PEIMS History and Background

• PEIMS is the acronym for the Public Education Information Management System.

• The 68th Legislature conceived PEIMS in 1984 by passing House Bill 72.
  This sweeping legislation created other initiatives such as:
  • the No Pass, No Play Rule
  • the short-lived Teacher Career Ladder
  • ended the social promotion of students
  • and tried to lower the student-to-teacher ratio
  
  

• The legislature hoped to bring greater public accountability to the educational community with House Bill 72. To paraphrase Commissioner of Education William N. Kirby in a letter to the State Board of Education dated June 14, 1986: "...the public desire for greater accountability in our programs and our schools...requires more information than currently exists at the state level... The agency's current strategies for obtaining information are inadequate to meet these higher expectations."

• The Commissioner appointed a TEA database design team in December of 1984 to address the agency's inadequate strategies for obtaining information. In May of 1985, the team submitted the Proposed Concept for Coordinated Database for Accountability to the State Board of Education's Committee for Finance and Programs. The Board approved this plan in July of 1985. TEA reorganized in September of 1985. The newly created Department of Research and information developed a plan to implement the Database for Accountability.

• The State Board of Education approved the Operational Plan for the Adoption of the Public Education Information Management System, or PEIMS, in June of 1986. The TEA PEIMS Division was born in September of 1986. This division spent the first year:
  • Assessing information needs
  • Developing the conceptual architecture and physical configuration of the database
  • Collecting a list of the required data elements
  • Creating the necessary records, code tables and edits
  • Establishing the first data standards
  • And providing training to the school districts and service centers
  
  
• The PEIMS division collected the first staff and budget data during the 1987-88 school year. They collected the first student data during the 1989-90 school year.

• Commissioner Lionel "Skip" Meno reorganized the TEA in 1991. This reorganization eliminated the PEIMS Division. Various divisions within the Information Systems Department took on PEIMS process oversight duties. In addition, Commissioner Meno created 2 committees in 1991 to oversee, coordinate, monitor and assess PEIMS activities. These committees were:
  • The Policy Committee on Public Education Information or PCPEI
  • The Information Task Force known as ITF
  
  
• The PCPEI serves as an advisory group to oversee policy issues related to the PEIMS data collection. The group reviews and approves current and ongoing information collections. The committee also:
  • recommends the elimination of information collections considered not useful or mandatory
  • recommends the repeal or amendment of rules that address information
  • and it recommends agency policies that promote data quality
  
  
• The committee consists of 24 representatives from school districts, education service centers, state government and educational associations that meet 3 to 4 times per year. TEA staff provides them with assistance and resources.

• The Information Task Force provides technical advice to the PCPEI and reflects the composition of that group. The ITF membership performs the same tasks outlined for the PCPEI, holds monthly meetings and after careful review of the requests to change PEIMS data, forwards its recommendations to PCPEI.

• PEIMS, as we know it today, appears in the Texas Education Code. Section 42.006 states: "Each school district shall participate in the Public Education Information Management System (PEIMS)."

• PEIMS appears in the Texas Administrative Code where Rule 61.1025 states: "The Public Education Information Management System (PEIMS) data standards, established by the commissioner of education under Texas Education Code (TEC), 42.006.....shall be used by school districts and charter schools to submit information required for the legislature and the Texas Education Agency (TEA) to perform their legally authorized functions...". The rule also details the Review Process used by the PCPEI and ITF.

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