Start delivering Unique Student IDs in real-time using more than just simple matching with xDUID.

State departments of education are all in need of creating, managing and delivering Unique Student IDs for every student their state. Without a Unique ID system, states are unable to track the movement and patterns in student data over time. When each student has a unique ID, the state can easily follow the progress of each student over time, from Pre-K to graduation, to evaluate the relationships between many different data points as well as evaluating the effect of mobility on student performance.

While the importance of a Unique ID system is easily identified, there are many problems associated with building Unique IDs for every student in the state. A common flaw in typical Unique ID systems is the methodology used to create the IDs themselves. Often these systems use simple matching on a small number of fields. The result is that new IDs get created for the same student causing too many Unique IDs to be assigned. The situation also means the district has to manually resolve these issues. Often times, districts don’t choose to go through this process as it takes too much time.

Traditional systems typically involve a file upload process that burdens each district with the job of manually submitting files to the state in order to receive the student Unique IDs. The best case scenario is for districts to do this upload nightly, but that is not what happens in many instances. Frankly, the districts are already overloaded with too many daily data tasks to manage this. The result is that districts perform the task less often which leads to issues with Unique ID assignment. In research of traditional simple or exact matching systems, there can be as much as twice the amount of Unique IDs in the system as there are students in the state.

The xDUID from CPSI solves many of the common problems states face when implementing a Unique ID system. xDUID is a secure, fully integrated Unique ID generation toolset that creates and manages Unique IDs in real time. With xDUID, districts do not have to manually submit files to the state. Instead, they connect to the state over secure web services where the state will be integrated with each districts’ Student Information System. As the district manages their own SIS, student information will be automatically submitted to the state where the Unique ID will be delivered back into the district SIS automatically. The whole process takes around three minutes.

xDUID also has an exclusive method for creating the Unique IDs that nearly eliminates the problem of students having multiple Unique IDs. Using the power of probabilistic matching, the xDUID uses weighted data fields from student records to create a probability score. The state assigns a threshold for Unique ID assignment. When a record is identified as a new record, a Unique ID will automatically be generated and assigned to the student. If a record is within the threshold, a record is matched and the correct Unique ID is assigned. If the xDUID identifies a record that is “too close to call”, the district submitting the record is notified. The district uses a secure web interface to view and resolve ambiguous records where they are provided a means to resolve the issue by either assigning a new ID or accepting a match.

The xDUID has the ability to manage the issue of duplicated IDs leftover in the system and de-duplicate all existing Unique IDs in the state database. The De-Duplication tool analyzes the current records using the weighted data points and threshold as configured by the state to automatically resolve and track as many Unique IDs as possible. Ambiguous student records then resolved via a web interface.

Learn More About the xDUID