Early Childhood Data System (ECDS) for Kindergarten Data, Public Prekindergarten, and Private Prekindergarten Providers

The Early Childhood Data System (ECDS) is a state reporting feature in the Texas Student Data System (TSDS).

NEW: Prekindergarten Partnership Data Collection
House Bill 2607, 87th Texas Legislature, Regular Session, 2021, requires childcare providers that participate in the subsidized childcare program of the Texas Workforce Commission (TWC) to additionally participate in the previously voluntary Texas Rising Star program, a quality-based childcare rating system. The TWC must evaluate formulas for childcare development funds based on specific criteria, including the number of 3-star and 4-star rated childcare providers participating in partnerships with public school districts and open-enrollment charter schools (local educational agencies, or LEAs) based on data provided by the Texas Education Agency (TEA). 

To fulfill this requirement, TEA has added a new data element, E1726 CHILD-CARE-OPERATION-NUMBER, to collect LEA participation in partnerships with child care facilities. For purposes of this data collection, partnerships are defined as those in which children are dually enrolled in the LEA and the childcare center. This information will be collected in the ECDS collection, PK Submission, and will be provided to TWC. This collection includes the following data:

•  the childcare operation number of the childcare facilities with which an LEA has a prekindergarten partnership.

Assessment Data Reporting
Unless specifically exempted by a full-day prekindergarten waiver, all LEAs must report assessment data, aligned with the Texas Education Data Standards (TEDS), that are collected using assessments that are on the commissioner’s list of approved assessments.

The ECDS application will be available for LEAs to load kindergarten data from November 8, 2021 through January 27, 2022. 

The ECDS application will be available for LEAs to load prekindergarten (PK) data from November 8, 2021, through June 23, 2022.

Data elements to be reported in the 2020–2021 school year vary by type of program. Separate sections below outline the data elements for each of the following:

• Public Kindergarten Programs
• Public Prekindergarten Programs
• Private Prekindergarten Programs (optional)

Full details regarding the state reporting data standards can be accessed in the Texas Education Data Standards.

Public Kindergarten Programs (November 8, 2021 through January 27, 2022) 
The reporting of kindergarten program data into ECDS is mandatory for all LEAs that administer an approved tool from the commissioner’s list, which currently includes the following:

• Texas Kindergarten Entry Assessment (TXKEA) by CLI Engage
• mCLASS Texas Edition by Amplify Education

More detailed information about the requirements can be found on the TEA Data Driven Instruction in Early Childhood Education page.
 

Data Collection 
Each LEA using TXKEA or mCLASS Texas Edition will load the following data extracted from their Student Information System (SIS):

• demographic information
• special program information
• course section information on students enrolled in district kindergarten classes

CLI Engage (TXKEA) and Amplify (mCLASS Texas) will provide the Beginning-of-Year (BOY) assessment data (under the academic subject “Composite” for Language and Literacy) directly to TEA. The assessment vendors will notify their LEAs of the schedule that they will use to deliver their data to TEA.

ECDS data will be ready to promote on November 8th, 2021. LEAs must validate their student, staff, course section, and assessment data, and resolve any fatal business validations, prior to completing the final ECDS kindergarten submission.

Removal of -999 Scoring
LEAs must verify assessment scores with teachers prior to completing their kindergarten submission. If the field is left blank, it will trigger a special warning and LEAs may proceed with submission upon verifying. The -999 (not assessed) score is no longer required to substitute for missing data. If it is verified that a student did not have an assessment score, please leave the field blank. If -999 is entered, it will trigger a fatal business validation. 

Public Prekindergarten Programs (November 8, 2021 through June 23, 2022) 
The reporting of public prekindergarten program data into ECDS is mandatory for LEAs that administer a prekindergarten program. The collection includes the following data:

• demographic information
• special program information
• sources of funding for prekindergarten classes
• course section data needed to determine:
  •  students enrolled in LEA prekindergarten classes, including the number of students who are eligible for classes under Texas Education Code (TEC), §29.153
  • the number of half-day and full-day prekindergarten classes offered by the LEA and campus (calculated by TEA)
  • class size (instructional staff-to-student ratio will be calculated by TEA)
• the curriculum used in the program (curriculum options for data element E1579 PK-CURRICULA, have been added to code table C206 PK-CURRICULA-CODE for the 2021-2022 school year)
• the appropriate assessment tool from the list provided (if the one used is not available as an option, select “Other”)
• the BOY and EOY scores from a commissioner approved prekindergarten progress monitoring tool
  •  Commissioner’s List

In addition to the data elements above, the following data is also required to be submitted into ECDS for those public prekindergarten programs serving eligible four-year-old students:

• the Beginning-of-Year (BOY) and End-of-Year (EOY) student assessment data collected using assessments that are on the commissioner’s list of approved instruments, which includes a raw score for each of the following five (5) academic domains: 
  • health and wellness;
  • language and communication;
  • emergent literacy reading;
  • emergent literacy writing;
  • and mathematics 
• additional teacher qualifications:
  • certification offered through a training center accredited by Association Montessori Internationale or through the Montessori Accreditation Council for Teacher Education
  • at least eight (8) years of experience teaching in a nationally accredited childcare program
  • employment as a prekindergarten teacher in a school district that has ensured specific early childhood education professional development has been met
  • a graduate or undergraduate degree in early childhood education or early childhood special education
  • a Child Development Associate (CDA) credential or
  • documented completion of the Texas School Ready Training Program (TSR Comprehensive)
  • URL link to the family engagement plan document
  • program evaluation type
  • high-quality prekindergarten program indicator (section level)

Additional Public Prekindergarten Data Submission Information 
If a student is served in a stand-alone PK3 (prekindergarten for three-year-old students) classroom, specific progress monitoring is not required. Progress monitoring is required in prekindergarten classrooms serving eligible four-year-old students. If a student is served in a mixed classroom (PK3 with PK for four-year-old studentsPK4), where progress monitoring is required, a teacher should implement progress monitoring that is developmentally appropriate for students and may adjust monitoring for 3-year-olds or exclude 3-year-old students if it is deemed developmentally inappropriate. Student progress monitoring is a very important part of the teaching cycle and is considered a best practice with all age groups because it enables teachers to effectively adapt daily classroom instruction to meet the needs of their students. If a district conducts student progress monitoring with its eligible three-year-old students using a tool from the commissioner’s list, the BOY and EOY data must be submitted into ECDS annually. This is true for both standalone PK3 classes and mixed PK3/PK4 classes (TEC, §29.1532).
 

Private Prekindergarten Providers (November 8, 2021, through June 23, 2022) 
The reporting of private prekindergarten program data into ECDS is optional. The data collection includes the following data:

• demographic information
• special program information
• classroom link on four-year-old students enrolled in a licensed childcare or Head Start program

Support
LEAs should contact their regional education service centers (ESCs) or their assessment vendors for training and support. There are staff at each ESC who have completed training for TSDS and data loading and will be able to assist in this process.

For more information regarding ECDS, visit the Data Driven Instruction in ECE page. For more information regarding the high-quality prekindergarten components, visit the High-Quality Prekindergarten page. All program or policy questions should be sent to TEA staff via email at ecds@tea.texas.gov. All technical questions should be submitted via the TSDS Incident Management System (TIMS), which is available within the TSDS Portal using a TEAL log in.