Marked Present: Recommendations for Building a Framework to Measure Attendance Data Across Learning Models

Published October 2020

Problem

School districts operating under the COVID-19 pandemic have adapted quickly to gather new kinds
of data related to how each student is participating in instruction. The data on if and when individual
students were “remote” or “on campus” or in some other instructional “modality”, and what we can
capture about their activity in that modality, is not just critical operational data today, but will be important
data as districts and state education agencies consider outcomes, efficacy and equity of instruction in
the future. Likewise, we have seen some shifts in attendance processes, and greater interest in data
related to online instructional engagement.

To understand this data – where it is, how it is being captured, what stakeholders are asking for as it
is exchanged, and generally how this data can be used at scale in K12 education – the Ed-Fi Alliance
launched a research project. The goal was to understand:

• If there was new data, and if so what that data looked like.

• How new data elements should be represented in Ed-Fi’s standards and
  technology.

• What ecosystem challenges there are to usage of this standardized data at
  scale in K12.

Ultimately, the Ed-Fi Alliance aims to ensure districts and state education agencies have access to and
can make use of this new data.

White Paper

This white paper was published in PDF format, accessible below:

Open