randomly assigned to one of two instructional approaches delivered by the digital product.
[name, position] at [product vendor] will provide you with a list of the students who were
randomly assigned, and their random assignment ID created for the study. Please include
each student’s random assignment ID in the files shared with MDRC. 1

The data can be shared with MDRC as multiple data files in the format that the district prefers
(.csv, Excel, etc.).
Alternate text for districts that prefer to provide identified data:
We are requesting student-level data files. Each of the data files should include the student’s ID
and their name and date of birth to allow us to link the data for each student across files. 2
The data can be shared with MDRC as multiple data files in the format that the district prefers
(.csv, Excel, etc.).

To protect student confidentiality as part of the research study, MDRC does not have information on student names
(or other direct identifiers). Only the product vendors have this information as part of their agreement with the
district to provide the product to students.
2
MDRC uses strict data security practices to protect the privacy of all information we collect. After receiving the
data files form the district, we will remove students’ name and personal identifiers from the data and replace these
identifiers with an anonymized research ID. The crosswalk that links students’ personal identifiers to their research
ID will be stored a separate, secure location, and access to this crosswalk will be restricted to members of the
research team.
1

5

Data Sharing
Text for a district that is not using a parent consent process (transfer of data is from district to
MDRC only):
MDRC uses Box to securely transfer files. We will set up a Box folder for the transfer of data
files between your district and MDRC. We will email you a link to the Box folder that you will
be able to use to securely upload the data files to the Box folder once they are ready.
Text for a district that has a parental consent process (transfer of data happens in two directions,
because MDRC will also need to provide information to districts):
MDRC uses Box to securely transfer files. We will set up a Box folder for the transfer of data
between your district and MDRC. You will be able to use the Box folder to share the data files
with us once they are ready. MDRC will also use this folder to share the list of students whose
parents have agreed to the release of student records.
To access the shared folder, you will need to register for a Box account. You’ll receive an
invitation to register for a Box account from noreply@box.com, and you’ll then be able to
register for an account.

Data Extraction Fee
If there is a fee for extracting data for the study, please let us know so that we can set up a
payment.

Expected Delivery Date
As discussed on our call, the data should be provided to us by [date].

Future Data Requests
At this time next year, we will submit our second data request for the study. The second data
request will ask for additional follow-up data for the students in this request, as well as data for
4th & 5th grade students who will be new to the study. We will be requesting the same data fields.
Please contact us if you have any questions about this data request or if you would like to
discuss it further. [Data manager name] contact information is [email] and [project director
name] contact information is [email].
According to the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995, no persons are required to respond to a collection of information unless it
displays a valid OMB control number. The valid OMB control number for this information collection is xxxx-xxxx. The time
required to complete this voluntary information collection is estimated to average 960 minutes, including the time to review
instructions, gather the data needed, and complete and review the information collected. If you have any comments
concerning the accuracy of the time estimate(s) or suggestions for improving this form, please write to: U.S. Department of
Education, Washington, DC 20202. If you have comments or concerns regarding the status of your individual submission of
this form, write directly to: U.S. Department of Education, Institute of Education Sciences 550 12th Street, SW, Washington,
DC 20024.

6

MEMORANDUM
To:

[Director of Research (or similar position)], [District name]

From:

[Project director and data manager], MDRC

Date:

[Date]

Subject:

Second Student Data Request for the ReSolve Math Study

Thank you for agreeing to provide student records data for the ReSolve Math study, an
evaluation of instructional approaches delivered by digital math products. The study is funded by
the U.S. Department of Education, which has contracted with MDRC, a non-profit, nonpartisan
research and evaluation organization, and its partners, to conduct the study.
We thank you for taking the time to meet with us on [date of call] to discuss our data request and
to answer our questions. This document describes our data request in more detail.
[The schools years of data requested will depend on whether a district is in Cohort 1 or Cohort
2. The relevant school years for each Cohort are indicated in parentheticals. Each district’s data
request will include either the school years for Cohort 1 or for Cohort 2.]

