What is the Data Warehouse?
The CEPA data warehouse is a repository of SFUSD administrative data that is transferred to Stanford by SFUSD Research, Planning, and Assessment (RPA) and Human Resources (HR). Stanford research teams that have signed a data use agreement receive SFUSD data from the data warehouse. SFUSD data is received, cleaned, and stored at the data warehouse to streamline and expedite the process for supplying data to Stanford researchers. Storing the data at the warehouse ensures consistency in the transferred data, provides researchers with the most recent data in a timely manner, and preserves institutional knowledge of the data transfer process. The data is stored according to procedures defined in the agreement for confidential data exchange between Stanford University and SFUSD to protect the privacy and security of the SFUSD data. Data is not transferred to research teams without SFUSD and IRB approval and each team only receives the specific data for which it is approved.
What is the history of the Data warehouse?
The Stanford University Graduate School of Education and San Francisco Unified School District established a strategic partnership in 2009 supporting research projects advancing teacher practice, leadership practice, policy decisions, and most importantly student outcomes. In the first four years, the partnership took steps to improve relationships, access, agreements, and operations to lay the foundation for a long-term partnership. One of the key steps in the partnership development was the decision in 2011 to house SFUSD data at Stanford/CEPA to streamline the process. Specifically, the Stanford and SFUSD legal departments negotiated an agreement to send an annual download of SFUSD data to Stanford. In addition to the data agreement for warehousing the data, the Stanford and SFUSD legal departments worked with the SFUSD research department to develop a template for a data use agreements between Stanford researchers and SFUSD for each individual project.