GAT Meeting - 2019-8-29

Owned by Chris Moffatt (Deactivated)
Last updated: Sep 08, 2019
3 min read

Agenda

  1. Ed-Fi 2020 Planning – Review Top 3 Priorities
  2. Work Group Updates
  3. Governance Activities
  4. Refining approach for reviewing and approving charters, RFC’s & other proposals
  5. Current and upcoming RFC’s
  6. Ed-Fi Technology Show-and-Tell - Data Import 1.0

 Link to meeting PPT

Participation

Members:

Support:

Meeting Minutes

Refer to the meeting PPT for additional details on the meeting minutes and discussions.

When available, meeting minutes should be read, and any corrections sent to Chris.

Ed-Fi 2020 Planning – Review Top 3 Priorities

Executive session discussion.

Work Group Updates

Special Education WG

Recent efforts have included:
• Reviewed use cases and their challenges
• Worked on privacy regulations specific to special ed
• Will prioritize at pre-Summit work group meeting

Action: GAT members to email Monica with any SPED use cases they are interested in.
Action: SPED WG to share list of emerging use cases with the GAT – being developed through survey

Teacher Prep WG

Recent efforts have included:

  • First university launch of TPDM extensions and Dashboard at University of Texas Rio Grande Valley
  • Vendor API launch of field observations of the model by TK20/Watermark
  • Working with technical subgroup and incorporating tickets into the next TPDM release
  • October release planned to align to current ODS/API version (version 3.2)

Assessment WG

Recent efforts have included:

  • Tool Usage Data Use Case: The Pittsburgh Public Schools EADM project will be used to validate the recommended ODS data model extensions. An RFC may follow from that work.
  • AWG tech subgroup: This subgroup met to address the AWG use cases from earlier in the year, as well as some assessment related tracker tickets. These recommendations will be codified into a request for comment (RFC) that is planned to be sent by early September to the broader Ed-Fi Community.
  • Rostering Use Case: The newly formed rostering use case team prioritized the following as the top 3
    a. Just-in-time rostering
    b. Roster changes
    c. Invalid score
  • Two states (Delaware and Wisconsin) are actively pursuing state-level (SEA) rostering use cases. Sayee Srinivasan and John Raub will present their progress at the AWG pre-Summit meeting on September 29.
  • SEL Use Case: This group met with Steven Arnold to consider the TPDM survey data model.
  • API adoption alignment to certification – a current vendor adoption worksheet is available.
  • Will work on 2020 goals at summit AWG pre-meeting and will consider aligning to broader Ed-Fi goals

Reporting & Visualization WG

Recent efforts have included:

  • First phase is about 90% done. 
    • Still need to finish the rubric for analyzing and evaluating use cases
    • Finishing standardized interview guidelines for collecting information on use cases
  • Second phase is about 40% done - trying to wrap this up by end of calendar year.

Finance WG

Wisconsin DPI has Finished certification of the three pilot vendors so it is going to be live soon.

Governance Activities

Refining approach for reviewing and approving charters, RFC’s & other proposals

A refined process will include more detailed review and approval done asynchronously, with allowance for brief overview of the essence of RFC’s during GAT meetings.

Current and upcoming RFC’s

Two RFCs are ready to be promoted to standards:

  • RFC 15 - Assessment Outcomes API - field work included Boston, Uncommon Schools, Wayne Township, Metro-Nashville
  • RFC 16 - Core Student Data API (SIS certification for Ed-Fi 3.3) – field work included Arizona, Delaware, Wisconsin

The question was raised as to how the RFC process of promoting Ed-Fi enhancements to standards synchs or aligns with or flows from the issuance of a new Ed-Fi data model release. After some discussion, this topic was tabled for further discussion at the next meeting. 

Ed-Fi Technology Show-and-Tell - Data Import 1.0

Jason Hoekstra provided an overview and demonstration of the Data Import tool that the Alliance has been developing.

  • It is a CSV to API ETL tool. The target audience for the tool is the district IT person trying to load data into an Ed-Fi ODS/API, in the absence of an available integration with the Ed-Fi API
  • There is a web-based UI for mapping CSV to Ed-Fi ODS (local instance)
  • Template sharing facilitates reuse of mappings across multiple agencies
  • The first release will be compatible with ODS/API v2.5+ and v3.1+, currently targeted for Sept 17, before the Summit.
  • Documentation for the tool is on Tech Docs, here.

Follow Up from Prior Meeting

GAT membership rotation proposal

The GAT Membership Rotation Process has been written up and published to the Governance site. Note that, since more than 50% of the GAT have come on board in the last 6 months, and we want to avoid disrupting continuity and valuable contributions, the Alliance plans to continue with the current GAT members until the Ed-Fi Summit in 2020.

The meeting was adjourned.