Delaware has received a $500,000 grant to improve upon previous work that allowed the state to expand its K-12 Education Data Warehouse and Insight Dashboard to include birth through pre-kindergarten data. The grant is the second from the Michael & Susan Dell Foundation designed to help the state better integrate existing data systems.

This funding will help the Delaware Department of Education address a persistent problem: Currently there is not a common definition of educational data that is used in Delaware information systems. This work will enable Delaware to establish a common vocabulary for commonly used education data elements, through adoption of the Ed-Fi data standard, to support the effective exchange, comparison and understanding of this data as students transition through the education system.

“Teachers, school and district leaders and policy makers all need reliable data to help identify and address student needs,” Secretary of Education Susan Bunting said. “This is important behind-the-scenes work that makes that possible, and we are grateful to the Michael & Susan Dell Foundation for its support in helping our state strengthen our system so we ultimately can better meet student needs.”

Lyria Zeh, technical program officer from the Michael & Susan Dell Foundation, said, “We’re excited to continue our work with Delaware in helping them integrate their existing data systems. It’s so important for teachers to have actionable data at their fingertips to help them be even more effective in their classrooms.”

Media Contact: Alison May, alison.may@doe.k12.de.us, 302-735-4006

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