Did You Know?

Michigan's School Code Master Turns Data Into Useful School Evaluation Tool

The Center for Educational Performance and Information (CEPI) has the duty of collecting, analyzing, and reporting Michigan educational data so that policymakers, researchers, school administrators, and parents can better assess the performance of Michigan public schools.

State and federal laws require Michigan’s K-12 public schools to collect and submit data about students, personnel, and individual schools to the state and federal government. Districts submit their data to CEPI, which stores the data in a warehouse. Data also come from The College Board, ACT Inc., the National Center for Education Statistics, and the U.S. Department of Commerce.

Researchers at CEPI then use the information to produce mandated reports and perform specialized analysis to assist in the development of policy initiatives to improve student and school performance.

The information is stored and managed in a Web-based system called the Michigan Education Information System (MEIS). The MEIS contains five core databases: single record student database, school infrastructure, registry of educational personnel, financial information database, and student assessment information database (test performance data).

The following is a more detailed description of each database:

• The Single Record Student Database (SRSD) includes public student counts (headcount data), non public student counts (headcount data), public student graduation/dropout data, free and reduced lunch counts, special education counts, and student reports. CEPI collects these data three times a year during the school year. Specifically, this database contains discrete information about individual students such as age, gender, race and ethnicity, and program participation.
• The Registry of Educational Personnel (REP) includes various data and reports pertaining to administration, teachers, and paraprofessionals. Data also includes staff counts by full-time equivalent (FTE), educational level, and other demographics. CEPI collects these data two times a year.
• The School Infrastructure Database (SID), maintained throughout the year by districts, includes information
  about safety practices and incidences of crime in public schools, Title I school wide programs, and dual
  enrollment.
• The Financial Information Database (FID) contains information from districts’ annual financial reports, balance sheets, revenues, and district and school expenditures. CEPI collects these data once a year during the school year.
• The Student Test and Achievement Repository, still under development, is expected to contain student, school, and district performance data (such as Michigan Educational Assessment Program (MEAP), General Educational Development (GED), Advance Placement (AP) scores, ACT, Preliminary Scholastic Aptitude Test (PSAT) results, etc.).

The School Code Master (SCM), the official school identification database, is designed to tie these five databases together. The SCM consists of data on public school buildings (including public school academies), nonpublic schools, local school districts, intermediate school districts, institutions of higher education (IHEs), and virtual schools. Visitors to the CEPI Web site can use the SCM to download data sets, print reports, generate mailing lists and labels, and produce customized data sets.

For more information, contact: CEPI, (517) 241-CEPI (2374), CEPI@michigan.gov.

Source: CEPI SCM Brief, April 12, 2001 and the CEPI Web Site, www.michigan.gov/cepi.

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