Data Governance

Data Governance operates under the motto of, “Decisions are only as good as the data on which they are based.” Specifically, Data Governance (DG) helps establish a combination of policies, organizational roles and responsibilities, committee and team charters, and job descriptions that collectively describe how decisions are made, monitored and enforced regarding the management of the organization’s data.

At CDE, we strive to facilitate communication between departments and teams that share data as well as develop the data sharing agreements that the involved parties use. Additionally, Data Governance works to ensure that data is properly handled from collection to reporting. As the motto suggests, Data Governance ensures quality of data as well as enforces proper representation and interpretation.

Important Definitions

Data Management Committee
A council made of the Data Owners and Coordinators of the Colorado Department of Education to govern its data.
Data Coordinator
These individuals manage data elements and/or categories at various points of the data lifecycle. They may be authorized, by data owners only, to act on behalf of the owner to carry out certain responsibilities related to particular data elements/categories (in accordance with the business and technical rules set forth for that data element). Data coordinators are a subset of Data Owners; some Coordinators are Owners, but not all Owners are Coordinators. In some cases, data may be “owned” by senior business leads that have the authority for sensitive data, and those owners will delegate their rights to Coordinators for managing the data.
Data Owner
For each data element that is collected (from CDE or LEAs), reported (to the USDOE, federal government, state agencies, LEAs, media, or community) or created (Performance Framework, Growth Model, etc.) a Data Owner will be assigned. The Data Owner is responsible for defining how data is defined, collected (working with IMS and the Data Management Committee), quality assured and reported, and guidance around how it is used appropriately.

For additional information, E-Mail: Annette Severson at severson_a@cde.state.co.us