Official Data

 

Definition: Data become official when an agency certifies them for public reporting and uses them for their official purposes.

What This Means: Education agencies are required to report certain data and choose to report others. Because today’s information systems facilitate the calculation of interim statistics, leading indicators, research findings, and query results, the necessity for an agency to certify the data and statistics that are considered to be final, accurate, and usable for comparison has increased. Every board member, legislator, superintendent, and other official wants the assurance that when they cite a statistic that it is the real one.

 

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