Data Overview Video
UTREX
The UTREx/Data Clearinghouse gathers and stores student data throughout the year for exchanging student records and for reporting at the local and State levels.
With 41 school districts and 84 charter schools who use at least 10 different types of student information systems, Utah needed a way to communicate with each other. The Longitudinal Data system is called UTREx. The first task of UTREx was to assign each student a unique number (SSID), so that two school districts or charters schools could not claim funding from the state for the same student. It is also used to help transfer student transcript information to higher education. A great benefit is to transfer student records for students who move from one district or charter to the next. The UTREx system improves accuracy and efficiency of education. Hundreds of hours of school personnel will be saved because of the UTREx system. The Federal Government has no access to this system.
FERPA
State Data Collection
Utah Senate Bill 82, known as the “Digital Backpack”, passed in 2013 requires a new system that “collects longitudinal student transcript data from LEAs (districts) and the unique student identifiers as described in Section 53A-1-603.5.”
The bill summary states: “This bill: defines terms; requires the State Board of Education to establish the Utah Student Record Store where an authorized LEA user may access student data in a Student Achievement backpack that is relevant to the user's LEA or school; specifies the data to be included in a Student Achievement Backpack; and requires the State Board of Education to ensure that student data in a Student Achievement Backpack is accessible through an LEA's student information system by June 30, 2017.”
This bill effectively doubles the amount of data districts are required to send on to the State office of Education. This new data includes things like school attendance, student growth scores, student reading level, Student writing sample, student performance by standard and objective, etc...
Text from SB 82: http://le.utah.gov/~2013/bills/sbillamd/SB0082S01.htm