Data Periods

The SDG has the capability to simulate the passage of time through a given school year via the concept of data periods. At the most basic level, a data period is simply a period of time for which the SDG will generate and output data. Mutators, when present, run at the end of each data period. 

Date period Name elements will be used when crafting output file names so that data can easily be grouped by time period for bulk loading. The most frequent use case is data periods which neatly align with school calendar periods such as grading periods, terms, or school years.

Data Period Configuration

Data periods are defined in the SDG XML configuration file and have the following restrictions:

• The beginning of the first data period MUST be the same as the SchoolCalendar.StartDate configuration element
• Data periods MUST have a Name property
• Data periods MUST be consecutive and non-overlapping (including weekends and school holidays)
  • Data periods will typically have EndDates that fall on a Sunday and also include school holidays (like winter break)
  • SDG is smart enough to only produce output on instructional days or as appropriate for non-instructional days
• The final data period MAY end prior to the end of the school year

The following listing shows an example data period configuration.

<DataClock>
		<StartDate>2016-08-22</StartDate>
		<EndDate>2017-05-08</EndDate>
		<DataPeriod Name="First Six Weeks">
			<StartDate>2016-08-22</StartDate>
			<EndDate>2016-10-02</EndDate>
		</DataPeriod>
		<DataPeriod Name="Second Six Weeks">
			<StartDate>2016-10-03</StartDate>
			<EndDate>2016-11-13</EndDate>
		</DataPeriod>
		<DataPeriod Name="Third Six Weeks">
			<StartDate>2016-11-14</StartDate>
			<EndDate>2017-01-02</EndDate>
		</DataPeriod>
		<DataPeriod Name="Fourth Six Weeks">
			<StartDate>2017-01-03</StartDate>
			<EndDate>2017-02-12</EndDate>
		</DataPeriod>
		<DataPeriod Name="Fifth Six Weeks">
			<StartDate>2017-02-13</StartDate>
			<EndDate>2017-03-26</EndDate>
		</DataPeriod>
		<DataPeriod Name="Sixth Six Weeks">
			<StartDate>2017-03-27</StartDate>
			<EndDate>2017-05-08</EndDate>
		</DataPeriod>
</DataClock>