DATA PORTABILITYTHE FINAL FRONTIER

TECHNOLOGY REVIEW

THE PROBLEM

• Every program exports/imports its own format

• This makes it hard to exchange data

• each program needs a translator for each program it needs to send data to

• Costly, unreliable, cumbersome

• Vendor lock-in

• Can’t work well with others

THE SOLUTION

• A universal, intermediate data format

• Each program has exactly one data translator

• into/out of the intermediate format

• Any program can exchange data with every program

• avoid vendor lock in

• any school or district can exchange data with any other school or district

SIF… THE SCHOOL INTEROPERABILITY FORMAT

• Developed by the Access 4 Learning Community

• International standard

• Carefully designed data models

• Nearly every program has an export/import function

• Well developed data transfer protocols

BIG WIN IF EVERYONE USES IT

• Adoption has been very slow in Minnesota

• Massachusets uses it state-wide for real-time data sync

• school programs, district programs, state agency

• Australia has country-wide mandate

• tremendous benefits, efficiencies, vendor improvements

THERE’S HOPE FOR US!

TA DAAAA!!

• Starting in 2018, schools are mandated to have “seamless transfer” of student records with SIF

LOTS OF BIG CHALLENGES

• MDE is not figuring out how to do this

• Data Portability Leadership Council is focused on state funding legislation

• it’s slow going

• MASA is pressing for guidance but getting none

• But the deadline looms

I DIGRESS…

• In other legislation, MDE is working on a state-sponsored special ed case management system

• First round, mandatory version failed because of facts on the ground

• everyone already had one that suited their district

• Current effort will provide an option

• Score one for local control

SIF ‘FACTS ON THE GROUND’

• Once the state gets its act together, they will want to control the entire data transfer function

• Presently, there are few districts that have substantial SIF capability

• No internal expertise

• No ability to operate without state system

• Score one for the overlords

WHICH IS TO SAY

WE ONLY HAVE A LITTLE TIME

• While they dither, 2018 provides a context to establish facts on the ground

• Grassroots implementation

• SIS systems all have SIF capability

• local brokers for sync

• local expertise in data portability

• Once MDE starts making demands, districts will be equipped to work with them productively

STATE OF THE ART

SIF WORKS

• Anoka Hennepin uses it for most of their systems

• Iowa uses it statewide to drive their data mining

• Oklahoma, too

• Version 2 was very complicated

• Version 3 based on web standards, vastly simpler

MODERN SIF

• Broker (used to be called ZIS) is optional

• All communication uses standard AJAX, RESTful endpoints

• XML is a thing of the past

• JSON is much easier

TWO KINDS OF DATA MODELS

• ‘SYNC’ for fine-grained update of programs in the district

• Many data objects referencing

• Students, schedules, staff, transportation, bell schedule

• xPress application interface

• Roster

• Student Record Exchange

STUDENT RECORD EXCHANGE EQUALS DATA PORTABILITY

XSRE

• You really don’t want to know many details

• Comprehensive student transcript data definition

• Privacy based on trusted peer relationships

• Well developed Student Locator function

• Actually in use in Washington State

LOTS OF TRANSCRIPT DATA

• Too much to talk about right now.

WHAT WE’RE DOING TO HELP

IN GENERAL

• Active in Access 4 Learning

• SpecEd/IEP workgroup

• Vendor steering committee

• all the main MN vendors working on IEP

• Data Portability Leadership Council

• helping to define next steps

TECHNOLOGY

• SIF-ifying our products

• import / export SIF to our Data Integration system

• Working with Cedar Labs broker

• used in Washington state and Iowa

• special awesomeness: V2 SIF in V3 SIF out and vice versa

PRACTICAL HELP

• Small scale SIF implementation

• Hosted service

• Developing expertise in SIS SIF implementations

• Creating support team for small scale SIF

• Goal is to make it so that any district can get started with SIF in time for 2018

INSPIRATIONAL CLOSING

STUDENTS ARE HARMED BY VENDOR LOCK IN

• The legislature has provided a context for action

• Lobby your administrators in favor of SIF

• Tell them about data portability

• Start learning about SIF integration

• Let’s get moving

FREE THE DATA