NEWSLETTER | Issue 34 5
Committed to supporting schools and state agencies in the effective usage of technical education standards …
… no matter where they originate .
Technical Standards 101 – Why Is This So Complicated ?
Since 1997 , there has been a growth in the usage of technical standards for software developers in the education marketplace . Most of these “ ground up ” initiatives began out of frustration of software product providers and the end user customers they supported in managing educational information . The blueprints developed by these and subsequent communities were conceived to help simplify the development , delivery , implementation and utilization of software to manage educational institutions and ultimately impact learning .
The Educational Technical Standards 101 resources have been designed to deliver on “ just the fact ’ s ma ’ am ” – a dated but still relevant reference . It is not designed to make the case of a one standard over another but more importantly to describe what technical standards are , who and how we benefit from them , what organizations are developing them , what standard is used for what functionality . 1 Standards are all around us . We have standards for cars , roads , planes , food , but most familiar to all of us who travel electrical outlets – but only within countries ! No international technical standard for electrical voltage or outlets . Whether they know it or not , end users and marketplace providers can and should benefit from the usage of technical standards in software products and services . Generally their usage allows for more rapid and cost effective development , greater choice to customers , and the ability to grow an educational ecosystem that allows for the management , delivery and usage of critical information to the right person at the right time . In essence , technical standards usage is critical for numerous stakeholders ’ success but ideally provide greater learning success stories .
Press
release / white paper / slide deck / video animation
Just The Facts : On the ground SIF utilization
The Access 4 Learning Community ( A4L ), previously the SIF Association , has changed its brand name due to the fact that the majority of its members represent schools , regional agencies , and government entities now wear more than just “ data manager ” job titles . These practitioners are being asked to oversee , IT , data access , policy development like privacy , educational technology , and even additional operational roles including communications . These members drove the change in brand to indicate the Community ’ s broadening mission – Access 4 Learning .
Even with this name change , the A4L Community continues to mature the SIF Specification and Certification Program , and the evolution of SIF Specification 3 . x has ushered in new features and functionalities . Even with these facts , some in the educational marketplace attempt to dismiss SIF utilization in the attempts to promote their own work . To address this misinformation , the A4L Community recently developed and disseminated a brief usage survey which was sent to marketplace providers and LEA / SEA data leaders .
Without specific school district identification , care was taken to not “ double count ” applications in use in districts . This means that confirmed numbers are substantiated and expected to be well under actual values .
Survey Summary results :
� SIF-Enabled applications are in place and operating in every US state : This represents over 55 million students / 3.9 million teachers
� There are at least 12 state wide implementations utilizing SIF interoperability : This represents over 11 million students in 4,100 school districts with 810,000 teachers
� Non-state wide implementations utilizing SIF interoperability : This represents over 2.5 million students in 1,000 school districts .
Press release / white paper / slide deck / video animation