NIU Center for Child Welfare and Education CCWE Data Sets Generating Information About Educational P

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NIU Center for Child Welfare and Education
(CCWE)Data Sets Generating Information About
Educational Performance of DCFS Wards in
Residential/GroupHome Facilities, ILO and
TLPsData SummitChicago, ILMarch 16, 2007
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Data Sets Maintained

• Data set maintained Length of time
  How far back data maintained
  does data go?
• CCWE database 3 years 2004-2005
  
• Individual Student Intervention
• Trainings
• 8th/9th CPS data 2 years
  2005-2006
• Well Being Study data Discrete-year by year
  2001-2002
• Well Being Study data was collected in
  conjunction with a Child and Family Research
  Center of the University of Illinois,
  Champaign-Urbana, and therefore data sharing
  agreements exist.

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Data Systems Used to Collect Data

• CCWE database SQL Server
• 8th/9th CPS data Excel/DCFS Server
• Well Being Study Data SPSS
• Caveat The CCWE at the request of DCFS personnel
  also collects data to examine educational
  concerns at residential facilities. This has
  involved residential students who attend both
  on-ground schools and public/private schools. To
  date, two such studies have been conducted as
  well as a survey of educational programs offered
  by residential facilities.

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Availability of Data for DCFS and POS Agencies

• CCWE database populates DCFS Education Passport
  for individual children and youth
• Monthly data exchanges between NIU-ITS and DCFS
• Monthly and quarterly reports are submitted to
  DCFS
• 8th/9th CPS data shared with DCFS and POS
  agencies on a semester basis for youngsters
  having academic difficulties
• Well being data shared with DCFS on an annual
  basis for DCFS reporting purposes
• Training data shared with DCFS on a quarterly
  basis for
• monitoring and DCFS federal reporting

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Further data availability considerations

• Further availability of well being data may be
  arranged
• The IRB(s) would need to be amended to give POS
  agencies access only to the data for children
  they are contracted to case manage
• It is assumed that because DCFS has guardianship
  of the children, the agency has automatic access
  to the well being data, though data exchange
  arrangements would need to be determined
• The 8th/9th grade data involve school reports
  to DCFS and private agency staff for
  individual educational intervention purposes

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Further data availability (continued)

• The CCWE database is live so
• DCFS could have a live link to all fields
• POS agencies could have access to data on the
  children they case manage
• These would require significant modification of
  the CCWE database with additional costs
  associated with database enhancement and
  increased (by thousands) number of users
• Caveat The data provided via live link is
  already available to DCFS and POS in the
  Educational Passport, since DCFS imports
  information on educational interventions by
  Education Advisors received monthly from CCWE

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Limitation in Publication of Data

• Limitations on publication of the data exist
  only to the extent of protecting individual
  child-specific identification or information

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Limitations to Data Sets

• Well-Being Data The random sample selection
  procedures in each of the three years (2001-2002,
  2003-2004, 2004-2005) were done differently,
  therefore the sample weightings were different in
  each of the first two rounds which limit the
  degrees of freedom when conducting year to year
  comparisons
• Caveat For the next three rounds, simple random
  samples will be drawn by DCFS

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Limitations to Data Sets (continued)

• CCWE Database This database only contains
  information on children and youth for whom
  Education Advisors intervened based on a
  referral, thus limiting generalization to the
  DCFS population as a whole
• Caveat The Unusual Incident Reports, and the
  Administrative Case Review feedback reported in
  the CCWE database does represent the population
  as a whole in that the subset in the database
  represent the portion of the children with
  educational issues as derived from these two
  reporting procedures

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Data Set Reliability

• CCWE Database Reliability concerns are minimal
• 8th/9th Grade CPS questions the reliability of
  some of their own data and the data in this set
  is derived from CPS
• Well-Being Missing data in school file

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Measures Repeated

• Well-Being Data Measures are repeated each year
  new data is collected

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Comprehensive Data Sets

• Well-Being Data Very comprehensive as it gathers
  information across seven variables contributing
  to school success (overage in grade, academic
  program, academic performance, mobility,
  attendance, discipline, health issues)

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Most Significant Information

• Academic performance
• School attendance
• Suspension/expulsion
• Other discipline issues
• Trends by state location

• Academic program
• IEP eligibility
• Overage in grade
• School mobility
• Personnel trained

Proven relationship to accomplishing high school
graduation
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Trends

• Youth in residential/group homes were seven times
  more likely to be in special education than those
  in non traditional foster care and home of
  relative placements.
• Children and youth in specialized foster care
  homes were three times more likely to be in
  special education. Thus, youth in
  residential/group homes had a higher probability
  of being in special education than those in
  specialized foster homes.

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Trends (continued)

• These youth also have fewer credits earned in the
  freshman year than do youth in non traditional
  and relative foster care and in specialized
  foster care.
• They have lower grade point averages (GPA).
• They also have a higher rate of absenteeism.

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Trends (continued)

• The studies of individual residential facilities
  have shown problems with credits toward
  graduation, academic performance, attendance, bus
  discipline, and discipline procedures
  inconsistent with DCFS policy.
• The survey showed problems with school
  enrollment, surrogate parent assignment,
  attendance, academic achievement, discipline,
  credits toward graduation, and coordination with
  public schools.

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Data Utilization

• The data should be used to directly intervene to
  provide better educational supports.
• The training data could be utilized to determine
  who would benefit from specific types of training
  or additional training.
• There should be a data exchange between
  Northwestern University and Northern Illinois
  University for the purpose of identifying
  children who are having educational problems, and
  who are or have experienced trauma to the end of
  developing more appropriate educational supports
  and services.