Request Data

1. Visit the GEMS website (Growth & Enhancement of Montana Students)

  • Visit the GEMS (Growth & Enhancement of Montana Students) website to view publicly available data. Please note the PRIVACY CONSIDERATIONS below prevent some data from being publicly available
  • Some data is masked on GEMS to protect student identities. 

2. Request Secure Access to the GEMS website

3. Fill out a Data Request if you still haven't found the data you need. 

  • If you are a researcher seeking to use student-level K12 data, please visit the Data Information for Researchers page to learn how to request data for research purposes or make a research proposal.

Please allow 3 weeks for your request to be completed

Privacy Considerations

PRIVACY CONSIDERATIONS

207-7-104, MCA - “Transparency And Public Availability Of Public School Performance Data -- Reporting -- Availability For Timely Use To Improve Instruction” restricts the release of students’ personally identifiable information (PII) as follows:

“The superintendent of public instruction may not share, sell, or otherwise release personally identifiable information to any for-profit business, nonprofit organization, public-private partnership, governmental unit, or other entity unless the student's parent has provided written consent specifying the data to be released, the reason for the release, and the recipient to whom the data may be released.”

All publicly available K12 education data is suppressed, or masked, in order to protect student privacy. when data is masked, you will see an asterisk ( * ) instead.

The OPI is prohibited from publishing student-level information or disclosing data from student groups that are 5 or fewer in number or that would otherwise reveal the identity of an individual student. Montana has many small schools and small sub-group populations where an individual student’s identity could be revealed without this safeguard. Please visit the OPI’s Student Privacy & K12 Data Governance Page for more information on this topic

 

OPI Staff are here to help:

GEMS Helpdesk, opigemshelpdesk@mt.gov, 406-444-5222

Nicole Frieling, Research Analyst, 406-444-4999