Education Organization Indicator Entity

This section describes the introduction of the EducationOrganizationIndicator entity into the Ed-Fi data model, provides background and rationale, and provides guidance for its application in the field. 

Background

When first designed, EPDM had around 25 different facts-style entities to track aggregate data within the model. These included entities like EducationOrganizationFacts, which tracked data for an education organization, or EducationOrganizationStudentFacts, which tracked student-specific data at an education organization. Typically, a facts table contained:

• The entity the facts were about (e.g., education organization, survey, course, and so forth)
• FactsAsOfDate, the date for the end of the measurement period
• Any number of "facts" measurements, such as:
  • Total number of students or staff at an education organization
  • Total number of students receiving free or reduced-price lunches
  • Number of applications received at an education organization

The Ed-Fi data model is generally student-centric (though with the addition of EPDM, it has become more person-centric) and was not designed to represent aggregate data. Many of the facts-style entities were initially identified as necessary during the development of use cases, leading to the creation of these entities for EPDM. Most of these entities were unused in the field. 

In an effort to simplify the model, unused facts entities were identified and removed from EPDM. We identified two facts-style entities frequently used by early adopters, and thus deemed critical to the success of EPDM. These two entities, EducationOrganizationFacts and EducationOrganizationStudentFacts, would remain in the model.

There was a design issue with the facts table pattern, though. While we could produce a predictable default set of aggregates, every institution implementing EPDM would have different values beyond that base set they would need to track. This meant that facts tables were better aligned with an entity that allowed user-definable key/value pairs. The Ed-Fi data model already has an established pattern for this in the model, the indicator pattern (primarily used for the StudentIndicator entity). Using StudentIndicator as a starting point, the EPDM team introduced the EducationOrganizationIndicator. With the introduction of EducationOrganizationIndicator, EducationOrganizationFacts and EducationOrganizationStudentFacts have been removed from the model.

EducationOrganizationIndicator Entity

The EducationOrganizationIndicator entity, a refinement of the StudentIndicator pattern, provides facilities for an implementer to store aggregate values for an education organization without necessitating a change to the model.

Model Overview

The following table shows the structure of the EducationOrganizationIndicator entity:

Each element is described below.

IndicatorTitle

The IndicatorTitle is a descriptor value that represents the title of the indicator being measured. Adding a new value for this descriptor will create a new "fact" or indicator to measure. EPDM provides a default set of indicators based on measurements used in early EPDM implementations as well as requests from the EPDM community:

• Administrators Employed
• Teachers Employed
• Students Enrolled
• Students Eligible for Free Reduced Price Lunches
• Students with Limited English Proficiency
• Students in Special Education
• Hiring Rate
• Retention Rate
• Retirement Rate
• Projected Vacancies
• Actual Vacancies
• Average Salary
• Average Years Employed in District
• Application Count

DesignatedBy

DesignatedBy is a string representing who is responsible for the indicator. Could be a person, education organization, or specific department. This value is optional.

IndicatorValue

IndicatorValue is a string representing the value or measurement of the indicator. This is an optional field with an empty value representing data not submitted.

IndicatorLevel

IndicatorLevel is an optional descriptor value to be used in place of IndicatorValue. This allows values from a predefined set.

The default values provided for EPDM:

• Excellent
• Good
• Average
• Below Average
• Unsatisfactory

IndicatorGroup

IndicatorGroup is an optional descriptor value used for grouping indicators together.

The default values provided for EPDM:

• Student Enrollment
• Student Academics
• Student Assessment
• Student Programs
• Student Demographics
• Staff Demographics
• Staff Employment
• Survey Response

Period

Period is an optional begin and end date for indicator measurement.