Consistency is critical in data entry, especially when the data is used for local, state, and federal reporting, or reporting to other entities for funding purposes. In order to achieve this consistency, certain measures should be taken prior to initial data entry. This is especially important for agencies that are new to LACES NexGen. Regardless of prior data management tools, taking the time in the beginning to standardize your data entry processes will help your agency maintain ‘good’ data and reduce errors at reporting time.
Minimum Required Information
Not all of the data that can be collected and tracked in LACES NexGen will be useful to every agency. It is important to remember that LACES NexGen is a management tool for different types of customers, and some data fields are not relevant to every agency. Many reports require very specific data that is contained within a small number of fields. The best approach is to look at your required reports, as well as additional data you want or need to track for your daily program management.
Because many LACES NexGen users are required to submit LLA, LVA, or NRS reports, certain fields are required and must be entered before the record can be saved. Additionally, many of the fields follow programming rules to allow the database to make automatic updates to the records. Regardless of what specific optional data you choose to track, it is important to be consistent for good data output.
Things to consider:
1. Who is responsible for entering the data? If there are multiple people, will one person be designated a ‘lead’ as a resource for the other data entry personnel?
2. Does your agency have processes for basic data entry, such as using initial capitals or all capital letters when entering a name, and, depending on your student reporting needs, if middle name, social security number, or additional demographic information is collected?
3. Do you use hard copy intake forms? If so, your agency may consider matching the intake forms closely to the order in which the data is entered into LACES NexGen for ease of data entry.
4. Does your agency collect information that does not have a corresponding field in LACES NexGen? Decide as an agency if you will use the available custom fields to track that data, and make sure everyone is entering the information consistently.
5. Will your agency require data entry personnel to enter certain fields that are not already required in LACES NexGen? For example, the ‘Department’ field in the class, group, and workshop record may be useful when searching, but it not a required field.
6. How will student instructional hours be collected and entered? Many agencies enter hours on a monthly basis on the last or first day of the month. What is a feasible hours entry schedule if your state requires that you submit quarterly reports?
7. Do the choice lists for existing fields need to be customized for your particular agency? If so, decide as an agency how those lists will be customized and who will be responsible for updating and maintaining the lists.
Dates
Dates are extremely important, and all data should be entered chronologically. Occasionally it is necessary to ‘back enter’ data but you should continue to make sure all dates within a record are entered in chronological order.
Certain rules exist in LACES NexGen that relate to dates, but you should still be aware of dates as you enter data.
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Intake date |
Cannot be changed to a date that is after existing enrollments and/or hours dates.
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Class, group, workshop start date
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Cannot be changed to a date that is after existing enrollments or hours, or after the class, group, or workshop end date. |
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Class, group, workshop end date
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Cannot be changed to a date that is before existing enrollments or hours, or before the class, group, or workshop start date. |
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Student Hours date
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Must be between the student enrollment record start and end date. Unlinked hours are the only exception. Unlinked hours may be on a date that is prior to the intake date.
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Assessments |
Dates cannot be in the future.
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Staff Professional Development
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Dates cannot be in the future. |
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Instructor Hours Date
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Staff assigned to a class or workshop, or tutor assigned to a group may get non-instructional hours between their assign and start date. Instructional hours may only be entered on or after the instructor’s start date and before the instructor end date.
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Hours
Hours may be entered as whole numbers or two decimals, but it is important to make sure that everyone in your agency enters hours in a consistent manner. Hours with decimals are calculated as fractional hours. For example, 1.25 is one hour and 15 minutes, 1.50 is one hour and 30 minutes, and 1.75 is one hours and 45 minutes. Hours entered as 1.13 will calculate as one hour and 7.8 minutes, NOT one hour and 13 minutes.
Outcome Follow-up
If your agency or state does core outcome survey follow up with students who have left your program, there are specific quarters or time frames for this follow up to be done. There are searches available that help you find the students who are ready for follow up. Try to conduct follow up in the correct quarter. This is especially important for agencies that report to the NRS. (For more information, refer to the NRS Implementation Guidelines.)
Customizations
Certain state ABE clients and independent agencies have customized fields, reports, business rules, or other functionality that are in place in for their client or agency. Customizations are added only on authorization from the agency director (independent agencies) or the state director. Customizations are not added or removed at the request of an individual user; if you have a valid request then you must contact your director. If you are unsure or unaware of your client customizations – if any – please refer to the User News Page for this information.
Customizations require information gathering, development and QA testing effort, maintainability, and cost agreement prior to being added to any client. In some cases, there may be an alternate method for collecting or reporting the information without incurring the cost of a customization to your client or agency.
Because all
clients use the same underlying database, fields added for a specific client
will display in the View Manager and the search criteria window for
everyone. Be aware that all fields that display in these two locations may
not be relevant to your agency and should be ignored.
Tech Support vs. Policy
Technical Support is available to answer questions about software issues or problems you may be experiencing with LACES NexGen. The technical support personnel are knowledgeable about literacy and adult education and the NRS, and are familiar with all state customizations, but cannot answer questions that pertain to your agency or state’s data collection, reporting or assessment policies.
Questions such as which assessment should be used to posttest a student, how often to enter hours, when a student’s enrollment should be terminated for non-attendance, or whether or not you should collect student SSNs are policy questions and should be addressed by your agency or state director.