The Enumerations SIG meet and discussed the possible directions in the attached deck. Some key points from the meeting:
Removal of Types
Members expressed concern over losing some of the "national context" of Ed-Fi standards if Types are removed - that context is about cross sector interoperability and is critical.. However, some members also reminded the group that the division of Ed-Fi enumerations into Types and Descriptors is confusing (some admitted in fact to not understanding the difference until the SIG - that is, in very mature implementations).
It was also noted that the state use case for Ed-Fi's standards and APIs is often quite different from cross-sector interoperability given how customized that context can become.
Further, it was in general agreed that in the state context, no enumeration is not subject to modification by policy (i.e. all enumerations are potentially volatile).
Namespaces
The concept of requiring namespaces for descriptors was agreed on.
Modeling of Descriptors
Some members pointed out that ShortDescription (from the UDM model of Descriptors) is in use in many implementations, as a way to populate drop-down lists where shorter values are needed. In general, the recommendation was to keep both a long and short description.
Supporting multiple operational contexts
The group would like to see more definition and planning on an implementation of the ODS that would allow for multiple operational contexts via Descriptor mappings.