Data Overview | Michigan Education Data Center

Data Overview

K-12 District Finance

The financial data files contain data commonly reported for MI school districts including expenditure, revenue, and balance data. Data are sourced from the State of Michigan’s Financial Information Database (FID). Data from the 2004-2022 school years are available. Future year's school year data will be added on.

K-12 Finance Balance

Record Level: District by year by fund by account (Major Class)
Record Count: 34,000-42,000 fund/account records per year
Years Covered: 2004-2022
Population Coverage: District balances at the level of individual funds and accounts
The district finance balance dataset contains information on the balances in specific district allocation accounts. Each allocation observation is unique within district and year on one of Fund, Suffix, or Major Class, although each Fund, Suffix, and Major Class are seen multiple times within a district and year. Working with the file will generally require some...

Data Dictionary:

K-12 Staff Demographic, Employment and Assignment Data

The K-12 staffing data, also known as the Registry for Educational Personnel, contain individual-level records on all education personnel for the academic years 2004-05 through 2019-20. While these data include information on employees from any educational entity in Michigan, the level of information recorded is not uniform for all employees. Private schools, for example, are able but not required to participate in the data collection. Additionally, for some positions (i.e. non-instructional) only a limited number of fields are required to be reported, regardless of the type of entity. These data are contained in nine datasets, which we categorize into the following three broad topical areas: Assignment, Employment, and Demographics; Education and Certifications; and Mobility. Note that some of these datasets could be used by researchers as a standalone product, but others should not due to differences in how and when districts record terminations and leaves of absence.

The...

Data Dictionary:

K-12 Student Demographic and Enrollment Data

Highlights

Record Level: Student by school by year
Record Count: approx. 1.7 million students per year
Years Covered: 2004-Present
Population Coverage: Public school students in Michigan

The K-12 student data contain commonly requested longitudinal student-level educational data from the K-12 environment. Available datasets reflect information about K-12 graduation, enrollment, demographics and program participation. Sources for these data include the Michigan Student Data System (MSDS) Fall, Spring, and End-of-Year General Collection Submissions, MSDS Teacher Student Data Link (TSDL) Collection, Educational Entity Master (EEM), and the Graduation and Dropout Application (GAD). While the panel extends back to 2004, availability of specific variables will vary for earlier years.

Only public school students are included in the data sets. In addition to K-12 students, these data include pre-K students and special...

Postsecondary Student

The postsecondary researcher data files contain commonly requested longitudinal student-level data from the postsecondary educational environment. The data is organized into 5 datasets: base, enrollment, program, coursework, and awards. These datasets reflect information about postsecondary student demographics, enrollments, programs, courses, cumulative progress, and degrees/certifications (referred to as awards). Data from the 2010-present school years are available.

The primary data sources for the postsecondary researcher data are the Student Transcript and Academic Record Repository (STARR) and the National Student Clearinghouse (NSC). STARR is a collection of student data from all Michigan public institutions and some independent institutions. NSC is a national database of postsecondary student information from most colleges nationwide. The information collected from STARR is more detailed than that obtained from NSC, but we use the NSC data to track the progress of...

Early Childhood Demographics and Program Enrollment

Highlights

Record Level: Student by year by collection by program
Record Count: approx. 50,000 students per collection per year
Years Covered: 2012-Present
Population Coverage: Student participants in state-funded early childhood programs

The early childhood researcher files contain commonly requested longitudinal student-level demographic and program data reported in the early childhood MSDS collection. Available datasets reflect information about early childhood demographics, and program participation. Currently, only four early childhood programs are required to report data to CEPI: GSRP (Great Start Readiness Program), GSRP/Head Start Blend, Sec 32p, and Sec 32p(4). However, several other early childhood programs are included. Data from the 2012 school year onward are available. Future year's school year data will be added near the end of the following summer. Early childhood data is obtained in three separate...

K-12 Student Assessments - Career and College Readiness

The Career and College Readiness researcher file contains commonly requested student-level assessment data from the K-12 environment pertaining to college and career readiness for students.This dataset reflects information about career and college readiness assessments administered by the Michigan Department of Education and also Advanced Placement examinations throughout the state. Administered tests include SAT (current), ACT (retired), PSAT (current), and WorkKeys (current). Data covers all students from private, home schooled and public schools who have participated in these assessments. Prior to 2014-2015, ACT was a component of the MME assessment. For 2014-2015, it was given as its own assessment. Tests were administered during the spring each year. Data from the 2007-2008 school year forward are available. Future years’ data will be added on an annual basis as data become available. Note that prior to the 2015-2016 school year, the ACT was retired from testing by the MDE,...

