What is Ed-Fi?

Schools, Districts (LEA), and State Education Agencies (SEA) all maintain records of enrollment, attendance, discipline, state assessments, and other information related to students, staff, and schools. However, it can be difficult to access and share data, as it may be stored in several different places and formats. Ed-Fi provides one potential solution to this problem.

Ed-Fi (http://www.ed-fi.org/) is an open data standard built to integrate data from student information systems and other sources, developed and maintained by the Michael and Susan Dell Foundation, and is freely licensed to educational entities. It provides the tools to integrate student and other data from a variety of sources while keeping data safely in its designated domain and aligns with the Common Education Data Standards (CEDS) developed by the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) https://ceds.ed.gov/.

Ed-Fi data is stored in an Operational Data Store (ODS) usually maintained at the state level, although it could also be implemented at a regional or LEA level data store. The ODS has several web-enabled dashboards based on the Ed-Fi data standard. These dashboards provide authorized users with the tools necessary to view and export data in various formats. SEAs can use this data to satisfy their state reporting and longitudinal data requirements without compromising privacy or reducing LEA control over student data. Consistent data standards enable student-level long-term tracking and reporting. Schools and LEAs may also use the data and tools for their own purposes. LEAs, schools, and even the public may be granted access to these state-hosted tools, but only to the extent allowed by FERPA and in compliance with individual SEA policies.

Information provided by Ed-Fi.