TAG Meeting 2020-08-10 - Subgroup on Certification Improvements

Owned by Eric Jansson
Last updated: Sep 14, 2020
2 min read

Participants

  • Rosh D
  • Jean-Francois G
  • Doug Quinton
  • John Raub, WI DPI
  • David Clements, Ed-Fi Alliance

Notes

The core issue was characterized that getting SIS data to flow in a standardized format and semantics at scale is very difficult due to a variety of issues:

  • Local school districts have very localized needs and therefore make requests or demands outside the standard, asking the SIS for customization
  • Local school districts often customize their SIS is ways that break or impact an existing SIS implementation (API client)
  • State specific versions of SIS products require SIS systems to port integrations (API clients) to all state editions, and that is a large task
  • Both the SIS and the Ed-Fi data model semantics include multiple options for how data can be represented, to support flexible local processes. These options can also cause issues. Examples:
    • the local district wants the state code attached to a discipline event, but the SIS is sending the local one
    • the local district only gets negative attendance, but wanted positive and negative attendance
    • the local district wants the local student ID but the SIS is using the state ID

The question emerged: can local school districts share the same data stream? The discussion was generally pessimistic on this point, citing that use cases are so varied, and these lead to a huge variety in data needs, which are hard for SIS systems to surface.

What seems more likely was that regional negotiations of the standard were more feasible, and field evidence supported that these were working:

  • Collaborations of LEAs were doing the kind of "data governance" and other activities needed to coordinate requests and align value streams from that data
  • The group discussed the possibility of state-based understandings of the data, given that the state tends to strongly shape local data needs
  • The possibility of more narrow use cases was also mentioned - i.e. very normative and narrow specifications around very narrow use cases, likely driven by more immediate field access to value (i.e. applications that are "plug and play")

Materials

Overview of Ed-Fi Certification.pptx