MiDataHub User Conference Information

The Michigan Data Hub team is excited to announce a few updates regarding the 1st Annual MiDataHub User Conference on November 2 & 3, 2023 at the Shanty Creek Resort in beautiful Bellaire, MI. 

Everyone is welcome to attend this event as we will be sharing the MiDataHub 3 - 5 Year Roadmap and providing 4 unique learning tracks for attendees. The learning tracks will be grouped around Technical Supports, Actionable Data, Best Practices, and Vendor Integrations.

We are also hoping for users in the field to share stories highlighting their local district use of MiDataHub. This can include best practices of implementation utilizing the MiDataHub functionality at a local district, ISD, support consortium, or state level. We are anticipating presentations from CEPI, MDE, MAISA, Local Districts, ISD’s, Sponsoring Vendors, and YOU! 

• Registration Link - Register to attend the conference
• Call For Presenters - If you are interested in presenting on a topic related to MiDataHub please complete the form. If you are on the fence and not sure if a topic you have is appropriate for the conference and would like to discuss further please email support@midatahub.org and someone will reach out to you. The deadline for submitting a request to present is October 2, 2023.
• Shanty Creek Reservations Link - Lodging accommodations 

If you have a chance, please make sure to thank the sponsors below. With their sponsorship we were able to provide this conference to you, free of charge (Registration).

Platinum:

Double Line Partners

Gold:

MISTAR-Q

Munetrix

Silver:

Infinite Campus

PowerSchool

Skyward

For up-to-date information on registration, sessions, sponsors, mobile conference app, and everything conference related please visit our page dedicated to this event: https://www.midatahub.org/midatahub-conference/

Conference registrations for this event will be capped at 350 attendees, so register today! 

If you have any questions or need any assistance with registering please let us know by sending an email to support@midatahub.org

MiDataHub Updates

This past weekend, the MiDataHub team deployed an update that included numerous enhancements, new functionality, and bug fixes. This update #2023.8.0 was released successfully to the MiDataHub production environment and is live as of this morning, 9/18. 

Enhancements/New functionality bundled into this release include the following:

• MSDS duplicate student report
• MSDS Changes for 2023-2024 School year
• NWEA file format changes
• Annual Rollover addition of backend functionality
• STAR – Renaissance extracts add additional data
• MiEWIMS – add new signer to agreement
• Addition of DHSS role to the cockpit
• Dynamic data dictionary – add descriptor data
• Dynamic data dictionary – tree structure addition
• Management Portal – add district contract role
• Cockpit – addition of system to profile management in the UI

 Bug fixes:

• MSDS Student Roster Report – Missing college courses
• MSDS TSDL Report Issues
• Correct for cockpit login reports
• MSDS error check corrections
• District Close Feature
• MiLearn Authorization Bundle
• Integration remove destination bug fix

MSDS

Currently we are working with numerous districts and Student Information Systems to pilot the MSDS process available from MiDataHub. The goal of this work is to help ensure there is a streamlined process in place to not only provide an XML file for submission but also a process to begin testing the quality of your MSDS data submission well before the submission deadline and in most cases as soon as the first day of school. If you are not currently a member of this group but have interest, please email support@midatahub.org. Our first meeting is scheduled for Tuesday, 9/19/23 from 10-11. Please know this will include all users part of the pilot using various SIS providers. We will record this meeting and post it to our website here.

Helpdesk Transition

Soon, you will see a new support process in place when reaching out to the support team. As our functionality continues to expand, we are seeing an increase in the demand of our support team. We are a small team but have handled tickets as efficiently as we have been able to in the past. Starting in October we are going to partner with the MiServiceDesk team to provide Tier 1 support. You are most likely familiar with MiServiceDesk as they currently are providing support to other statewide initiatives such as MICIP, Edupaths, and more. The MiDataHub team will still be part of the support, so the familiar names you are accustomed to seeing on the tickets will still be assisting but this transition will help streamline the ticket handling, resolve, and processing. This transition will require the use of JIRA, which is a platform most of you are familiar with. Throughout the next few weeks, we will be working with their team on this transition and will provide instructions on communication, navigating JIRA, requesting support, and more. Our current email for support (support@midatahub.org) will be active during the coming year but instructions for creating a ticket directly through the JIRA interface and its benefits will be available in the coming weeks.

