Aed Bo Eng

InformaciónEducativa Data, information, analysis, planning, solutions… one standard.

Integrated Data Management

Data Acce s Tools s Quer

Authors Sergio Somerville [email protected] Emilio Porta [email protected] Horacio Álvarez [email protected]

y, Reporting, Analys

is

Planning EducationIntelligence

What is EducationInformation?

Problems in education planning

Since the 1980s, public and private institutions have made great efforts to take advantage of advances in information technology to improve their data analysis. While these efforts have been successful, rapid advances in technology have exceeded users' abilities to adapt to these new tools. In most cases, this has lead to confusion and inconsistencies in the adoption of different systems, platforms and data formats.

Planning departments in ministries of education everywhere have a common need for appropriate, quality data. Educational analysis is essential for the development of education policy as well as for the creation of inputs necessary to model, simulate, predict, target resources and evaluate policy. Nonetheless, the analyst faces a number of challenges when gathering and using data to conduct analysis:

The lack of standards for collecting, storing, organizing and processing data is a problem that creates serious difficulties in educational planning. In most ministries of education in Latin America, education analysts spend a considerable portion of their time on the following: a) gathering data from different sources in different formats; b) waiting days or weeks for IT departments to prepare information; and c) standardizing codes, among other lengthy processes. This costs the analyst valuable time, while jeopardizing the quality of results.

EducationInformation is a methodology that generates an integrated platform that includes all the institution's data bases, after establishing all the possible relationships between each data base, and providing the necessary tools to carry out queries, reports and analysis of the information. This innovative focus enables the user to see various sources of information as one unit, with the individual formats of each data base, their relationships, locations and codes clearly displayed.

Incompatible data: data are stored in different data bases, in different formats; Different coding systems: coding standards are generally different, making it difficult to relate the data; Missing data: data required for analysis are not available in a timely manner, resulting in long waits; Obstacles to access: it is not always possible to connect to a data base that may be on an external server; Difficult communication between the planner and the IT worker: the planner must describe the type of data required to a technician that generally does not understand the standards of educational data. Awareness of available data: the analyst may not be aware of all the data available.

ORACLE SYBASE ACCESS EXCEL SQL SERVER

PLANNER

IT

DATA BASES

TECHNICIAN

EducationInformation

1

InformaciónEducativa Data, information, analysis, planning, solutions… one standard.

Why EducationInformation?

Figure 1. Diagnosing data sources.

EducationInformation is a conceptual framework that provides for the organization, administration, access, manipulation, queries, and visualization of data. Some of its main characteristics are: Unifying the data available, establishing standards for the collection of new data; Establishing a new master catalog with individual coding; Transparency of data base formats for the planner and analyst; Providing direct access to data through the intranet or internet; Storage of data in one place; Information technician is not necessary for end user use; Enabling users to visualize all the data available.

How does it work? A complete analysis is made of all available data bases relevant to education. From this analysis the links between the data are established in order to illustrate the relationship between the data and make them accessible. Education Information: Unifies all data bases conceptually, regardless of their original format; Integrates the data under a common structure establishing a data universe; Establishes channels of communication in a clear way; Provides all the tools for links, queries and reports; and is accessible online.

Enrollment Teachers Human Resources

Infraestructure

Programs and Projects Other sources internal and external

Figure 2. Integrated Data Model ORACLE SYBASE ACCSESS EXCEL SQL SERVER

Integrated data Model

Integrator

WEB

Other Applications

STEP 3: A new unique data universe is created with all the possible “education” relations and a master school establishment catalog (See Figure 3).

How is it implemented? STEP 1: All the instances in which the institution requires information for education planning, including different physical servers, database servers, data formats, storage, organization, etc., are analyzed. Everyone who produces data should participate in this process. (See Figure 1.).

Data for Education Planning

Figur3 3. Universe and Relations. Data Base 3 Data Base 1 Data Base 6

School Establishment Catalog

STEP 2: Data from different sources are integrated (See Figura 2.).

Data Base 4

Data Base 2 Data Base 5

2

EducationInformation

InformaciónEducativa Data, information, analysis, planning, solutions… one standard. STEP 4: An interface with query and report tools is developed; this permits the generation of the tools necessary for data analysis (See Figure 4.).

STEP 5: A training program for the implementation and use of the integrated data platform is designed and carried out (See Figure 5.).

Figure 4. Query and Reporting Tools.

Figure 5. Tranning Programs. Charts

Scenario Scenario Tables

Planners

Local Planners

Management

Government Agencies

International Organizations

Civil Society

Generador de Reportes

Maps

Scenario Scenario Graphs

The case of the Guatemalan Ministry of Education In February of 2006, the Ministry of Education (MINEDUC) began the preliminary analysis necessary for the implementation of the “Education Information” project. By August of 2006, MINEDUC had an information platform that integrated all its databases in one setting, which is accessible online.