Study Schools
[#] schools in your district are participating in the study, with [#] schools selected to use [product
name] in 4th and 5th grade classrooms for two school years [Cohort 1: (SY 2023-24 and SY 202425); Cohort 2: (SY 2024-25 and SY 2025-26)].
The study schools are: [LIST OF STUDY SCHOOLS]

Student Samples
In this data request, we are requesting student-level data for two groups of students:
(1) Students who joined the study for the first time in [Cohort 1: SY 2023-24; Cohort 2: SY
2024-25] (Group 1). Group 1 includes all students who were enrolled in 4th and 5th grade in the
study schools listed above at any point during [Cohort 1: SY 2023-24; Cohort 2: SY 2024-25].
You provided data for these students last year [date] as part of our first data request. In this data
request, we are asking for additional data on these students. [Additional text for districts that can
provide de-identified data: We had also asked you to save an internal roster with these students’
names and their research ID].
(2) Students who joined the study for the first time in [Cohort 1: SY 2024-25; Cohort 2: SY
2025-26] (Group 2). Group 2 includes all 4th and 5th grade students who were enrolled in the
study schools listed above at any point during [Cohort 1: SY 2024-25; Cohort 2: SY 2025-26]
7

and who are not in Group 1. These students are new to the study, and we have not yet requested
any data for these students. Group 2 includes:
• 4th grade students in [Cohort 1: SY 2024-25; Cohort 2: SY 2025-26] who are new to
the study schools (that is, they are transfer students who were not enrolled in a study
school in [Cohort 1: SY 2023-24; Cohort 2: SY 2024-25])
• 5th grade students in [Cohort 1: SY 2024-25; Cohort 2: SY 2025-26] who are new to
the study schools (that is, they are transfer students who were not enrolled in a study
school in [Cohort 1: SY 2023-24; Cohort 2: SY 2024-25])
Figure 1 summarizes which students are in Group 1 and which students are in Group 2.
Figure 1. Students in Group 1 (returning to the study)
and Group 2 (new to the study), by Grade Level
in [Cohort 1: SY 2024-25; Cohort 2: SY 2025-26]

4th grade students in
[Cohort 1: SY 202425; Cohort 2: SY
2025-26]a

5th grade students in
[Cohort 1: SY 202425; Cohort 2: 202526]b

Group 1c
Students enrolled in a study
school the previous year
[Cohort 1: (SY 2023-24);
Cohort 2: (SY 2024-25)] and
who are repeating 4th grade

Group 1c
Students enrolled in a study
school the previous year
[Cohort 1: (SY 2023-24);
Cohort 2: (SY 2024-25)],
either in 4th or 5th grade

Group 2
All other 4th grade students
enrolled in the study schools
in [Cohort 1: SY 2024-25;
Cohort 2: SY 2025-26]

Group 2
Students who are new to the
study schools in [Cohort 1:
SY 2024-25; Cohort 2: SY
2025-26]

6th grade students in
[Cohort 1: SY 202425; Cohort 2: SY
2025-26]
Group 1c
Students enrolled in 5th grade
in a study school the previous
year [Cohort 1: (SY 202324); Cohort 2: (SY 2024-25)]

Notes:
a
Most of these 4th grade students are in Group 2 (new to the study).
b
Most of these 5th grade students are in Group 1 (not new to the study).
c
In [Cohort 1: SY 2024-25; Cohort 2: SY 2025-26], Group 1 students could still be enrolled in a study school OR
enrolled in a non-study school in the district.

Additional text for districts that require a parental consent process:
Like last year, we are requesting data only for students whose parents/guardians have
consented to the release of their child’s records.
8

•

Group 1: Last year, we provided you with a list of the students in Group 1 whose
parents/guardians gave permission to release their child’s records to the ReSolve Math study
team, as well as copies of their signed consent forms. You shared data for these students
with our team last year for our first data request. [For districts that can provide de-identified
data: These students are also in the internal roster we had asked you to save.]

