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Data elements are the basic units, or fields, in a database.
On a paper form or questionnaire, data elements are the individual blanks that must be completed. Some data elements describe characteristics that rarely or never change, such as a student's name or date of birth. Other data elements, such as student's grade assignment or a teacher's years of experience, reflect conditions that change over time. Examples of the latter are a person's grade point average or a school's average daily attendance. See the List of Student Data Elements in Chapter 4 .