"Just the Facts": SIF Specification Usage in the Education Marketplace

By: Access 4 Learning Community
 
WASHINGTON - Nov. 30, 2016 - PRLog -- The Access 4 Learning Community (A4L) Community, previously the SIF Association, has changed its brand name due to the fact that the majority of its participating organizations representing schools, regional agencies, and government entity members now wear more than just "data manager" job titles.  That does not mean that the A4L Community is not continuing its ongoing development of the SIF Specifications to promote interoperability between applications and enable the mantra "enter once and use many times".

The A4L Community continues to mature the SIF Specification and Certification Program.   The SIF freely accessible and collaboratively developed blueprints continue to contain:
•  The most comprehensive and widely implemented educational data model anywhere with supporting infrastructure differing itself from other standards who do not provide "on the wire support"
•  The only real-time data movement blueprint available to impact learning when and where needed and a mature, 15 year established on the wire testing Certification Program.

The evolution, and now adoption, of the SIF Specification 3.x has ushered in new features and functionalities including:
•  A separation of data model and infrastructure with an updated REST-based infrastructure without middleware requirements
•  Targeted "bite size" functionality via the xPress API line and additional security controls allowing for increased data privacy control

Some in the educational marketplace attempt to dismiss SIF utilization 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. Even with a short timeframe (2 weeks) and small response (16 survey responses representing 23 of the largest marketplace products) the impact numbers depict the continued usage and growth of the SIF Specifications.  The Survey results indicate:
•  SIF-Enabled applications are in place and operating in every US state: There are at least 12 statewide implementations utilizing SIF interoperability representing over 11 million students in 4,100 school districts with 810,000 teachers
•  Non-statewide implementations utilizing SIF interoperability represents over 2.5 million students in 1,000 school districts
•  The majority of applications utilizing SIF Specifications are using it for horizontal interoperability with more than one "connection" to another application
•  Major application types using SIF Specifications include collaboration, course management, food service, grade book, human resource/finance, library, student information systems, transportation and special education applications.

To provide and accurate depiction of specification utilization and address inaccurate marketplace information, the A4L Community is proud to release the SIF Utilization Survey.  This quick and concise overview of SIF implementation data points can be accessed numerous ways:
    White Paper: https://www.A4L.org/NewsRoom/White%20Papers/Just_The_Facts__On_The_Ground_SIF_Utilization.pdf
    Slide Deck: https://www.a4l.org/Resources/Documents/SIF_Utilization_Data_Usage_Survey_2016.pdf
   Video animation:  https://youtu.be/KntepEVL16E



"I am constantly amazed, and somewhat disappointed, in some of the marketplace providers and standards development organization leaders touting the demise of A4L Community and the lack of understanding in SIF Specification usage", states Dr. Larry Fruth II, A4L's Executive Director/CEO.  "The Leadership of the A4L Community is publicly stating how they want to support the effective usage of technical standards in the marketplace – no matter where they come from.  The results of this survey will ideally provide a more accurate depiction of SIF utilization in real numbers and in real places, versus some nebulous usage of bits and bites and licenses signed information."

About the Access 4 Learning Community
There is no other global community made up of educational policymakers, marketplace product and service providers and the customers they serve, collaborating daily to address real word learning information and resource issues.

The Access 4 Learning (A4L) Community, previously the SIF Association, is a unique, non-profit collaboration composed of schools, districts, local authorities, states, US and International Ministries of Education, software vendors and consultants who collectively address all aspects of learning information management and access to support learning.  The A4L Community is "Powered by SIF" Specifications as its major technical tool to allow for this management and access simply, securely and in a scalable, standard way regardless of the platform hosting those applications. The Access 4 Learning Community has united these education technology end users and providers in an unprecedented effort to give teachers more time to do what they do best: teach. For further information, visit https://www.A4L.org

Contact
Penny Murray
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Source:Access 4 Learning Community
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Tags:Standards, Data Usage, Specification
Industry:Education
Location:Washington - District of Columbia - United States
Subject:Reports
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Page Updated Last on: Dec 01, 2016
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