Minnesota SLEDS

December, 2014 – Developmental education information is now available by high school and graduation year and able to be filtered by demographics. This is the second release of the Minnesota Statewide Longitudinal Education Data System (SLEDS) mobile analytics site.

A developmental education report has been added to the mobile site. This report examines Minnesota public high school graduates from the Classes of 2007-2013 who enrolled in college and those enrolled in developmental education. This report provides insight into the academic readiness of Minnesota public high school graduates.

"Developmental education" is a term used to refer to programs offered by postsecondary institutions to prepare students for success in college-level work. Now, users are able to choose specific demographic filters to view the report through. These filters include: gender, race, economic situation, English proficiency and educational needs.

SLEDS users can learn how many students at public Minnesota high schools are prepared for college, and if they go, whether or not they finish. Data such as this will play a key role in informing Minnesotans about how students are doing and to open up postsecondary opportunities for everyone.

After the first release of SLEDS mobile website, users were able to view data regarding student progress and pathways from secondary education into postsecondary education in an easy to use format. Users can create customized displays by selecting specific graduation years, high schools and districts. In 2015, demographic filtering will be added to all reports.

This addition and update to the mobile analytics site add to the already robust products SLEDS makes possible. Some of the prior products include the Graduate Outcomes data tool from the Department of Employment and Economic Development, Getting Prepared 2014, a report on developmental education in Minnesota by the Office of Higher Education, and the first release of the mobile analytics site in the summer of 2014.

SLEDS is a joint effort from Minnesota’s Office of Higher Education (OHE), the Department of Education (MDE) and the Department of Employment and Economic Development (DEED). SLEDS brings together data from education and workforce to identify viable pathways for individuals in achieving successful outcomes in education and work. It will also inform decisions to support and improve education and workforce policy, helping to create a more seamless education and workforce system for all Minnesotans.

To access the mobile analytics site, visit sleds.mn.gov. Feedback on the mobile analytics site is welcome; please share your reaction or ideas for improvement with sleds.support@state.mn.us.

Data Comparison

Minnesota public high school graduate data includes approximately 500,000 graduate records from 2007 to 2013 with a “Status End” code (“8” or “9”). These data are not the same student cohort counts used by the Minnesota Department of Education (MDE) to calculate the graduation rate. For example, a student graduating from high school in 2011 may be a member of a different MDE graduation rate cohort (2009, 2010 or 2011) depending on whether they took 4, 5 or 6 years to graduate.

Why don’t student counts match? SLEDS included data from multiple sources which may lead to different counts reported here and elsewhere. The differences in counts among sources represent a small percentage of overall students. Connecting data across K-12 and college systems required rigorous methods to match a K-12 student as the same student enrolled in college.

Reasons why student counts differ:

• Graduation Data: A student’s high school graduation information can differ between data systems. For example, one student was reported as graduated from two high schools in two different years.
• Personal Information: If a student’s personal information -- first name, last name or date of birth -- differed between college and high school records, SLEDS did not link the student.
• No Data Found: Some K-12 students could not be located in the higher education data.