The Challenge
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To work with a group of local authorities to define the requirements of an online application (EPAS – Educational Performance Analysis System), supporting a range of diverse users in their goal of improving educational performance through the analysis of data. The goal was to design a highly flexible database and application framework which:
- Fully satisfies known, and in cases very demanding, requirements
- Has the flexibility to support significant extensions in scope as new requirements emerge through system usage
- Will cater for changes in educational policy with minimal, or no redevelopment.
It was established that the provider would have to disseminate through EPAS, over 40 million items of result level data annually, together with reliable and accurate analysis. Initial data and analysis needs were to be provided against extremely tight timescales with updates supplied in a controlled fashion as late results are available and changes are made to scoring frameworks.
RM Data Solutions’ Approach
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To meet the requirements of the NCER RM Data Solutions set up a user group. This group was comprised of representative Local Authorities (LAs) to take the role as customer for the project. Working together with the user group, RM Data Solutions established the agreed criteria for the analysis considering the following:
- Different, and sometimes conflicting, LA requirements
- Future developments in terms of educational data, performance indicators and LA priorities
- A stated objective of sharing best practice in data analysis
- The balance between richness of functionality and usability
An initial prototype system was developed to validate requirements and establish technical feasibility. This prototype was presented to the wider NCER user base for feedback to solicit views on future requirements and on priorities for implementation. Some of the requirements for EPAS identified by the LAs were that it:
- Enables flexible benchmarking for schools, groups of schools or LAs by comparison against statistical neighbours, user defined groups or national figures
- Gives the ability to carry out National analysis against data at an individual result level
- Supports analysis utilising socioeconomic data and historical trends
- Controls access to sensitive data based on the type of user
- Enables individual LAs to define their own criteria for analysing data utilising information taken from their local systems
- Can be extended from being an analysis system for use by LA staff and school improvement partners to allow direct access by schools
Outside of end user requirements, operational requirements were also reviewed. These include requirements for:
- High levels of security and usage auditing in view of the sensitive person level data being accessed
- Data updates to be provided in a controlled fashion with users being provided with prior warning of the nature and scope of changes.
This approach enabled the system’s database, system functions and operational processes to be designed to encompass the full scope of requirements.
Benefits Realised
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The first phase of the system was released to users early 2008, and is currently being actively used by over 120 LAs.
EPAS has provided LAs with their earliest view of their complete set of educational attainment data, and the means of immediately analysing their data against benchmark groups. Users have particularly benefited from the flexible design of EPAS as it has enabled analysis to be included to cover last minute statutory requirements.
The Future
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Subsequent releases to the operational database to reflect changes made to scoring frameworks and the receipt of late awards have been implemented with minimal disruption to users. RM Data Solutions are confident that the systems design will cope with future changes on the education sector, including the introduction of the new diploma and the discontinuation of KS3 testing.
Images
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Below are some examples of the EPAS system.
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