News about the 2019-20 Report Card
This year, the South Dakota Department of Education will again use SD-STARS to make Report Card data available to school districts before it is released to the public. The department wants to make districts aware of a few important items that are different for the 2019-20 Report Card.
As a reminder, there are two versions of the Report Card: private and public. The private Report Card can be found internally in SD-STARS. It contains personally identifiable information via student rosters and unsuppressed aggregate data in tables and graphs that must not be released to the public. The public Report Card contains information that can be freely shared with the public because the data in it are suppressed for small group size and do not contain student-level data, making it Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act-compliant.
Due to COVID-19, some indicators usually in the report card will not have new data. These include student performance and student progress. Because there are no new data for these indicators, school designations will remain the same as they were in 2018-19. As to what will be in the report card… everything else! That includes English learner progress, graduation rates, completer rates, college and career readiness, educator qualifications, and more.
This year, the department’s Accountability Report Card team made changes to the Report Card based on district feedback. Districts may notice some more functionality with the student rosters, including the ability to filter, and the multiple years of data found within the interactive analysis.
There will be only one opportunity to appeal Report Card data. This opportunity will come prior to the release of the public Report Card, which is tentatively set for Oct. 7. It is critical that district accountability teams take time to review data in the private Report Card and make any appeals during the appeal window, which is tentatively set for Aug. 19 – Sept. 1. See schedule below.
During that appeal window, only people with accountability permissions in SD-STARS will be able to access the private Report Card. There are two levels of accountability permissions: school or district. Contact your district’s STARS Account Manager to ensure you have appropriate access to the private Report Card. STARS Account Managers who have questions or problems with creating accounts, approving accounts, or assigning permissions should contact STARSHelp@state.sd.us.
The department’s accountability team is planning to offer opportunities for districts to learn about and understand their Report Card. Look for these opportunities in your email or through GoSignMeUp.
Key Dates (Tentative) for the 2019-20 Accountability Report Card
Aug. 19 – Sept. 3: Districts have the opportunity to make appeals related to their Report Card data. This is the ONLY appeal window.
Sept. 3: Appeal window closes at 5 p.m. CT.
Oct. 1: Department makes final decisions on appeals.
Oct. 7:
- Department shares state-level data from 2019-20 Report Card
- Press release issued
- Public Report Card goes “live” with state-, district- and school-level data