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Managing Information for Student Achievement

The Managing Information for Student Achievement (MISA) initiative will increase both provincial and local capacity to use data and information for evidence-informed decision-making to improve student achievement. The Ontario School Information System (OnSIS) is the data collection component of the MISA provincial capacity building initiative.

MISA has two major components:

• The provincial capacity building component of MISA focuses on increasing the capacity of the Ministry of Education to collect and work with data to inform policy, program and funding decisions and to help support local capacity.
  • Ontario School Information System (OnSIS) is a web-based system that will collect data from the education sector.
  • Elementary/Secondary Data Warehouse (ESDW) is a Ministry repository of depersonalized educational data that will enable analysis of and reporting on student achievement over time.
• The local capacity building component of MISA includes a variety of strategies to increase school and school board capacity to work with data in three core areas:
  • Technology (ie., necessary hardware and software supports)
  • Data Management (ie., the collection and analyses of data)
  • Human Resources (ie., the capacity of staff to use information)
• MISA local capacity building strategies include:
  • MISA Professional Network Centres
  • Three-Year MISA Plans

OnSIS Ontario School Information System

The Ontario School Information System (OnSIS) is a web-based application, which integrates and collects board, school, student, educator as well as course and class data, at the elemental level. The purpose of this application is to gather more accurate and reliable data, which is protected by Ontario's strict privacy legislation and a rigorously controlled security system. This data is subsequently stored, integrated and depersonalized in the Elementary/Secondary Data Warehouse (ESDW), where it will be utilized to develop and promote information practices for analysis, policy development, and evidence-based decision-making in the education sector, to ultimately improve student achievement.

OnSIS – planned in 5 staggered releases – is the data collection of MISA's provincial building capacity, centred on improving student achievement. The majority of this data was previously collected at an aggregate level and stored in isolated databases. The Legacy collection used antiquated and various technologies for the gathering of segregated data. OnSIS will reduce the opportunity to introduce errors, through efficient, automated, secure and private collection methods. All collected data are validated and verified at source, improving data accuracy and integrity. This further improves the versatility of emerging data collection and reporting needs, for analysis, evidence-based decision-making and policy development.

The Ontario Education Number (OEN) is a unique numeric identifier, assigned to students throughout their elementary and secondary education in the province. It is essential in collecting, tracking and processing student-level data in OnSIS. Collected data is protected by Ontario's strict privacy legislation and a rigorously controlled security system. It is subsequently depersonalized, stored and integrated in the Elementary/Secondary Data Warehouse (ESDW), where it can be used for research and analysis by education sector partners.

Contact Us

Inquiries from schools and boards regarding the Ontario School Information System, its policies and procedures should be directed to:

Ontario School Information System (OnSIS) Group
Education Statistics & Analysis Branch (ESAB)
Ministry of Education
777 Bay Street
4th Floor, Suite 422
Toronto ON M5G 2E5

Telephone: 1-888-275-5934 or 416-212-6366
Monday to Friday (excluding holidays)
8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.

E-mail: onsis_sison@ontario.ca
Fax: 416-212-2763