It has come to PDE’s attention that some LEAs may be planning to use the Data Recognition Corporation’s (DRC) eDIRECT system instead of using Pennsylvania Information Management System (PIMS) in order to generate precode labels for the Winter Keystone Exams. By not submitting your precode data to PIMS, assessment results for students may not match PIMS data. This becomes critical as Keystone Exams become a graduation requirement. If student data does not match the data in PIMS, students may not have record of meeting graduation requirements, which becomes crucial beginning with the class of 2017.

Further, the Pennsylvania Code (22 PA Code §4.51(K)) states that the Secretary will report data and pertinent information about the state assessment system to the Board of Education and the General Assembly each September. In order for the Secretary of Education to report these data, PIMS must be the primary data source.

PDE recognizes that the Data Collection Consolidation (DCC) calendar is new and LEAs are struggling to meet the Sept. 29, 2014, deadline for data submission for the Winter Keystone Exam precodes. For this reason, PDE is extending the internal snapshot from Sept. 29 to Oct. 6, 2014, to allow LEAs to submit the Student, School Enrollment and Programs Fact templates that are required for this collection. Local education agencies (LEA) have until 11:59 p.m. on Oct. 6, 2014, to upload data to PIMS to be able to generate precodes for the Winter Keystone Exams. It is expected that all LEAs will comply.

Please contact the PIMS help desk if you have questions on data fields or you need assistance with uploading your data. The contact information is 800.661.2423 or ra-DDQDataCollections@pa.gov.

Please contact PDE’s Division of Performance Analysis and Reporting (PAR) with other questions at 717.705.2343 or ra-pas@pa.gov.