The Education Data Exchange Network (EDEN) is an
automated system
A system is a group of Interaction, interacting or interrelated elements that act according to a set of rules to form a unified whole. A system, surrounded and influenced by its environment (systems), environment, is described by its boundaries, ...
designed to support
data transfer among state and local
education agencies and the
United States Department of Education (ED).
EDEN began as a State Data Network
pilot test among
Oregon,
Nebraska and ED in 1998. At the time all reports on
federal grant programs were written and stored in paper file cabinets in ED program offices, although many of those reports contained similar, and often inconsistent, information. States, particularly the
Council of Chief State School Officers and their data managers, called on ED to automate and streamline the process. Based on the success of the pilot test, the
ffice of Management and Budget(OMB) required ED to institute a Performance-Based Data Management Initiative (PBDMI) in 2000. PBDMI was designed to gather
statistics
Statistics (from German language, German: ''wikt:Statistik#German, Statistik'', "description of a State (polity), state, a country") is the discipline that concerns the collection, organization, analysis, interpretation, and presentation of ...
from each state such as
school populations within subgroups (race, gender, etc.), graduation rates, school spending, and federal program performance. This initiative resulted in EDEN. It was designed to:
* Improve the accuracy, timeliness, and utility of information collected to inform educational management, budget and policy decisions.
* Increase the focus on outcomes and accountability.
* Reduce the education reporting burden by streamlining the
data collection
Data collection or data gathering is the process of gathering and measuring information on targeted variables in an established system, which then enables one to answer relevant questions and evaluate outcomes. Data collection is a research com ...
process and eliminating
redundancy across ED programs.
* Create a
partnership between ED and state and local education agencies to improve
data quality and management through common data standards and collaborative systems planning.
By 2004, all states participated in EDEN. In 2005 ED began to require that all elementary and secondary level federal reports, including those to the
National Center for Education Statistics
The National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) is the part of the United States Department of Education's Institute of Education Sciences (IES) that collects, analyzes, and publishes statistics on education and public school district finance ...
(NCES) be submitted through EDEN.
The ED Office of the
Inspector General
An inspector general is an investigative official in a civil or military organization. The plural of the term is "inspectors general".
Australia
The Inspector-General of Intelligence and Security (Australia) (IGIS) is an independent statutory off ...
and the
General Accounting Office published reports critical of the program's management.
In March 2005, the
Secretary of Education, Margaret Spellings abolished the office administering EDEN and removed all managers from managerial positions.
PBDMI and EDEN data gathering is complicated by the fact that no data sent to federal agencies may contain
private data about an individual student that would violate the
FERPA guidelines. So a state agency cannot just send a list of students and their test scores. A reporting agency can only send summary subgroup data for subgroup populations above a small number such as five.
EDEN data sets consists of three types:
* Statewide data often called State Education Agencies (SEA)
* District or regional data Local Education Agencies (LEA)
* School-specific data
There are
XML representations of EDEN files as well as
XML schemas to validate these files available from the ed.gov file specifications site (www2.ed.gov/about/inits/ed/edfacts/eden/non-xml/c163-8-0.doc).EDEN program data is now (2014) aggregated in the EDFACTS system for all program offices, senior management, and federal reporting. EDEN data collection is now operated out of the NCES.
EDEN received many commendations including from CCSSO, the
Council for Excellence in Government The Council for Excellence in Government was a public/private partnership organization initiated in the 1980s designed to improve the effectiveness of federal, state, and local government in the United States. The organization ceased to operate in ...
, and from the Office of Management and Budget in the President's 2005 Budget submission, EDEN was selected as a model project for in depth review in a 2005 presidential transition Guide for Federal Leaders and Managers. A
General Accounting Office report commended the initiative and recommended increased support for it from ED administration, including making the program mandatory and including NCES reports.
References
* Barry White and Kathryn E. Newcomer (eds) Getting Results: A Guide for Federal Leaders and Managers (George Washington University, 2005).
* U.S. General Accounting Office, "Education's Data Management Initiative: Significant Progress Made, but Better Planning Needed to Accomplish Project Goals". Gao.gov. Retrieved 2013-05-11
Education in the United States