Postsecondary Educational Institutions

Highlights

Record Level: Entity by year
Record Count: 9,500 institutions
Years Covered: 2008-Present
Population Coverage: Institutions of Higher Education (IHEs) in the United States

The Postsecondary Entity researcher file contains information about higher education institutions such as physical address, level (two-year or four-year), and control (publicly or privately owned). This includes both Michigan IHEs and out-of-state institutions. Michigan institutions comprise around 3% of the data. Data from the EOY 2008 collection forward are available. Data are collected annually, and are regenerated in entirety annually, merging all previously reported data with the most current reporting year’s data.

Some fields (HIGHER_ED_CODE, OPEN_DATE and physical address) are only provided for Michigan institutions. Data available for out of state institutions include state, IPEDS (Integrated Postsecondary Education Data...

K-12 Special Education Finance

The K-12 Special Education Finance researcher files contain information about transportation expenditures and other expenditures regarding special education services. The files contain special education expenditures reported by school districts (LEAs & ISDs) on the SE-4094 and SE-4096 forms. Future year's school year data will be added on.

K-12 Special Education Finance Expenditures

The special education expenditures dataset contains information on expenses related to providing special education services to students. Data from the 2018 fiscal year is available.

K-12 Special Education Finance Transportation

The special education transportation dataset has details on the expenses around transporting students that receive special education services; this includes personnel and materials. Data from the 2007-2018 fiscal year are available.

K-12 Student Assessments - English Language Learner

Highlights

Record Level: Student by Year by Assessment
Record Count: 65,000-100,000 records per year
Years Covered: 2007-Present
Population Coverage: Data covers all students from private, home schooled and public schools who have participated in these assessments. While private and home schooled students are included in this dataset, they are not advised for reporting unless specifically researching questions around those groups of students.

This English Language Learner Assessment Researcher file contains commonly requested student-level assessment data from the K-12 environment pertaining to English language learner assessments. These assessments are composed of the English Language Proficiency Assessment (ELPA) and the WIDA. The ELPA was administered to K-12 students identified as English Learners until the 2012-13 school year, and the WIDA has been administered since the 2013-14 school year. We have data...

K-12 Student Assessments - Accommodations

Highlights

Record Level: Student by Year by Assessment
Record Count: 139,000-282,000 records per year
Years Covered:2008-Present
Population Coverage: Data covers all students from private, home schooled and public schools who have participated in these assessments

This Assessment Accommodations Researcher file contains commonly requested student-level assessment data from the K-12 environment pertaining to accommodations on state administered tests, such as MI-Access, MEAP-Access, M-STEP, MEAP, MME, ELPA and WIDA. Data covers all students from private, home schooled and public schools who have participated in these assessments. Data from the 2007-2008 school year forward will be included. Future years' data will be added on an annual basis as data become available. We have records on accommodations on assessments for over 590 thousand students. With regards to each specific assessment, we have records for 170...

K-12 Student Assessments

Standard Assessments

Highlights

Record Level: Student by Year by Assessment
Population: Students in the Michigan K12 educational system
Information Contained: MSTEP, MEAP, and MME Assessment scores
Years Covered: 2007-Present

Description

The K-12 Student Assessments - Standard data contains student-level assessment data from the K-12 environment. Available datasets reflect information about the standard assessments which are (typically) required to be taken by Michigan students to capture the performance of the K-12 educational system. Each record (row) in the dataset is a student's assessment scores for a single year. Michigan Education Assessment Program (MEAP) was administered in the Fall from 2007 to 2013. Michigan Merit Exam (MME) was administered in the Spring from 2008 to 2014. Michigan Student Test of Educational Progress (M-STEP) has been administered in the Spring from 2015 to 2023, excluding 2020 due...

K-12 Staff Education and Certification

The K-12 staffing data, also known as the Registry for Educational Personnel, contain individual-level records on all education personnel for the academic years 2011-12 through 2018-19. While these data include information on employees from any educational entity in Michigan, the level of information recorded is not uniform for all employees. Private schools, for example, are able but not required to participate in the data collection. Additionally, for some positions (i.e. non-instructional) only a limited number of fields are required to be reported, regardless of the type of entity. These data are contained in nine datasets, which we categorize into the following three broad topical areas: Assignment, Employment, and Demographics; Education and Certifications; and Mobility. Note that some of these datasets could be used by researchers as a standalone product, but others should not due to differences in how and when districts record terminations and leaves of absence. We describe...

K-12 Educational Institutions

Highlights

Record Level: Entity by year by collection
Record Count: approx. 9,000 institutions
Years Covered: 2006-Present
Population Coverage: K-12 education buildings in the state of Michigan

The K-12 building dataset holds information on the various educational entities in the state, including 9,200+ entities, 1,000+ school districts, and 57 ISDs in the state of Michigan. Data from the 2006 academic year forward are available. Future year's school year data will be added near the end of the following summer. Data are retrieved in three different collections per year: Fall, Spring, and End of Year (EOY).

