02/05/2015 03:30 PM Senate EDUCATION
| Audio | Topic |
|---|---|
| Start | |
| SCR3 | |
| Presentation: Answers (alaska Navigator: Statewide Workforce and Education-related Statistics) | |
| Adjourn |
+ teleconferenced
= bill was previously heard/scheduled
| *+ | SCR 3 | TELECONFERENCED | |
ALASKA STATE LEGISLATURE
SENATE EDUCATION STANDING COMMITTEE
February 5, 2015
3:30 p.m.
MEMBERS PRESENT
Senator Mike Dunleavy, Chair
Senator Charlie Huggins, Vice Chair
Senator Cathy Giessel
Senator Berta Gardner
MEMBERS ABSENT
Senator Gary Stevens
COMMITTEE CALENDAR
SENATE CONCURRENT RESOLUTION NO. 3
Designating January 25 - 31, 2015, as Alaska School Choice Week.
- MOVED CSSCR 3(EDC) OUT OF COMMITTEE
PRESENTATION: ANSWERS (ALASKA NAVIGATOR: STATEWIDE WORKFORCE AND
EDUCATION-RELATED STATISTICS)
- HEARD
PREVIOUS COMMITTEE ACTION
BILL: SCR 3
SHORT TITLE: AK SCHOOL CHOICE WEEK
SPONSOR(s): SENATOR(s) STOLTZE
01/26/15 (S) READ THE FIRST TIME - REFERRALS
01/26/15 (S) EDC
02/05/15 (S) EDC AT 3:30 PM BUTROVICH 205
WITNESS REGISTER
SENATOR BILL STOLTZE
Alaska State Legislature
Juneau, Alaska
POSITION STATEMENT: Sponsor of SCR 3.
Stephanie Butler, Director of Operations
Alaska Commission on Postsecondary Education (ACPE)
Department of Education and Early Development (DEED)
Juneau, Alaska
POSITION STATEMENT: Presented information on ANSWERS.
Diane Barrans, Executive Director
Alaska Commission on Postsecondary Education Commission (ACPE)
Department of Education and Early Development (DEED)
Juneau, Alaska
POSITION STATEMENT: Provided information on ANSWERS.
ACTION NARRATIVE
3:30:07 PM
CHAIR MIKE DUNLEAVY called the Senate Education Standing
Committee meeting to order at 3:30 p.m. Present at the call to
order were Senators Huggins, Giessel, Gardner, and Chair
Dunleavy.
SCR 3-AK SCHOOL CHOICE WEEK
3:30:56 PM
CHAIR DUNLEAVY announced the consideration of SCR 3.
SENATOR BILL STOLTZE, Alaska State Legislature, as sponsor,
introduced SCR 3 which designates a School Choice Week. He said
the resolution is about the broad concept of school choice that
exists in our public schools - charter schools, technical
schools, home schools, and combinations thereof, serving parents
and their families. He mentioned the Mat-Su School District's
variety of school choices, systems of education that are best
for the students and the parents while meeting the requirements
of education. He noted that Mr. David Boyle requested this
legislation in order to celebrate that educational choices
exist. He reiterated that the educational system that best
serves the student and family should be the primary reason for
the program.
3:35:41 PM
SENATOR STOLTZE praised the great teachers in the state. He
noted the date of the resolution has passed and may be altered.
He said the resolution has no cost. He reiterated that the
primary purpose of the educational system is to best serve the
student and family.
CHAIR DUNLEAVY noted no fiscal note.
SENATOR GIESSEL voiced appreciation for the resolution.
SENATOR GARDNER said she likes the resolution. She remarked that
public schools often are alternative schools and she does not
see them reflected in the resolution.
SENATOR STOLTZE said they are fully recognized in the
resolution. He commented on waiting lists for public school
charter schools.
CHAIR DUNLEAVY applauded the resolution and said he would add
his name as sponsor. He said he was a believer in education and
agreed there were a number of choices in Alaska. He opined that
choice does not have to be controlled by the government.
3:40:32 PM
SENATOR HUGGINS moved to delete "25-31, 2015" on page 1, line 1,
and insert "24-30, 2016" in its place. He instructed to do the
same on page 2, line 6.
There being no objection, the Amendment 1 was adopted.
SENATOR HUGGINS commented that most charter schools would not
like to be considered as alternative schools.
