§ 70-3-161. Student Tracking and Reporting (STAR) Pilot Program.

A.  There is hereby created the Student Tracking and Reporting (STAR) Pilot Program.  The purpose of the Pilot Program shall be to provide for the development and implementation of a horizontal school district and school site level student data management and reporting system based on the Schools Interoperability Framework (SIF) industry open-standard.  The developed student data management and reporting system shall provide horizontal articulation of student academic data, student demographic data and other relevant student information.  Horizontal articulation shall assimilate the data from the classroom level, to the school site level, and to the district level, with the capability to analyze and disseminate the data back to the school site and classroom level when required by teachers and administrators to support informed and improved classroom instruction.  The student data management and reporting system shall vertically interoperate with the Oklahoma State Student Information System, referred to as the Wave Program.  Vertical interoperability shall allow for the student data management and reporting system to exchange necessary and requested student data elements with the Wave Program.  Nothing in this section shall prohibit the State Board of Education from developing and defining student data elements necessary for the Wave Program.  The Pilot Program shall incorporate the following objectives:

1.  Provide for academic performance reporting at the district level for all students in grade levels five, eight, ten and twelve.  Academic performance reporting shall include report card grades, student performance results from multiple standardized assessments, including at least one norm-referenced assessment, Oklahoma State Testing Program results for grade levels five, eight, and End-of-Instruction assessments, and ACT college entrance examination scores when applicable;

2.  Provide for a horizontal data aggregation system at the school district and site level that facilitates storage, retrieval and distribution of data both horizontally, at the school district and site levels, and vertically to the Wave Program, including all necessary student data elements to support academic performance reporting;

3.  Provide for a reporting structure at the district level that shall address all state and federal reporting requirements, including those specified in the federal act known as the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB), and data elements used in determining district and site academic performance data.  The district level reporting structure shall also provide for the transfer of aggregated school district and site level data in Extensible Markup Language (XML), an industry open-standard data format, to both state and federal agencies if required by the agencies in an aggregated format;

4.  Develop, define and implement necessary data elements and codes to meet reporting requirements to support horizontal articulation of data at the district and site level and to provide effective transfer of data for state and federal reporting.  Provided, that if SIF or the State Board of Education has not defined data elements and codes necessary for the development of the student data management and reporting system, the participating pilot program school districts may create the necessary data elements and codes to support horizontal articulation of data at district and site levels and to provide effective transfer of data for state and federal reporting requirements.  Nothing in this paragraph shall prohibit the State Board of Education from defining data elements and codes not defined in the SIF specifications for the Wave Program and from requiring all school districts, including the pilot program school districts, to use the data elements for the vertical transfer of data.  These data elements and codes may include, but are not limited to, expanded student entry, gain and loss codes and unique course identification codes;

5.  Provide for a historical data warehousing system at the school district and site levels to archive and retrieve comprehensive student data in order to provide all Pilot Program teachers and administrators with the necessary student academic performance indicators, including report card grades and multiple assessment data, to inform and improve instructional programs at the classroom level;

6.  Provide for the aggregation of student performance credentialing at both school district and site levels.  The Pilot Program schools shall develop credentialing criteria that shall include, but is not limited to, all areas of academic performance as outlined in paragraph 1 of this subsection, plus additional performance indicators pertaining to life skills, citizenship, and when applicable, employability skills and career awareness/exploration.  Pilot Program schools shall develop a summary or condensed portfolio of student credentialing results within the transcript of all graduating students, to include cumulative credentialing data for students from grades six through twelve.  The student credentialing portfolio shall be developed so that it can be electronically distributed via secure vertical transmission.  Any transmission of a student portfolio to institutions of higher education and to other entities such as potential employers shall comply with the provisions of the Family Education Rights & Privacy Act (FERPA);

7.  Provide for a continuous school and student improvement framework through the measurement of comprehensive, cumulative student growth by analyzing multiple academic performance measurements.  Such measurements shall document relative growth over time so as to determine continuous improvement at the individual student, grade and school-wide levels; and

8.  Provide for professional development in the use of techniques and tools to improve student achievement to teachers in the Pilot Program.  Provide training to administrators and support personnel in the implementation of the student data management and reporting system.

B.  The student data management and reporting system shall be designed to deliver specific data to the Wave Program as is required.  Options shall be explored to facilitate the future development of secure data delivery systems at district and site levels that shall provide information to parents, students, teachers, administrators and the community regarding student, site and district level academic growth.

C.  The Pilot Program participants shall utilize a system for data articulation and continuous improvement that is currently being utilized or developed by a school district or districts in the state as the model for the Student Tracking and Reporting Pilot Program.  The model system shall include the following proven capabilities:

1.  Proven systemic methodology to electronically generate state and federal reports;

2.  Proven methodology to manage, analyze, and securely deliver student academic and performance data to administrators and teachers;

3.  Two (2) or more years implementing a horizontal articulation solution based on the SIF specifications; and

4.  One (1) or more years implementing a horizontal articulation solution allowing for interoperability between multiple SIF specification versions and with a demonstrated capacity in using a Zone Integration Server (ZIS) application that provides for the exchange of student data between more than five disparate education software systems and a ZIS that utilizes more than five industry-built SIF agents.

D.  There is hereby created the Student Tracking and Reporting (STAR) Coordinating Committee.  The Committee shall consist of five (5) members as follows:

1.  One member to be appointed by the Speaker of the Oklahoma House of Representatives;

2.  One member to be appointed by the President Pro Tempore of the Senate;

3.  One member to be appointed by the Governor;

4.  One member to be appointed by the Superintendent of Public Instruction; and

5.  One member who represents OneNet appointed by the Chancellor of Higher Education.

E.  The State Superintendent of Public Instruction shall call the first meeting of the Committee within thirty (30) days after the effective date of this act.  The Committee shall select a Chair of the Committee from among the members at the first meeting.  Subsequent meetings of the Committee shall be held at the call of the Chair or by a quorum of the members.  The Committee shall meet at such times as is necessary.

F.  Members of the Committee shall receive no compensation for serving on the Committee, but shall receive travel reimbursement as follows:

1.  State agency employees who are members of the Committee shall be reimbursed for travel expenses incurred in the performance of their duties by their respective agencies in accordance with the State Travel Reimbursement Act; and

2.  All other Committee members shall be reimbursed by the State Board of Education for travel expenses incurred in the performance of their duties on the Committee in accordance with the State Travel Reimbursement Act.

G.  The STAR Coordinating Committee shall select five public school districts to participate in the Pilot Program.  One school district shall be selected from each of the four quadrants of the state.  One school district shall be selected from a large urban area in the state based on population.  The Committee shall establish criteria, including but not limited to technical capacity and knowledge criteria, that school districts shall be required to meet in order to qualify to participate in the Pilot Program.  The Committee shall select the participating school districts by September 15, 2005.

H.  The STAR Coordinating Committee shall develop standards and procedures necessary for carrying out the objectives of the Pilot Program and for acquiring resources, materials, and software for the Pilot Program.

I.  At the direction of the STAR Coordinating Committee, the State Board of Education shall contract with experts or specialists and for training, materials, and software as is necessary to accomplish purposes of the Pilot Program.

J.  By July 1, 2006, the STAR Coordinating Committee shall report on the progress and developments accomplished through the Pilot Program.

Added by Laws 2005, c. 443, § 2, eff. July 1, 2005.  Amended by Laws 2013, c. 83, § 8, eff. July 1, 2013.