General Reference
- lee.morrow
- Sean Casey
- Chris Moffatt (Deactivated)
- Miguel Kaminski
Vendor Configuration Guides & Support
PowerSchool
Infinite Campus SIS
Skyward SIS
Eagle Software / Aeries SIS
- Configuration guide
- Contact Aeries at support@aeries.com for configuration issues and technical support.
Edupoint Synergy SIS
- Connect to the Edupoint customer FTP site for releases and configuration information, using the Edupoint provided username and password.
- Connect to the Edupoint customer support site for technical support questions, using your Edupoint login name and password.
Recommendations on RFP Language for Contracting with Assessment Vendors
The selected vendor must either be currently certified in accordance with the Ed-Fi Assessment Outcomes API for Suite 3 Certification (found here on Ed-Fi's TechDocs) or attain certification within 3 months of the RFP being awarded. The selected vendor must also maintain a current Ed-Fi Certification and support ongoing updates to match updates to the Ed-Fi Data Standard and Assessment Certification Requirements.
We strongly recommend including language that SPECIFICALLY calls out the V3 Assessment Certification for ANY vendor awarded the contract. It ensures they comply rather than treating it as a nice to have if we get around to it.
System Architecture
- Vendors must describe the system architecture degree of "openness" and adherence to industry standard hardware, software, security and communications protocols.
- Vendors must describe the hosting environment options.
- Vendors must describe how components of the proposed architecture will remain current and supported to avoid becoming obsolete.
- Vendors must provide an overview of how major hardware and software components are layered and used within the architecture.
- Vendors must identify and describe the primary underlying development programming language(s), integrated development environment (IDE), and component server environment used to produce tailored or customized components of the proposed solution.
- The Vendors’ system must have the ability to integrate or interface with an Ed-Fi REST API and optionally produce Ed-Fi XML. In addition, Contractor should list any integration with other common systems. Contractor must commit to supporting native integration via the State Standard, which are the State’s extensions to the Ed-Fi REST API and optionally Ed-Fi XML. Updates to State Specifications will be published for every year. Contractor must commit to continuing to support annual updates to State Specifications.
Production Rollout Checklist
Use the the Production Rollout Checklist to plan new application and feature rollouts to your district/agency.
Please open and print this worksheet to share with your team and complete it together.
Key Concepts
Ed-Fi Data Standard: The Ed-Fi data standard, launched in July 2011, is an open-source data interoperability framework designed to standardize the way a school district’s various software applications — such as student information systems, assessment software, rostering tools, and learning management systems — format and share data.
Production environment: The "live" environment with which end-users interact. In the case of an Ed-Fi solution this would be the environment deployed by a school district or school for use by its personnel containing real student data.
Quick Start: Instructions which guide users through the quickest possible path to deploying a working version of the Chronic Absenteeism solution using sample data on a single computer without consideration for advanced configurations. The environment deployed by completing the Quick Start Guide is referred to as a sample environment.
Sample environment: The environment deployed by completing the Quick Start instructions for an Ed-Fi solution.
Script: A series of commands typically in text format executed by a scripting engine (such as PowerShell) to automate complex processes on a local machine.
Setup Guide: Instructions for users to customize an Ed-Fi solution established in the Quick Start to fit their unique needs through advanced configurations such as deploying to a cloud-native environment, loading test data, adjusting security settings, and configuring student information systems. The environment deployed by completing the Setup Guide is referred to as a test environment. Your test environment is intended to mimic your production environment (the environment your end users will operate) and allows administrators and stakeholders to test configuration changes being considered for the production environment without impact to end users.
Starter Kit: The instruction set for installing and configuring an Ed-Fi solution. Each Starter Kit is dived into two parts: the Quick Start, and Setup Guide.
Test environment: The environment deployed by completing the Setup Guide for an Ed-Fi solution. The test environment is intended to mimic your production environment (the environment your end users will operate) and allows administrators and stakeholders to test configuration changes being considered for the production environment without impact to end users. The primary distinctions between the test environment and the production environment is that the test environment uses test data while the production environment uses real student data.
User story: A user story is an informal, natural language description of a software system's functionality. User stories are typically written from the perspective of a system's end user in the format As a <role> I want to <capability>, so that <benefit> to convey who a functionality should serve, what that functionality is, and what value it provides the user.