EMIS. It ain't free.

Dad often says, “You go to school to find out what you don’t know.” Fellow board member Wendy Myers and I went to school for a couple hours a few weeks ago and found out what we didn’t know. And then we tried to learn about it.
EMIS. Education Management Information Systems. Sounds like a good idea. Having a system. Getting information. About education. Not so fast.
Turns out there are only 6 people in the county who have the job of operating this system and reporting the information to the state. One in each district. Talk about a lonely profession.
They have help. Principals at every school provide some of the data. Teachers, of course send data to the front offices of the schools, and the bulk of the work at the school level is done by the school secretary.
An informal survey was conducted in our district and it was discovered that there are 12 people involved in the process of providing and processing this information on a weekly basis. All together about 35 hours per week. Nearly the total time of one full time employee. Which does not count the one nearly full time employee who processes and sends the data to the state.
We do get reimbursed for this work. But it’s a lot of time when you consider it has nothing to do with providing education, only reporting to the state.
There are overlapping non-consecutive reporting periods each year. Each period requires the submission of different information covering many aspects of the education process. Here are the names of the periods.
October (K), February (C), December (M), March (D), Yearend (N), Graduation (G), July (H), Five Year Forecast (P). No one knows why the periods have those names and letters. It’s a mystery.
To further confuse the process, each reporting period has a beginning and ending data processing date and it changes from year to year. Further, much of the data does not roll over from year to year even if there are no changes.
To add insult to injury, a recent reporting requirement from the state carried a deadline date that came before the forms and processes to submit the data were available from the state. We were admonished for not having reported the information in timely fashion even though it was they who kept us from performing.
The names of the records involved in filing these reports fill nine pages of lists of the elements contained in each record. Huh? Try this. The Student Demographic Record contains 8 different categories. From birth date to Native Language and Gender.
The Student Standing Record has 30 different pieces of data related to a student. An identification number, of course, followed by such things as what building they are in, why and how they came into the district, Unexcused absences and whether they were in attendance during the February and October count week. During any year about 400 of our nearly 3,000 students move in or out of the district.
Other reporting categories cover staff and their various employment and certification details, course offerings and the qualifications of those presenting the material. All reasonable sounding things, and it all takes an incredible amount of staff time to comply.
Those interested in learning more may go to www.ode.state.oh.us , then DATA, then EMIS. Here you will find nearly everything you might want to know about your schools.
Oh yes, I mentioned the reimbursement we get for doing all this. $11,000 per year. That should cover it. Dad never mentioned there are things you don’t know that you don’t want to know.