The data cover administrative facilities (non-instructional) as well as instructional facilities. There is one record per collection per building in the K-12 Educational Entity Information file. Entities are classified into one of six entity categories (State, Intermediate School District, Local Education...

K-12 Student Coursework

The K-12 Student Coursework dataset is course-level data that provides information on each course taken by students. Taken from the Michigan Department of Educations Teacher-Student Data Link (TSDL) system and beginning in 2011-12, Michigan public schools were required to submit course taking information to the state; failure to submit information may reduce a school or district’s performance scorecard. Within the coursework data, we can observe the courses students take, the grade received, credits earned, and the assigned teacher and course section.

Approximately 95% of students in the main K12 student enrollment data are accounted for in the coursework data during the years for which we have comprehensive data (2012-2015). The student’s unique ID (RIC) can be linked to the student and assessment databases. The teacher’s unique id (RPIC) can be linked to the Employment database, which includes more detailed data on the teacher’s background) and certifications.

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Postsecondary Student Coursework

Highlights

Record Level: Student by course by school year session by institution
Record Count: 4,942,397 observations/year beginning in 2010
Years Covered: 2010-Present*
Population Coverage: Students enrolled in or receiving an award from a Michigan public institution, as well as some out of state students from NSC.

The coursework dataset includes one record per student, for each course the student is enrolled in at all institutions and school year session (for example, fall 2010-2011). For each record, session beginning and end dates are provided. Additionally, the dataset includes relevant course variables such as course subject and title, CIP-code, and whether the course is a remedial course. Student-course variables are also included such as credit hours attempted/completed and final grade awarded.

Researchers should note the following about the datafile: First, unfortunately, there is no linkage between AP/...

Postsecondary Student Awards

Highlights

Record Level: Student by award by institution
Record Count: 186,208 observations/year beginning in 2010
Years Covered: 2010-present*
Population Coverage: Students enrolled in or receiving an award from a Michigan public institution (see base file for details)

The awards dataset includes one record per student, for each award granted at all institutions. The dataset includes the reporting category of the award, such as Bachelor’s degree. Additionally, it includes award date, description, and CIP-code.

* Years covered includes any year for which there is data available in this file. However, researchers should note that these data encompass the academic histories of any student receiving an award beginning with the 2010 school year. As such, the base file “years covered” encompasses 2010, but all other files may include earlier records as well.

At the broadest level, student award levels are broken...

K-12 Student Infractions and Discipline

Highlights

Record Level: student x incident x year
Record Count: 111,000 records/year
Years Covered: 2011-present
Population Coverage: public school students in Michigan

The State of Michigan provides discipline data in a single dataset that includes all reported disciplinary incidents in Michigan schools from 2011 to present. Suspensions are required to be reported in all years for students with IEPs, and expulsions are required to be reported in all years for all students.

There is a large increase in reporting starting in the 2017-2018 school year, when reporting suspensions for all students became mandatory for all Michigan schools. However, this policy ended after the 2017-2018 school year, so beginning in 2018-2019 schools were no longer required (but were still encouraged) to report suspensions for students without an IEP. In all years, schools were able to voluntarily report suspensions for...

K12 Graduation

Highlights

Record Level: Student by cohort year by school year
Record Count: 120,000-150,000 student per cohort
Years Covered: 2007-2020
Population Coverage: Students who enrolled in the 9th grade under an educational entity in Michigan or transferred

The K12 graduation records contain audited tracking of individual students’ progress through high school as they work to graduate. Students are assigned to a cohort (indicated by the COHORT_YEAR variable) based on their expected graduation year when they enter high school from middle school or other non-traditional entries into the school system. Nonpublic, home-schooled, and adult education participant students are not placed into a cohort, but special education transition students are.
Cohorts are used by the State of Michigan to define whether students are on-track for high school graduation in conjunction with several other variables. Exit statuses (...

Early On Program Eligibility and Enrollment

Highlights

Record Level: Student by year by collection by program
Record Count: approx. 13,500 students per collection per year
Years Covered: School Year 2013 - Present
Population Coverage: Student participants in state-funded Early On services

The Early On and Early Childhood Special Education researcher file contain longitudinal student-level program data reported in the MSDS General collection. Available data reflect information about Early On program participation and services received under Early On. Early On data is obtained in 3 separate collections: fall, spring and year. Data is available for a student during each year in which they were enrolled in an Early On program.

In the case of Early Childhood Special Education (ECSE) services, the universe for this data is children who receive referrals for ECSE and for whom parents consent to be evaluated. This includes all cases even if the child is found to be...