Rationale
The primary business rationale for building EDSCOMM has been the undeniable and vital need for easily-accessible, related, inter-linked educational information for the decision-making process. Whether the decision is to undertake an important policy initiative at the state or district level or for parents to decide which school to send their children to, the need for relevant data remains the same. Further, from a management perspective, experience has shown that:
- Data-driven/supported decisions are most often correct. But equally as important, they are also defensible
- Measured, data-driven decision-making process leads to an effective and disciplined style of management, and above all, to success and achievement of objectives.
EDSCOMM is an innovative and comprehensive browser-based solution that brings together all aspects of a typical state's educational reporting and accountability system, allowing the state to usher in a new era in the use of advanced information technology for the betterment of its K-12 education.
Key Objectives
- Provide easy access to up-to-date school, district, and state level educational data across various indicators including test results, student participation, accountability, school characteristics, and more.
- Enable its users to make sense of their educational and accountability data, make informed, data driven decisions and thus help improve the overall quality of education in their state.
Features
Graphical and Comparative Display of School, District, and State-level Data
All relevant, inter-related educational data is presented in graphical format to include school, district, state and national averages. All indicators display 6 years of longitudinal data in tabular format.
Intelligent Design with a User-Friendly Interface
EDSCOMM features intuitive screens replete with insightful and animated charts and graphs. Its self-adjusting menu system only reflects information relevant to each particular school/district.
Easy Search and Selection of Schools and Districts
It allows users to quickly identify schools/districts within a few clicks by school type (i.e., elementary, middle, etc.), location setting (i.e., urban, suburban, rural, etc.), name, and proximity.
Integration With Google™ Maps
Users can easily locate and map schools, including neighboring schools within a specified mile radius as well as filter by school type. Software also includes directions to and from all mapped schools with distance information.
Advanced Multilevel Analysis
It provides users with the ability to perform in-depth analysis for any educational indicator using advanced filtering capabilities by entity, year, and other user-defined criteria and export results to Excel or PDF.
Custom Reports
Users can also generate custom reports by selecting various indicators for a given school, district, or state. Reports include comparative graphical results and can be exported to PDF.