Please remember while the MSDS application is offline from September 18-22 to perform the new school year rollover. During this outage you will be able to acquire and search for UIC’s using the UIC services functionality available through MiDataHub. For more information on this service please see below or reach out to our support team at support@midatahub.org.

UIC Services: The UIC Services API provides school districts a streamlined, efficient, and timely way to search for student unique identification codes (UICs) from CEPI. The process uses the Ed-Fi Identities API allowing SIS tools (and its users) to automatically search, resolve, link, and request UICs. These searches (which can be done individually or in bulk) take seconds to perform and eliminates the need to access CEPI’s Michigan Student Data System (MSDS).

Product Catalog Entry: UIC Services

It has been reported to us that at times when updating the current school year to 2023-2024 in the MiDataHub Cockpit an error occurs, alerting you that the password must be 10 characters:

Minimum of 10 characters

Use at least 3 of the 4 categories below

• Use at least 3 of the 4 categories below
• Upper Case Letters
• Lower Case Letters
• Numbers
• Symbols

To ensure the availability of NWEA Assessment data in your districts ODS NWEA requires a sharing agreement to be completed. Most districts using NWEA, currently have an agreement completed with NWEA which authorizes NWEA to share your assessment results with the Michigan Data Hub (Kalamazoo RESA as fiscal agent) for the purposes of populating your district’s database in MiDataHub. After the data resides in your ODS, the results are available to other integrations and process your district has activated such as the Benchmark Assessment Mandate, MiRead, third party integrations (Eidex, Munetrix, SAS EVAAS, SIS) and for your own district use in reports and queries.  

Beginning this school year (2023-24), NWEA is providing an improved set of data for MiDataHub to import. This improved data set will make it easier to match data for import, it also contains growth data, and other helpful data that was not in the previous export provided from them. To provide this new data, NWEA requires completion of a new “Permission to release data” form from each district. A copy of that new agreement can be found on our product catalog page for NWEA or by clicking here. 

To streamline this process, NWEA has offered to send the agreement to superintendents via DocuSign for e-signature. This should have arrived to the superintendent late last week. Please complete the e-signature process as quickly as possible following the receipt of the email to ensure the minimal amount of delay in the flow of data.  

One item to note is that if your district completed an agreement manually in the last two weeks and sent that to support@midatahub.org, you should not need to complete the DocuSign agreement again. In the event you are not aware if this has been authorized and complete it, there are no issues if this authorization happens twice.  

Please contact us at support@midatahub.org with any questions.

The MiDataHub team facilitates monthly 30 minute meetings with all SIS vendors connected to the EdFi API. During these meetings the development teams from each SIS share updates with attendees on the MiDataHub integration, address questions and issues your district might be experiencing, and discuss new and upcoming features. The following meetings are open meetings for you to join. If interested please request to sign up by sending an email to

support@midatahub.org. 



• Edupoint Synergy – 2:00 p.m. - 2:30 p.m. second Tuesday each month
• Infinite Campus - 1:00 p.m. - 1:30 p.m. first Wednesday of month
• MISTAR-Q - 9:00 am - 9:30. Second Monday of month
• PowerSchool SIS - 10:30 a.m. - 11:00 a.m. second Tuesday of month
• Skyward - 3:00 p.m. - 3:30 p.m. second Tuesday of month

Assessment results for the WIDA ACCESS for ELLs and WIDA Alternate ACCESS for ELLs are now available to districts participating in Michigan Linked Educational Assessment Reporting Network (MiLearn). The Spring 2023 reports can now be viewed online by authorized students, parents, and educators through supported student information systems (MISTAR-Q, Skyward, PowerSchool, Infinite Campus, and Synergy). 

What is MiLearn? 

MiLearn is a free service of the Michigan Department of Education that delivers state assessment data electronically to students, parents, and educators directly through the district's Student Information System (SIS). MiLearn is updated daily using Michigan DataHub data to reflect student enrollment changes. 

MiLearn is available to all Michigan school districts. It provides a convenient, year-round tool for educators, parents, and students to view multiple years of state assessment reports. Users access the system directly through their SIS with no second login information needed. More information about MiLearn can be found in the Michigan Data Hub Product Catalog.

How does my district join MiLearn? 

Your district can add MiLearn to its list of resources available to educators, parents, and teachers. MiLearn supports the five major SIS vendors (MISTAR-Q, Skyward, PowerSchool, Infinite Campus, and Synergy). To get the process started right away for your district, email MDESupport@midatahub.org, and you will be walked through the setup process.