SENATOR STOLTZE agreed that school choice is different than
alternative school. "Choice" is the accurate descriptive word.
SENATOR HUGGINS moved to report SCR 3, as amended, from
committee with individual recommendations and attached zero
fiscal note. There being no objection, CSSCR 3(EDC) was reported
from the Senate Education Standing Committee.
3:43:51 PM
At ease
^PRESENTATION: ANSWERS (Alaska Navigator: Statewide Workforce
and Education-Related Statistics)
PRESENTATION: ANSWERS (Alaska Navigator: Statewide Workforce and
Education-Related Statistics)
3:45:27 PM
CHAIR DUNLEAVY announced a presentation on Alaska Navigator:
Statewide Workforce and Education-Related Statistics (ANSWERS).
Stephanie Butler, Director of Operations, Alaska Postsecondary
Education Commission Department of Education and Early
Development (DEED), introduced herself.
Diane Barrans, Executive Director, Alaska Commission on
Postsecondary Education (ACPE), Department of Education and
Early Development (DEED), introduced herself.
3:46:53 PM
MS. BUTLER began by stating the mission of Alaska Navigator:
Statewide Workforce and Education-Related Statistics (ANSWERS),
which is to deliver outcomes information to Alaska stakeholders
to assess, evaluate, and improve the state's education and
career development spectrum. She said the presentation will
emphasize the privacy and security of the program. She pointed
out that P-20W SLDS means "preschool through grade 20 and
workforce statewide longitudinal data system." Alaska received a
federal grant of $4 million over 3 years which ends on June 30,
2015. The money was distributed to the University of Alaska
(UA), DEED, Department of Labor and Workforce Development
(DOLWD), and ACPE.
She discussed roles of the ANSWERS project: APCE is the project
manager, DEED is the fiscal agent, and the other partners work
within their expertise areas. She related that ACPE has had a
long-term interest in coordinating statewide activities that
promote access and success and also has authority and
responsibility to do so. Additionally, the program would solve
the challenge of access to data, in particular, longitudinal
data, to measure outcomes.
3:50:00 PM
MS. BUTLER discussed why Alaska needs a cross sector P-20W
longitudinal data system. It would allow Alaska leaders to
transform the way programs and outcomes are measured. Currently,
ACPE is only able to measure program input and is not able to
answer if programs make a difference long term and are
effective.
3:51:07 PM
SENATOR GARDNER asked how programs are selected and which ones
are currently being measured and studied.
MS. BUTLER replied that ACPE surveyed stakeholders to find out
which programs were priorities. The targeted priority will be to
determine how K-12 students are performing in the workforce and
what wages they receive.
She continued to explain that another reason for a cross sector
longitudinal data system is to protect confidential student and
citizen data and protected information.
3:53:27 PM
MS. BUTLER explained the privacy and security approach with the
emphasis on protecting individual privacy and security
throughout planning, development, and implementation of ANSWERS.
It is a conservative design approach that prevents the
identification of individual students.
CHAIR DUNLEAVY asked if there is an assumption that all students
will be a part of the data gathering. He asked if there is an
opt-in choice for parents or an adult student option to opt out.
MS. BUTLER replied that there is no opt-in or opt-out policy
because the data has already been collected by partner
organizations. There is an impact on the ability to use the data
if it is missing certain populations. Also, students would have
to be identified in order to let them opt in or out.
CHAIR DUNLEAVY thought the program might be a problem for
Alaskans due to hacking concerns.
MS. BUTLER turned to the project timeline. The project is in
stage 4 - data reporting - and is customized for Alaska. She
described the objectives and operating principles of the data
collection. The first principle is linking current cross-sector
data using transparency and security. The second principle is
maintaining the sharing of data while ensuring privacy of
individual unit records. The third principle is the protection
of individuals' privacy. These operating principles were
formally adopted by the agencies' four CEO's.
CHAIR DUNLEAVY asked who the four CEO's are.
MS. BUTLER answered the president of UA, the commissioners of
Labor and Education, and the executive director of ACPE.
She returned to the operating principles of data collection. The
fourth principle is that data contributors own their data.
Fifth, is that the data value is increased through common
understanding and use, and sixth, that the ongoing ANSWERS
system design and maintenance is able to expand as needed. The
goal is to have a long-life system.
