Organization Name and Number
The top of the organization details page shows the organization name, the state ID for the organization,
and if the organization is not active, status information. Organization is a
generic term for schools, school districts, programs, colleges, libraries, and other
organizations that have worked with MDE in the past. Each organization has a state-issued ID,
such as 0625-01 for the St. Paul Public School District.
In this example, 0625 is the district number and 01 is the type of district, with type 1
indicating an Independent School District.
See the organization type code list for
more on organization types.
Organizations can be part of groups, such as RMIC Region 7 TIES.
This system tags organizations to help sort the various types of organizations, such as LEAs
(Local Education Agencies), Higher Ed organizations, and elementary schools.
Example formats for the organization name and number follow:
- Bertha Elementary 0786-01-010 - This school is active, serving students.
The school number is 10, within Independent School District #786.
- Agassiz Vocational Center 0990-51 (not active) - This school is not actively serving students.
- Cedar Manor Elementary 0283-01-747 (last year 2010) - This school last served students in state fiscal year 2010.
- Washington Middle 0181-01-005 (last record 1999) - This school has no more data in the database since 1999.
- General John Vessey Jr Leadership 4108-07 (closed Dec 27, 2011) - This charter LEA closed on the given day.
Organization Data
The overall organization information includes:
- Congressional district, based on the 2012 redistricting.
This information may not be up to date for inactive or closed schools.
- County
- District number
- District type, or just plain 'type'
- Eco Dev Region
- Service Cooperative (ECSU) region
- Email address, set by the site verification coordinator.
- Legal name: Type 1, 2, and 3
district-level records have a defined state-mandated
legal name such as Independent School District #625. For other organizations, this is
initialized from the most recent organization name record.
- Legislative Senate district, based on the 2012 redistricting.
- Legislative Representative district, based on the 2012 redistricting.
prepended with the Legislative Senate district for readability. (The database stores 'A' or 'B' only.)
- Magnet
- Phone number, including business phone number and FAX number. Organizations may have other types of phone numbers.
- Preferred name: Mapped to organization names (see below) as well as, on initial conversion,
to the preferred and legal names for the organizations.
- RMIC region
- School or site number
- Service team code (no longer maintained).
- Unit minor number, historically used only by food and nutrition services.
- Unit affiliation, which holds optional codes such as having an early start to the school year.
- Web URL, set by the site verification coordinator.
If the organization was consolidated with another, such as a consolidation of school
districts, you'll see an entry near the top of the organization details page. MDE started
tracking consolidation data in 1991.
Dates of effectiveness
In the old legacy data, records were rolled (copied) each fiscal year. In
the new system, some data remain constant (such as the state organization ID),
and other data are tracked over time. On the initial conversion, changes in the
data are recorded with new child records. For example, an organization's physical address
may change from the database record for one fiscal year to the next. This change
results in a new address record stored for the organization, stored with the dates
of effectiveness for the given address.
The earliest record in this MDE database comes from 1974, with most school records added by 1982.
Any record with a date before the mid-1980s should be interpreted as when that organization was entered
into the MDE database. For example, Washburn Senior High in Minneapolis was built in
1925 but entered the MDE database with state fiscal year 1981.
Date effectiveness terminology
| Term |
Description |
| initial |
A data record existed as of the start of data conversion. (Data only appears
from fiscal year 1974 onward.) |
| ongoing |
Represents no end to the effectiveness (thus far). In other words,
the current data. |
| Jul 2012 |
A month and year displayed alone (without the day) means the
start of the month, or July 1, 2012. In addition, most MDE data runs from
the official start of the state fiscal year,
or July 1, 2011 in the case of fiscal year 2012, and ends on June 30th. The month and
year alone means the value started on July 1, 2011 and has not been changed since. |
| Jul 2007 - Jul 2009 |
The effective range was from the start of fiscal year 2007 right up to, but not including,
the start of fiscal year 2009. |
| Mar 17, 2012 |
A full date (month, day, year), records a change within a state fiscal year. |
Organization Names
Names are tracked through time, and are shown with the dates of effectiveness for the
names.
The name information includes:
- Name, also mapped to "short name", which has a limited length and is used
only in the legacy database data. The new system allows for longer organization
names.
- Abbreviated name, which appears in some reports.
Organization Status
The status of an organization may change over time. An organization that was once
active and serving students may close, becoming inactive.
- Active (active in MARSS)
- Active in STAR
- Active in UFARS
- First year (students served)
- Last year (students served)
- Closed (last day students served if data are available)
Grades
Grades are tracked through time, and are shown with the dates of effectiveness for the
grades. Typically in the database, grades are interpreted as grades offered.
The system keeps a value for each possible grade, such as grade 3 (offered or not).
The grade information includes:
- Grade range: The grade range is calculated from the individual items, and, as you'd expect, shows the grade range,
such as PK-12, or PK-3,10-12 for a combination of elementary and high school grades offered.
-
School classification, such as 60 - Secondary Vocational Program
or 10 - Public Elementary School (Grades PK-6).
The grade range is derived from individual values for each of the possible grades:
- Grade level Early Childhood Special Education Services
- Grade level Pre-Kindergarten
- Grade level Kindergarten
- Grade level 1
- Grade level 2
- Grade level 3
- Grade level 4
- Grade level 5
- Grade level 6
- Grade level 7
- Grade level 8
- Grade level 9
- Grade level 10
- Grade level 11
- Grade level 12
- Grade level Adult education
Contacts
Contacts are people tied to an organization by a particular role for a given period of
time, such as a school principal, superintendent, or school nurse.
Over time, a school principal or other contact may retire or change jobs, so each
contact record stores the time range that person held that role for the
organization.
Each contact also has a standardized role, of organization head (such as principal), school nurse,
or site verification coordinator, among others.
The contact information includes:
- Role: MDE-standardized role such
as organization head for school principals or district superintendents.
- Full name: Name of the contact for the organization head, such as superintendent.
This name gets split into prefix, first name, middle name, last name, and
suffix.
- Contact first name.
- Contact middle name.
- Contact last name.
- Contact title, such as 'Site Verification Coordinator' or 'School Nurse'.
- Contact phone number.
- Contact email address.
Addresses
Each organization may have a number of addresses, tracked over time.
Address types include physical, or actual, location (the spot on the ground), mailing
address, remit-to address for payments, shipping address, assessment shipping address, and others.
The address information includes:
- Physical (actual) location street line 1
- Physical location street line 2
- Physical location city
- Physical location state, normally Minnesota
- Physical location ZIP code
- Mailing street line 1
- Mailing street line 2
- Mailing city
- Mailing state, normally Minnesota
- Mailing ZIP code
Groupings
Default groupings are created on data conversion. In the future, quite a few more groupings
will be available, such as Title III consortia. Group membership is tracked over time.
Groupings
| Group |
Description |
| RMIC region |
RMIC region with the region-level organization listed as the group head. |
| Service Cooperative region |
Service Cooperative (ECSU) region with the region-level organization listed as the group head. |
How was the data created?
The data were prepared using internal Minnesota Department of Education data collection systems.
Where can I go for additional information?
To access more about the organizations tracked by the MDE systems,
visit the Minnesota Department of Education webpage. Choose
Welcome to MDE: Contact Information - Schools and Organizations.
You can also
Visit Minnesota's Bookstore to purchase organization directory data.
Who can answer specific questions?
For more information or assistance email mde.school-verify@state.mn.us.
