How can CEDS help establish and maintain an inventory of data sources and data properties?

The CEDS tool, Align, allows you to build or upload a data dictionary (see the Mapping Toolkit) and supports data management efforts, such as identifying data sources and data properties. Align stores information about the properties including:

• Location in the Data Source (System, Database, Table, etc.)
• Property Name and Identifier
• Definition
• Option Set and Option Set Definitions
• Property Length
• Property Data Type

Versioning of the data properties is also supported by copying an Align map, including the alignment to CEDS, and updating or adding properties for the new version. The versions can then be compared using map-based reports.

How can CEDS help establish standards for naming and defining data properties and option sets?

Establishing standards for naming and defining data makes it easier to locate data, and increases the quality of the data by facilitating a clearer understanding of what a particular data property represents. CEDS has a vast education vocabulary containing properties and option sets from Early Childhood, K12, Postsecondary, Adult Education, and Workforce that can help you move towards standardization. The properties, option sets and definitions are derived from widely recognized standards that have been in place for many years and are made available for you to adopt.

You can also view the definitions and option sets used by your peers by viewing their maps. You can select the properties that interest you to find others who also collect that data by running an property-based report, and/or you can find the Align maps you are interested in by running a map-based report.

How can CEDS help with cataloging data?

CEDS Connect can help create transparency in how the data being collected are used by cataloging them within a Connection. For example, creating a Connection around a required Federal report lets you specify what data properties are needed for the report, and provides a detailed explanation of how those properties are used (aggregated/analyzed) to produce the results.

Additional Resources.