3:59:51 PM
MS. BUTLER said operating principles guide the parameters of the
system design. Data is de-identified and aggregated. Someone in
the community could not identify a specific student. It does not
replace or usurp existing data systems. It uses subsets of data
from various partners' data systems as appropriate to answer
critical questions and use cases. It is based on multi-agency
governance structure requiring input, review, and agreement by
the four founding partner organizations. It addresses cross-
sector queries that cannot be answered by individual partners.
Finally, the output is based on best practices and individual
privacy protections.
4:02:19 PM
She talked about the multi-tiered governance structure which
operates on a consensus model. Each CEO appoints a data/project
manager from their partner organization and an implementation
team. She stressed that stakeholder committees and advisors
guide the project.
CHAIR DUNLEAVY asked for the names of the stakeholder groups.
MS. BUTLER replied that one of the stakeholders are parents.
CHAIR DUNLEAVY asked what the parents' role is.
MS. BUTLER explained that parents provided information about
what educational outcomes they value. They requested to know
which programs and activities are most successful.
She added that teachers, legislators, administrators, school
boards, general public, and board of regents are also
stakeholders.
SENATOR GARDNER said this is the first time she has heard of
ANSWERS and is not aware of outreach to legislators.
MS. BUTLER spoke of significant outreach to a variety of
organizations throughout the state, such as PTA. She termed it
very challenging.
4:06:14 PM
SENATOR HUGGINS asked for two wishes for the program.
MS. BUTLER answered that it would be heavily used and provide
value and the information would be useful to students and
parents so that they can make informed choices.
SENATOR HUGGINS commented that he is not convinced it will be of
use.
SENATOR GARDNER said she feels the same. She acknowledged that
data is very powerful. She asked if the Institute of Social and
Economic Research (ISER) and DOLWD do the same thing with
workforce information data, or if ANSWER would take ISER's data,
for example, and use it in a different manner. She questioned if
it was necessary to have this much data.
MS. BUTLER replied that it is appropriate for a number of
organizations to collect workforce data and ANSWERS is designed
to be a resource for a number of those organizations.
SENATOR GARDNER inquired if ANSWERS is setting up a template or
storage area for information.
MS. BARRANS said that is exactly the goal. She agreed that the
data is found elsewhere. She predicted that workers are
experiencing success in varying degrees and the goal is to find
out why; which programs and districts produce success. She
concluded that ANSWERS takes a granular look at successes and
failures.
SENATOR GARDNER asked how success is defined - by pay scale, job
satisfaction, or employment.
MS. BARRANS responded that it depends on the questions asked.
CHAIR DUNLEAVY asked for the federal government's bottom line as
the grantee.
MS. BUTLER said that the requirement was that the state build a
longitudinal data system.
CHAIR DUNLEAVY asked if the federal government could access the
state's data base.
MS. BUTLER said it was not a requirement of the grant and there
is no intent or design to provide information to the federal
government.
CHAIR DUNLEAVY repeated the question.
MS. BUTLER stated that the federal government has no legal right
to any information.
4:13:05 PM
MS. BUTLER highlighted the governance structure that would exist
after the grant ends. She turned to the roles of high-level
policy questions Alaska developed by the four partners in 2009
and revised in 2012. These questions are designed to identify
high-level information needs, not currently available without
linked data. They determine which data elements are included in
ANSWERS and they require Executive Governance Board approval to
change.
She added more detail regarding privacy and security. An example
of the privacy/security tradeoff was a question posed to ANSWERS
about an individual child in an intervention program. That
information could not be sought because it would require
identifying the child. What is allowed is a look at the sum
total of students who went through a program and then measure
their success.
She discussed the privacy and security protocols. ANSWERS is
designed to separate identifying information from incoming data
so it cannot be exposed, derived by users, or identify
individuals. She shared design considerations to ensure this
happens.
CHAIR DUNLEAVY asked if the commission would support stiff civil
and criminal penalties for any entity or individual that
broached the security.
MS. BARRANS said she was not associated with the Department of
Law, but would consider extra measures or safeguards.
4:18:12 PM
MS. BUTLER showed a diagram of privacy and security systems. She
said the first system is the partner data system where specific
elements are extracted from the identifiable data; the second
system records the de-identified data, and the third aggregates
the data before it is displayed to the public in the fourth
system. She emphasized that the information is isolated and
safeguarded and very segregated.
