PIMS Aims To Improve Data Capabilities For Students

The Pennsylvania Department of Education is also moving forward with its Pennsylvania Information Management System (PIMS), a statewide system to improve data capabilities. PIMS will enhance school districts' capacities to meet student-level data-reporting requirements and provide robust decision- support tools. PIMS will be based on open Internet standards that enable sharing among otherwise incompatible systems and will include safeguards for data quality and security. The four primary objectives of PIMS are:

• To establish enterprisewide systems and processes to streamline data management and utilization;
• To provide multiyear longitudinal data to help teachers and administrators address individual student's needs;
• To empower teachers with state-of- the-art data-analysis tools to improve individual student achievement; and
• To develop the capacity for organiza- tional transformation, process design and implementation planning this spring and summer to ensure a successful implementation across all programs at the state, district and school levels.