•

Group 2: [Name, position] will provide you with a list of students in Group 2 whose
parents/guardians have agreed to the release of their child’s data, as well as copies of the
signed consent forms. Please provide data only for the students on this list.

School Years and Fields Requested
The study team is limiting our request to only the data that are necessary to conduct a highquality evaluation. To this end, we are requesting four types of information for each student in
the sample:
•

Students’ assessment and course data: We are requesting these data because a key goal
of the study is to examine the effect of digital math products on students’ test scores and
course performance, and to compare the effect of different instructional approaches used by
the products on these outcomes.

•

Students’ characteristics (demographics, special education status): We are requesting
this information so that we can describe the population of students in the study and
compare the characteristics of students in schools that were and were not assigned to use
the digital math products, as well as the characteristics of students that received different
instructional approaches from these products. These variables will also be important in our
analysis of student outcomes because they will serve as control variables that will improve
the precision of our findings.

•

Students’ school enrollment, attendance, and product usage data: Students who use
digital math products more often are expected to benefit the most from them. Therefore, we
are requesting school enrollment and attendance information to describe to what extent
students were present at the school to receive the products. Similarly, we are requesting
data about product usage to describe how often and in what ways students interacted with
the products. This information will help us understand how well implemented the products
were, which is critical to understanding why effects on outcomes were or were not
observed.

•

Data for linking across files: Finally, we are requesting information about students that
will allow us to link the data from students across different files. This linking will allow us
to identify the students that are in the study and to measure their characteristics and their
outcomes across different school years.

9

Table 1 lists the specific fields that we are requesting for each student in the sample.
•

For students in Group 1, we are requesting these fields for [Cohort 1: SY 2024-25; Cohort
2: SY 2025-26]: Please note that some students in Group 1 may no longer be enrolled in a
study school in [Cohort 1: SY 2024-25; Cohort 2: SY 2025-26]. Please provide data for
all students in Group 1 to the extent available, regardless of whether or not they were
enrolled in a study school in [Cohort 1: SY 2024-25; Cohort 2: SY 2025-26].

•

For students in Group 2, we are requesting these fields for [Cohort 1: SY 2023-24 and SY
2024-25; Cohort 2: SY 2024-25 and SY 2025-26]. Please note that some students in Group
2 may not have been continuously enrolled in a study school in [Cohort 1: SY 2023-24 or
SY 2024-25; Cohort 2: SY 2024-25 or SY 2025-26]. Please provide data for all students
in Group 2 to the extent available, regardless of whether or not they were continuously
enrolled in a study school in these school years.

Data Type
Data for linking across files
and school years [if district
is providing de-identified
records]
Data for linking across files
and school years [if district
is providing identified
records]
School of enrollment

Demographics and special
status

Attendance
[State test name]

Table 1. Requested Fields
Fields
Student’s research ID (created by the district)
Student’s random assignment ID (provided by the product vendors)
School year
Student ID
Student name
Student date of birth
School year
School of enrollment in the fall
School of enrollment in the spring
Date of enrollment (if available) (month and year)
Unenrolled (exit) date (month and year)
Gender
Grade level
Month and year of birth (if not already provided in linking data
above)
Race/Ethnicity
Free/reduced price lunch eligibility
Socioeconomic disadvantage or poverty indicator (if your district
has universal free lunch and/or you use an alternate indicator of
socioeconomic disadvantage)
Special education status
Individualized education plan (IEP)/504 status
English Language Learner status/classification
Total days absent
Total days present
Math scaled score
Math proficiency level (Minimal, Basic, Pass, Proficient, Advanced)
10

Data Type

Fields
Reading/English Language Arts scaled score

[Name of district’s math
formative test(s), at
beginning, middle and end
of year (BOY, MOY, EOY)
Grades in math
Data about use of [digital
math product name]

Reading/English Language Arts proficiency level (Minimal, Basic,
Pass, Proficient, Advanced)
Math scaled score (BOY, MOY, EOY)
Math proficiency level (BOY, MOY, EOY)
Course name
Final Grade/Mark Earned (including pass/fail, if relevant)
[Specific fields will be tailored based on which product(s) the
district is using, but will include fields such as: amount of time the
student was logged in to the product, number of lessons and
activities completed by the student, number of times the student was
assessed]

