Opening the Doors to U.S. Department of Education Data: Program, Grant, and Statistical Data

• Activity Number: 288
• Type: Contributed
• Date/Time: Tuesday, August 5, 2014 : 8:30 AM to 10:20 AM
• Sponsor: Survey Research Methods Section
• Author(s): Marilyn M. Seastrom*+
• Companies: NCES/U.S. Department of Education
• Keywords: open government ; data inventory ; metadata ; data access

Abstract

In response to an increased interest in making Government data open and machine readable, the National Center for Education Statistics led the Department of Education's (ED) effort to identify data sources from ED programs, as well as statistical data. This effort started in 2010. A Department-wide committee identified individual data sources. Then, working with ED's OMB submissions and other documentation, metadata were identified and collected to describe each data source. Extant sources were used to identify the data elements in each data source. This information was organized into an electronic hierarchical searchable data base-The ED Data Inventory. The initial rollout in the fall of 2013 included information on the most recent data collection in each identified K-12 data series. This Inventory addresses the mandate identified in the March 2013 Executive Order to provide an inventory of all datasets owned, managed, collected, and/or created by each agency. This is an ongoing project. The presentation and demonstration will provide more details on the structure and content of the ED Data Inventory as of August 2014, how the Inventory works, and next steps.