GAT Meeting - 2021-08-26

Owned by Ann Su
Last updated: Sep 09, 2021
4 min read

Agenda

  1. Discussion and feedback on Ed-Fi Summit themes and safety protocols
  2. Gathering input on priorities from GAT members
  3. Follow-up and deferred agenda items from July meeting

Refer to the PPT (which can be found here) for additional details on the meeting minutes and discussions.

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

Participation

Members:

Non-Members:

Support:

Meeting Minutes

Agenda Item #1: Discussion and feedback on Ed-Fi Summit themes and safety protocols

Caroline Kazmierski provided information on the Ed-Fi Summit which will be a combined virtual and in-person event held at the Hyatt Regency Austin on November 15 to18, 2021. GAT members were provided with a GAT registration code.

The timeline is:

  • Wednesday, August 25 - Summit Registration Site Live, general schedule-at-a-glance
  • Tuesday, August 31 - Session Presenters Notified of Accepted or Rejected Submissions
  • September 1 - Summit Agenda Live on Registration Site
  • September 22 - Keynote Speakers Announced
  • September 30 - Early Bird Pricing Ends
  • October 25 - Hotel Room Block Cut Off Date
  • November 8 - Final Day to Register
  • November 15-18 - Summit 2021

The planning has included Covid 19 safety protocols and environment considerations, for example, indoor meeting rooms will be at half capacity to allow for social distancing. The agenda is being finalized after receiving 76 proposals from the Ed-Fi Community.

The keynote will be delivered by Dr. Daryl Adams, a recognized education and technology leader, former superintendent, and teacher of the year. He is well-known for innovation with “Leave No Child Offline” and “Wi-Fi on Wheels”.

Agenda Item #2: Gathering input on priorities from GAT members

GAT members shared their priorities and pain points with the new school year starting. 

  • INsite
    • Resource management at district with different business purpose and different skill sets that need to be maintained – are SEAs in same conversations with managing state work flows re Ed-Fi and using same people to populate ad maintain local ODS? What can we do within Ed-Fi Community to alleviate the LEA challenges – for example most LEAs have no contingency plan to transfer information within LEA with staff turnovers.
  • Ed Analytics
    • Gap in LEA capabilities and vendor turnover are pain points. Over 100 using Ed-Fi by end of year with our hosting instances in SC, and parts of CA and CO. Extend certification process to include other data such as report cards. Need more assessment vendors with certified API as well as Alliance assistance in discussing ODS vs API. Huge priorities with talent acquisition and development.
    • Challenge with more vendors coming onboard with LEAs and SEAs and all setting up differently. How best to integrate existing vendors with new vendors?
  • Texas
    • Large SEA working on Ed-Fi TPDM implementation for 125 Education Prep Programs. Huge change management issue with shifting infrastructure for SEA, vendors, Prep Programs. Collecting stakeholder input on dashboards and updating Ed-Fi version.
  • Indiana
    • 2021 was year one Ed-Fi for calendar and attendance data sets with 200 million attendance records closed out 20-21 school year and have onboarded nearly all schools and vendors. Transitioning to 2022 SY will have 6+ data sets flowing into Ed-Fi and an  additional 10 next June to total 48 end points for vendors. Finding gaps with some schools such as still using Excel; a real challenge with the way systems used vs. intended use vs. all work arounds. Working on transitioning to 2.4
    • Turnover remains a serious issue especially for tech staff – for vendors as well as with education agencies.
    • **Discussion identified it would be timely to work together and invest in more training materials for vendors and other partners.
  • Wisconsin
    • Gone to Azure cloud migration for all of ED-Fi and working on finishing identity and immunization. Other priorities: operational year for actual finance, making student modality decisions, IEP backpack, ACT rostering and outcomes pushed to API in Spring 22 and API 5.2 performance issues. The pupil count membership redevelopment in Wisconsin is planning on pilot in 22/23 school year. Districts are concerned about data counts being off – a challenge as membership is tied to funding $$. Another state ran into pupil count membership issues and found 2.0 bug with deployment to Azure. 2 SEAs shared their experience going in “small” and having to change to “business critical” with Azure.

Agenda Item #3: Follow-up and deferred agenda items from July meeting

  • In answer to a question raised: starter kit badges can be awarded to vendors that are certified.
  • Maureen shared several slides on the SEA Modernization Starter Kit, and there is additional information available at Ed-Fi.org, TechDocs

  • An SEA starter kit webinar/technical walk through is scheduled for Sept. 16 at 2:45 pm ET with a deeper half day follow-up session in October.
  • New LEA Starter Kits
  • For Vendors - published vendor information that goes with starter kits: landing information and solution guide.
  • For the SEA work group, it was suggested they explore the use of LEA starter kits.
  • A concern was shared that SIS are year based, but ODS aren’t which creates a problem keeping data in the right “spot”. Suggestion was to review TAG notes from last week when this was discussed.

Summary of Action Items:

  • GAT members with any questions about the November Summit should contact Caroline.
  • SEA starter kit webinar/technical walk through is scheduled for Sept. 16 at 2:45 pm ET – contact Maureen for registration information.

Next meeting:  September 23, 2021