Getting Started
If you’re interested in a broad theoretical overview of LEVANTE, we recommend reading our preprint, “A global framework for measuring children’s learning variability through collaborative data sharing.”
The LEVANTE (Learning Variability Network Exchange) framework is a set of tools for data collection and data sharing. This site provides documentation on how to use these tools and the processes by which they were developed.
The flow of data through the LEVANTE platform is shown in the figure below (”DB” stands for database). We use “sites” as a term to describe research groups that are funded by the Jacobs Foundation to collect data using the LEVANTE measures and following our sampling and administration guidelines. The platform is free for use by others as well.
1. What are the LEVANTE measures?
Measures include:
- Direct child measures – web-based assessments with some gamified elements to assess children in areas including reading, language comprehension, math, etc.
- Demographic, caregiver, and teacher surveys – questionnaires that caregivers and teachers complete about the child, home/school environment, and themselves.
- Geolocation and site measures – metadata about the data collection site and the locations of the participating families.
The direct child measures and surveys are intended to function in any web browser on a tablet or a computer. (We have tested them with several browsers and both Android and Apple tablets, but please let us know if you have compatibility challenges). At present, these measures need an active internet connection.
2. What is the dashboard?
The dashboard is an online platform for researchers to register users (children, caregivers, and teachers), bundle together tasks, and monitor task completion. Researchers create administrations (sets of tasks or questionnaires) that can be either sent directly to families or administered on computers or tablets in school contexts.
3. Where are LEVANTE data stored?
LEVANTE data is first sent to our database hosted on Google’s Firebase service, then pulled into the LEVANTE Data Repository (LDR). All data are scored according to psychometric models, but trial-level information is also available. Note that LEVANTE and the LDR never collect any identifiable data – any identifiers are only held directly by site researchers. All demographic data are de-identified before being added to the dataset. Researchers access their data directly through redivis or via the APIs we provide.