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FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
1. What Is the Socrates Data System? The Socrates Data System includes two components that address the major functions essential to data-driven decision-making: Data Integration, Data Disaggregation, and Data Access. Socrates components are: 1) a powerful relational database software application; 2) a web portal application that allows data users to easily access reports, tools for using data, and resources. Both components are fully-customized for each site.
2. How and Why Was Socrates Developed? The Socrates Data System was developed by the Center for Resource Management, Inc. (CRM). CRM is an educational services organization that provides professional and technical services to education agencies at the local, state, regional, and national levels. Since 1982, CRM has helped educators focus on results – defining desired outcomes, designing programs to achieve desired results, evaluating progress and outcomes, and building the capacity to access and use data to guide improvement. Achieving this capacity requires the use of a sophisticated relational database tool. CRM has invested more than $1.7M in the development and refinement of the Socrates Data System. The design of the system was based on the priority goal of providing educational decision-makers at all levels with easy access to data in useful formats. We believe that it is the most complete, powerful, flexible and user-friendly system available to educators today.
3. What Types of Data Can be Imported Into Socrates? Any data that are
linked to an individual student by ID number and/or name can be imported
into Socrates. Data come from district/school student information
systems, state assessment results, standardized test results, program
data files, computer-assisted instructional programs, locally-developed
databases, and others determined by the district or school. Data on
teacher characteristics and student survey data can also be imported.
Data can also be entered manually into Socrates when necessary.
Behaviors and Attitudes:
Educational Factors:
Teacher Characteristics:
Performance Indicators:
4. What are the Standard Variables in Socrates? There are no "standard" or pre-programmed variables in Socrates; all variables and categories are defined by the district or school. Socrates allows extensive flexibility in setting up variables and categories. For example, NCLB reporting requires that all students be coded in one of five ethnicity categories, but schools may need other ethnicity categories for reporting to other agencies. This can easily be accommodated in Socrates. New variables can be easily added at any time, for example when a new program begins.
5. How Flexible is the System in Customizing Data Variables? An unlimited number of user-defined data variables can be included. New variables can be added easily at any time; no programming is required. Socrates handles all types of variables. For example, the variable "Gender" has two categories (Male and Female) that should account for all students. But a variable for an After-School Program only applies to students in that program. The variable can be set up to indicate the specific program activities in which students participate – homework help, remedial reading, sports, etc. The variable can also be used to track attendance in the program. This flexibility allows program decision-makers to determine how different patterns of program participation affect student success and program impact.
6. What Data Formats Can Socrates Accept? Socrates imports data from any source via most standard export formats, including ASCII text and comma-delimited. In addition, data in virtually any other format can be converted and imported. As a fully-developed application, import set-up is straightforward and requires no programming.
7. How Much Data Can Socrates Handle? Socrates can handle up to 2 billion records, allowing for extensive longitudinal analyses as well as accommodating large districts and/or multiple districts in a consortium.
8. How Extensively Does Socrates Disaggregate Data? Socrates allows virtually unlimited capability to disaggregate data. Because the database links all data to individual students, the data can be disaggregated in hundreds of ways to show relationships among multiple performance measures, multiple student characteristics, and multiple educational factors. Data can be "drilled down" deeply to enable district and school staff to examine equity issues, program effectiveness, and longitudinal progress for any group of students. Data can be disaggregated up, down, or across at any level – from the individual student level, any group (demographic, grade level, classroom, etc.), program, school, district, or multi-district. Reports can be generated based on any combination of student characteristics, educational factors, and performance measures. Any type of score data can be imported, and any range can be set, for example scale score ranges that are more finite than the major performance levels in order to identify students who have moved up or down within a performance level. This capacity is due to the database architecture and the fully-programmed report generator.
9. How Extensive is Socrates Reporting Capability? Socrates reporting capability is unparalleled. A wide range of report templates are fully programmed into the software, and the templates can show relationships across any of the variables in the system. Socrates was designed to generate an extensive array of reports for any group of students at the classroom, grade level, program, school, district, and multi-district levels. The system also produces individual student profiles as well as student lists. Based on two decades of working with educators to use data to guide decision-making and improvement, CRM designed a set of core reports that address many of the data needs of schools and districts. Districts and schools also are able to create innumerable reports for varied purposes. For example, Socrates™ flexible report templates can display the relationships between absence and/or course grades to performance on state assessments. Because Socrates can display data on numerous variables on a single report, the number of reports required to perform these analyses is greatly reduced.
10. What is the Format of Reports? Socrates produces reports called "Profiles" that show relationships among multiple variables for any group of students. Individual student profiles and student lists can also be generated. Data tables and graphs highlight results of particular interest. All reports posted on the Data Web are in PDF format, viewable and printable from Adobe Acrobat.
11. Does Socrates Support Longitudinal Analyses? Socrates has extensive capability to display longitudinal performance patterns and progress over time for any cohort or for different cohorts at each testing period. For example, educators want to examine both the annual yearly progress for students taking state assessments at each grade level and track the performance of particular cohorts (e.g., LEP students, the class of 20XX) over several testing periods. Moreover, as patterns emerge, Socrates can "drill down" to examine the characteristics of students who chronically perform at low levels.
12. How Does Socrates Support Both Accountability and Improvement? The Socrates Data System enables district and school staff to:
The Data Web portal is web-based, the database software is not. This protects the confidentiality of individual student data and the integrity of the database. Since any user can access data reports through the Data Web, only a small percent of data "consumers" will need (or want) to learn the database software to generate reports. The Socrates database software can reside on a local area network (Novell) or be installed on individual computers.
14. How Is Data Confidentiality Assured through the Socrates Data System? Ensuring the confidentiality of student data has become increasingly important, and allowing any identifiable information to be accessible on the Internet is against the policy of many school districts. If all teachers, administrators, and others have user accounts that enable them to query a database that contains identifiable student information, confidentiality cannot be assured. The Socrates database is stored on a secure server that is not connected to the Internet. Instead, users access reports through the Socrates Data Web through user accounts that have locally-defined access privileges. Since the database is not on the Internet, there is no way for an outsider to access or modify it.
15. How Do Districts or Schools Acquire the Socrates Data System and What are The Costs? The first step in acquiring the Socrates Data System is a two year contract. In year 1, CRM:
In the second year, the district has the option of purchasing a
license for the software and performing all functions locally. A
run-time version of Socrates is delivered fully set up with the
prior year's data included.
16. What Makes Socrates Unique Compared to Other Systems? Socrates™ unique features include:
In addition, CRM's experience in helping schools and districts build data capacity is unparalleled. Socrates is not our only product or service. Our staff of professional educators have a deep understanding of the realities of schools and the challenges that educators face related to using data as well as supporting continuous improvement.
17. What are the Hardware and Software Requirements for Running the Socrates Data System? Access to the Socrates Data Web (the web portal for user access to reports, etc.) requires a standard web browser and Adobe's free Acrobat Reader. Any computer (MAC or PC) with an Internet connection and a web browser can access the Data Web. . The Socrates database, in stand-alone mode, is designed to run on any industry-standard personal computer (PC) with at least Pentium or higher Intel-based processor and running any Microsoft Windows operating system. A minimum of 128 meg of system memory and 40 meg of available drive space is recommended. As with all software, increased processor speed, available drive space and available memory will enhance the performance of the software. The Socrates database is also designed to run in network mode. The following networks are supported by Socrates:
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