ISES is Closing on Friday at 4 PM

PLEASE DISTRIBUTE THIS MESSAGE TO ALL DISTRICT STAFF WORKING IN WSLS or ISES

This email message is being sent to all Districts Superintendents, WSLS/ISES Administrators, and WSLS/ISES Assistant Administrators in districts that have not yet locked their ISES data. Note that final ISES data were due on November 22. ISES has remained open over the past few weeks to help your district finish the submission process. We appreciate your continued efforts to complete the work. Progress has been made.

We plan to close ISES for this collection year on Friday, December 15 at 4 PM. If your district has no errors or unacknowledged warnings, and if you believe your ISES data are final, then please lock your data now. Otherwise please check your ISES reports and fix any data issues they raise before Friday afternoon.

Your data as of Friday 4 PM will be considered final whether or not you correct or lock your data. Your missing/invalid data, if any, are documented in the ISES error reports for your district. Please give priority to fixing remaining errors tomorrow. If your district has no errors then your data will be reported as they existed on Friday morning. As of this morning 7 districts had more then 10 errors remaining, and 16 districts had more than 10 unacknowledged warnings. If your district has missing or invalid data when ISES closes, then DPI will insert estimated values or codes in affected records as necessary to complete the reporting process.

See below for examples of how estimates will be made.

• Economically Disadvantaged, Primary Disability, and English Language Proficiency. If data in these fields are missing or invalid then they will be replaced with the most common code used for these data elements.
• Days of Attendance. If data for this field are missing, then 0 will be inserted in affected records.
• Exit Information. Missing or invalid Exit Types or missing/invalid data in other fields needed to determine the validity of Exit Types will result in Exit Types being changed to ODO.

Estimated data may not reflect reality so estimation is not the preferred solution to filling data gaps. Reported dropout rates may be too high and reported graduation and attendance rates may be too low. Complete and accurate ISES data are critical to making reliable accountability decisions. Final ISES data will also be used for the 2005-06 School Performance Report (attendance, retention, dropout, graduation rates), 2006-07 3rd Friday September enrollment reporting, and other public reporting, monitoring, grants, and school improvement planning purposes.

Consequences of failure to review specific errors and warnings was sent to WSLS/ISES Administrators in previous emails ( http://dpi.wi.gov/lbstat/esea111706.html ) and phone conversations. Districts are also strongly encouraged to review their ISES progress and summary reports because ISES-generated errors and warnings cannot identify all possible district data issues and because these reports provide a preview of draft public reports based on the data you have submitted so far.

Please contact the WSLS/ISES helpdesk if you have questions or concerns, via phone, 800-507-5744, or via the online Help Desk Expert tool, http://dpi.wi.gov/lbstat/helptool.html.

cc:	DPI list of vendors with active district technology contracts
	State Superintendent's Education Data Advisory Committee
	CESA School Improvement Services Directors

Submit questions, comments, and suggestions about the WSLS or ISES to dpistats@dpi.wi.gov or call 1-800-507-5744.

Submit questions regarding the ESEA Report Card Requirements to dpieseadata@dpi.wi.gov.

For help with this page contact the DPI Helpdesk Expert

Last updated on 2/28/2008 7:56:15 AM