For this series, REL Pacific used an adapted version of the World Bank's System Assessment and Benchmarking for Education Results (SABER) EMIS Assessment Tool as a focus group protocol. Using this protocol, a group of data specialists in each state rated their system on 46 indicators, which covered five aspects of system quality. The responses for each indicator were analyzed using descriptive statistics, identifying the high, low, and average scores of the data specialists. Indicator scores were then averaged to obtain scores for each aspect of system quality, and these scores were assigned one of four benchmark levels: latent, emerging, established, or mature. The aspect scores were then averaged to obtain an overall score.