The Office of the State Superintendent of Education (OSSE), in partnership with the Office of the Chief Technology Officer (OCTO) and key public education stakeholders in the District of Columbia, is developing a Statewide Longitudinal Education Data system, the SLED. The SLED’s first components include unique identifiers for students and teachers and will enable the direct certification of students who are eligible to receive free and reduced-priced meals.

Over the SLED’s five-year development period, it will gradually incorporate information from educational data systems throughout the District. Sources will be comprehensive, including data from the District’s public and charter LEAs and from public pre-kindergarten and post-secondary and college institutions. It also ultimately also will include data on students participating in publicly-funded voucher programs in DC’s private schools, and students who attend private schools that receive Title I services under No Child Left Behind.
 
The SLED offers the community a single comprehensive system for standardized information about students’ academic development over multiple years and across the District’s education institutions. Available online through web-based portals, the SLED will include instructional support for educators and provide the community, researchers and other stakeholders information they need to assess outcomes, conduct education analyses and report results.

SLEDWORKS is an open-ended forum, for active and potentially active users of the SLED, designed to deepen understanding about the opportunities for improved data use and change management that an LDS system offers the DC community. SLEDWORKS will be an informal environment for shared learning, dialogue, and for building a proactive professional data use community, which includes a collaboration among schools, the LEAs, and the OSSE. Please contact us if you are interested in participating in the discussion. Our first meeting is planned for early fall. 

• Project Abstract: Developing, Implementing and Sustaining a Statewide Education Longitudinal Data System
• What is the SLED?*
• SLED Background information