IMPORTANT The information platform is implemented in Business Objects XI, and provides web access to databases in ORACLE, SYBASE, SQL SERVER 2000, and MS ACCESS.

EducationInformation

GUATEMALA

3

InformaciónEducativa Data, information, analysis, planning, solutions… one standard.

IMPORTANT All the integrated data bases are available to the planner or analyst. Data to be consulted is placed on the upper screen, while data filters are placed on the lower screen.

Example: Calculating Net Enrolment Ratio in Primary Education (7 to 12 year-olds). To calculate the Net Enrolment Ratio in Primary Education, one applies the following formula: NER = (Enrolment in Primary Education (7 to 12 year-olds)) / (7 to 12 year-old population) * 100 The process requires data from two branches (2 queries): “Proyecciones de Población” and “Matrícula

IMPORTANT The “Departamento” and “Municipio” data belong to the “MINEDUC Guatemala” branch.

Query 1: a) Drag data for the query from the “Proyecciones de Población” branch to the upper window: Departamento, Año and Población

b) Drag data and conditions into the lower window Departamento = ALTA VERAPAZ, BAJA VERAPAZ, CHIMALTENANGO, CHIQUIMULA and EL PROGRESO Edad = 7, 8, 9, 10, 11 and 12 Año = 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004 and 2005

4

EducationInformation

InformaciónEducativa Data, information, analysis, planning, solutions… one standard.

Query 2: a) Drag the query data from the “1992-2005 Histórico Matrícula” branch to the upper window: Departamento, Año and Inscritos Inicial

b) Drag data and conditions to the lower window: Departamento = ALTA VERAPAZ, BAJA VERAPAZ, CHIMALTENANGO, CHIQUIMULA and EL PROGRESO Edad = 7, 8, 9, 10, 11 and 12 Nivel = Primaria Año = 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004 and 2005

Step 1: After executing the two queries, two tables are generated: one with population information, and another with enrolment information, both for 2000 2005.

EducationInformation

5

InformaciónEducativa Data, information, analysis, planning, solutions… one standard.

Step 2: Drag the “Inscritos Inicial” column from Query 2 and place it alongside the “Población” column from Query 1.

Step 3: Create a new column, next to “Inscritos Inicial”, to calculate the Net Enrolment Ratio for primary school.

Step 4: Enter the formula and we obtain the Net Enrolment Ratio for primary school from 2000 to 2005.

6

EducationInformation

InformaciónEducativa Data, information, analysis, planning, solutions… one standard.

Step 5: Drag the graphics pane to produce the comparative graphic of population vs. initial enrolment and a graph of the NER.

Step 6: Drag the “Nombre Departamento” data icon and place it above the main table, disaggregating the data by department.

EducationInformation

7

InformaciónEducativa Data, information, analysis, planning, solutions… one standard.

Performance Management Dashboards EducationInformation permits the creation of interactive Performance Management Dashboards. These controls calculate indicators using information from the integrated data platform, and can be set for different time periods.

InformaciónEducativa

8

EducationInformation

InformaciónEducativa Data, information, analysis, planning, solutions… one standard.

Case Study 1: The State of Classrooms and Bathrooms. To develop education infrastructure policy and optimize its resources, MINEDUC Guatemala carried out a School Infrastructure Census to gather detailed information on the state ol buildings, furniture and equipment in Guatemala's schools. The integration of this census to the EducationInformation platform enables the generation of high quality, concise analytical reports. Classroom infraestructure condition:

InteligenciaEducativa

Bathroom infraestructure condition:

EducationInformation

9

InformaciónEducativa Data, information, analysis, planning, solutions… one standard.

Case Study 2: Demand for Education. To predict the needs for the supply of education, MINEDUC Guatemala has integrated the 1994 and 2002 Population and Housing Censuses to its EducationInformation platform. These data make it possible to predict the demand for education in coming years.

InteligenciaEducativa Inicial 0-3 años Preprimaria 4-6 años Primaria 7-12 años Bàsico 13-15 años Diversificado 16-18 años

10

EducationInformation

InformaciónEducativa Data, information, analysis, planning, solutions… one standard.

Education Information Visualization Platform With the goal of bringing education information to the general public, EducationInformation has developed an interface that permits the exportation of this information using Google Earth. The user is able to see photos of schools, their locations, and access information on enrolment, teachers and infrastructure at the school level.

See the plataform at: www.mineduc.gob.gt/ie

EducationInformation

11

InformaciónEducativa Data, information, analysis, planning, solutions… one standard.

Education Information Visualization Platform (Cont.) Select the department of ESCUINTLA and municipality of PALIN. Press “Geográfica”.

Select any of the school centers in the municipality of PALIN. The system will show a photograph of the school center and all the individual schools operating there:

12

EducationInformation

InformaciónEducativa Data, information, analysis, planning, solutions… one standard.

Plataforma para la Visualización de Información Educativa (cont.)

InformaciónEducativa

13