Navigating the Data Warehouse

Screen shot of Data Warehouse home page — The Maine Department of Education’s Data Warehouse puts data about Maine’s schools in one place where it’s easy to find and easy to understand.

When the Maine DOE released the state’s School Performance Grading System last month, the agency also unveiled the Data Warehouse, a powerful tool that can help educators improve student achievement and the public learn more about Maine’s schools. In addition to hosting the state’s school report cards, the warehouse offers accessible, understandable data on test scores, school spending, student and staff populations, and much more. The Department wants to make using the Data Warehouse as easy as possible for educators, administrators, students, parents and the public.

When you enter the warehouse, you will be prompted to choose one of the following pathways: Snapshots, Data Tables or Growth Model.

Snapshots provide a high-level, formatted look at and comparisons of academic performance, student population, staffing and finance data. In the left column of Snapshots, you’ll find a listing of schools and districts. Feel free to compare your school’s data to any other schools’ across the state. The warehouse allows you to compare up to five school units at a time. Certain educators have password-protected access to data on individual students in order to tailor instruction needs, so rest assured that personal information is secure.
Data Tables offers reports using the raw numbers for a broad range of data fields, including graduates by gender, NECAP performance levels and special education expenditures. Educators may use Data Tables to find schools that have similar demographics, and they may reach out to those schools and work together on improvement. The Data Tables section performs much faster than Snapshots because there are no images.
Growth Model presents a graphical and numerical look at how student achievement has changed from year to year at an individual school, in a particular district or in the entire state of Maine. This type of student percentile growth model is the most commonly used model in the United States. The system requires two years’ worth of data to build growth, so schools may be lacking certain growth information as a result. Be sure to check out the “Report Criteria” feature at the top of any district’s or school’s Growth Model page. By clicking “View Report Options,” you can filter by free and reduced lunch rate, gender and grade level, among other criteria.

Depending on your reason for visiting the Data Warehouse, you may be interested in one of these pathways or all three. If you get stuck, click the “Help” button located in the upper right-hand corner of any page. A new window will appear with instructions on using that particular page.

If you are experiencing long wait times using Internet Explorer, Firefox or Safari, try downloading Chrome for your computer, phone or tablet for free. Chrome has proven to be the fastest browser when using the Data Warehouse.

Educators can learn more about the Data Warehouse through the Maine DOE’s school improvement webinar series, a recurring opportunity for educators to better support student success. The first webinar, presented June 6, highlights how schools can use the Data Warehouse to inform data-driven decision-making. This webinar has been recorded and archived on our Educator Resources page, where you will find recordings of the entire webinar series in the future.