MS. BARRANS added that transparency is a critical component of
ANSWERS. It is very important that public data elements are
written in plain language so they are very easy to understand.
MS. BUTLER reported that ACPE applied for, and received, money
from a second grant that allowed for research of other state
approaches to similar data systems. She noted that states vary
in their approaches. She described two similar state approaches
and provided examples from Mississippi - LifeTracks, and from
Arkansas - strong privacy protection and research use of data.
Arkansas is actively assisting Alaska with ANSWERS. She used the
Alaska Performance Scholarship Outcomes Report as an example of
the kind of product that could come out of ANSWERS, but involve
much less work.
MS. BUTLER pointed out that the grant ends on June 30, 2015. In
order to achieve sustainability, the goal is to transition from
a project to a program with a Program Management Office (PMO)
that would ensure that ANSWERS adheres to all privacy and
security practices and governance policies, and develops and
updates public reports, identifies emerging stakeholder needs,
and proposes new information products. She noted that it will be
a modular structure and could be used in a variety of agencies.
It is currently scheduled for a three-year incubation period at
ACPE, funded by the Alaska Student Loan Corporation (ASLC)
within ACPE's operating budget with annual costs estimated at
$1.2 million. She concluded that documentation of program
success is more often needed in times of budget crunching.
4:26:30 PM
CHAIR DUNLEAVY thanked the presenters. He noted the $1.2 million
cost and requested more information about the source of those
funds.
MS. BARRANS replied that the money is from ASLC receipts and
will absorb costs for the next three years.
CHAIR DUNLEAVY asked if it was required in the grant to maintain
the program after three years.
MS. BARRANS said the grant required a commitment to seeking a
sustainable model to maintain the function of the system. She
concluded that there are no guarantees.
SENATOR HUGGINS questioned the use of data from Arkansas and
Mississippi. He wondered if this program will make a difference
in 20 years.
MS. BUTLER said she hopes that in 20 years it can be said that
ANSWERS was used to direct resource and policy decisions in such
a way that it was the most efficient, effective use of funds to
serve students.
SENATOR HUGGINS shared that a school board often does not know
how graduates do.
MS. BUTLER noted that an ANSWERS product has been designed to
provide a district feedback report that will show how students
are doing in the workforce and in post-secondary education. This
program has been demonstrated to several districts with
extremely positive feedback.
SENATOR HUGGINS gave an example of inaccurate graduate/dropout
statistics.
MS. BUTLER could not give assurance that 100 percent of students
will be reached, but she felt confident that there would be
vastly improved information, significantly more timely
information, and more students brought back on track.
CHAIR DUNLEAVY mentioned students from out of state and in
various alternative programs. He asked if the fact that not all
Alaskans would be part of the program had been considered. He
revisited the op-in concept. He inquired if federal guidelines
provide that private school and home school students would be
included in the future.
MS. BUTLER said there was nothing in the federal guidelines
relative to that. The Alaska System design is if the student has
at any point during their life touched the Alaska System, the
student's data would be included.
CHAIR DUNLEAVY said more constituents are opting out of the
public school system so they will not be tracked. He cautioned
that future bills might address this issue.
4:35:02 PM
There being nothing further to come before the committee, Chair
Dunleavy adjourned the Senate Education Standing Committee at
4:35 p.m.
| Document Name | Date/Time | Subjects |
|---|---|---|
| SCR 3 - Version A.pdf |
SEDC 2/5/2015 3:30:00 PM |
|
| SCR 3 - Sponsor Statement.pdf |
SEDC 2/5/2015 3:30:00 PM |
|
| SCR 3 - Fiscal Note.pdf |
SEDC 2/5/2015 3:30:00 PM |
|
| SCR 3 - Support Email.pdf |
SEDC 2/5/2015 3:30:00 PM |
|
| ANSWERS Presentation.pdf |
SEDC 2/5/2015 3:30:00 PM |
|
| ANSWERS Summary.pdf |
SEDC 2/5/2015 3:30:00 PM |
|
| ANSWERS Policy Questions.pdf |
SEDC 2/5/2015 3:30:00 PM |
|
| ANSWERS Date Security.pdf |
SEDC 2/5/2015 3:30:00 PM |
|
| ANSWERS Org Chart.pdf |
SEDC 2/5/2015 3:30:00 PM |
|
| ANSWERS Notecard.pdf |
SEDC 2/5/2015 3:30:00 PM |