Data File Format
Text for districts that can provide de-identified data:
Like in our first data request, we are requesting de-identified student-level data files with no
direct personally identifiable information (PII) about students.
However, each data file should include:
•

•

A student research ID created by the district, so that we can link the data for each student
across files.
o

For students in Group 1, please use the same research ID as in the first data
request, so that we can link students’ data across school years. Students’ research
ID can be found in the internal roster that we had asked you to create for our first
data request.

o

For students in Group 2, please create an internal roster that includes students’
names (and other direct identifiers like date of birth) and their research ID, for
possible future data requests.

o

Please save the internal rosters for Group 1 and Group 2, because we plan to
request data for these students in the future. Do not share these internal rosters
with MDRC.

A random assignment ID created by the digital product vendor ([name of vendor and
product selected by the district]). For the study, students in schools using the product were
randomly assigned to two instructional approaches delivered by the digital product. [name,
position] at [product vendor] will provide you with a list of the students who were

11

randomly assigned, and their random assignment ID created for the study. Please include
each student’s random assignment ID in the files shared with MDRC. 3
The data can be shared with MDRC as multiple data files in the format that the district prefers
(.csv, Excel, etc.).
Alternate text for districts that prefer to provide identified data:
Like in our first data request, we are requesting student-level data files. Each of the data files
should include the student’s ID and their name and date of birth to allow us to link the data
for each student across files. 4
The data can be shared with MDRC as multiple data files in the format that the district prefers
(.csv, Excel, etc.).

Data Sharing
Text for a district that is not using a parent consent process (transfer of data is from district to
MDRC only):
MDRC uses Box to securely transfer files. We will set up a Box folder for the transfer of data
files between your district and MDRC. We will email you a link to the Box folder that you will
be able to use to securely upload the data files to the Box folder once they are ready.
Text for a district that has a parental consent process (transfer of data happens in two directions,
because MDRC will also need to provide information to districts):
MDRC uses Box to securely transfer files. We will set up a Box folder for the transfer of data
between your district and MDRC. You will be able to use the Box folder to share the data files
with us once they are ready. MDRC will also use this folder to share the list of students whose
parents have agreed to the release of student records.
To access the shared folder, you will need to register for a Box account. You’ll receive an
invitation to register for a Box account from noreply@box.com, and you’ll then be able to
register for an account.

To protect student confidentiality as part of the research study, MDRC does not have information on student names
(or other direct identifiers). Only the product vendors have this information as part of their agreement with the
district to provide the product to students.
4
MDRC uses strict data security practices to protect the privacy of all information we collect. After receiving the
data files form the district, we will remove students’ name and personal identifiers from the data and replace these
identifiers with an anonymized research ID. The crosswalk that links students’ personal identifiers to their research
ID will be stored a separate, secure location, and access to this crosswalk will be restricted to members of the
research team.
3

12

Data Extraction Fee
If there is a fee for extracting data for the study, please let us know so that we can set up a
payment.

Expected Delivery Date
As discussed on our call, the data should be provided to us by [date].
Please contact us if you have any questions about this data request or if you would like to
discuss it further. [Data manager name] contact information is [email] and [project director
name] contact information is [email]
According to the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995, no persons are required to respond to a collection of information unless it
displays a valid OMB control number. The valid OMB control number for this information collection is xxxx-xxxx. The time
required to complete this voluntary information collection is estimated to average 960 minutes, including the time to review
instructions, gather the data needed, and complete and review the information collected. If you have any comments
concerning the accuracy of the time estimate(s) or suggestions for improving this form, please write to: U.S. Department of
Education, Washington, DC 20202. If you have comments or concerns regarding the status of your individual submission of
this form, write directly to: U.S. Department of Education, Institute of Education Sciences 550 12th Street, SW, Washington,
DC 20024.

13