An Application Programming Interface, or API, connects your data from different applications and helps facilitate interoperability between edtech providers and district systems. It’s vital for school districts to understand what an API is and how it works to modernize data infrastructure to create safe ecosystems for student data. This understanding will enable districts to ask the right questions when procuring and implementing edtech software. Learn more about what an API is, how this impacts you and your district, and best practices when utilizing APIs with edtech providers!
In our quest to help networks better understand and improve their K12 school system's capabilities, we created the School Network Pledge. This pledge symbolizes secure access to student data, educates practitioners and families about student privacy, promotes equity, and ensures fiscal responsibility for edtech purchases. By signing this pledge, schools are signaling to other school networks, edtech vendors, and their community that they’re committed to helping students grow with interoperability.
To support edtech vendors in enhancing the use of educational data and improving teaching and learning practices for stronger student outcomes, we created the Edtech Vendor Interoperability Pledge. This pledge symbolizes the commitment to maximizing equitable access and availability through data interoperability. By signing the pledge, edtech vendors are signaling they are committed to enhancing their products' security, access, privacy, and interoperability. This enables educators, and families to be more involved in their student’s education, enhancing the effectiveness of their educational data. It also informs teaching and learning practices for stronger student outcomes.
A successful and modernized Statewide Longitudinal Data System (SLDS) should function as a dynamic tool empowering educators, principals, and decision-makers to directly impact student outcomes. Beyond the mere collection of data, the system must seamlessly transform information into actionable insights through intuitive dashboards. This evolution from data to information to knowledge to wisdom is crucial for informed decision-making at various educational levels.
Ready to uncover recommendations, resources, and success stories to enhance your journey to harness the full potential of SLDS (Statewide Longitudinal Data Systems)? Dive into Project Unicorns’s latest resource and learn how to use the strategy of federal funding braiding to secure federal funding sources and improve your implementation.
Stories from the Field, curated by Project Unicorn, provide a glimpse into the collaborative efforts between school systems and edtech solution providers, offering valuable insights into what's possible within an interoperable data ecosystem in education. These stories supplement the findings from the 2023 State of the Sector (SOTS) Report, offering a detailed analysis of K-12 school system capabilities related to education data, with input from 208 unique LEAs, Regional Education Service Agencies, and school systems. Explore Stories from the Field and the SOTS report to better understand the evolving landscape of education data.
The potential of cooperatives to build capacity for implementing Statewide Longitudinal Data Systems (SLDS) is vast. With the ability to foster interagency cooperation and strengthen the data ecosystem, this strategy presents an innovative approach. This resource provides suggestions and examples of incorporating cooperatives into your SLDS initiative. Learn about the key benefits, anticipate challenges, and explore recommendations for state leaders.
Statewide Longitudinal Data Systems (SLDS) can be crucial in education data management and data-driven decision-making. Some states have increasingly looked to make these connections to workforce development, such as California’s Cradle to Career system. These systems are designed to collect, store, analyze, and manage a wide range of data related to student performance, school information, demographics, and other relevant indicators in the education data curriculum. To ensure effective use and meaningful data analysis, interoperability is a key consideration in SLDS implementation.
As we work to provide physical infrastructure for our schools that is safe, healthy, and supportive for all students, the time has come to align resources towards creating a digital infrastructure that is equally safe, accessible, resilient, sustainable, and future-proof.
Protecting student data privacy is critical to implementing interoperable technology systems. Read this jump-start guide to learn about key education data privacy organizations and resources that support best practices in student data privacy during your interoperability journey.
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To provide more insight and guidance into how edtech purchasing happens and consider how educators and leaders can work together to make more informed purchasing decisions, the International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE) and Project Unicorn have released Better Edtech Buying: A Practical Guide - Revised Edition.
Read MoreWhy One Supports the Other: Data interoperability is a helpful component to building and maintaining quality software. Interoperability isn't a panacea, but making intentional and informed choices about implementing an interoperability standard contribute to better development practice, better privacy practice, and better security practice. Here are 5 ways interoperability, privacy, and security enhance each other.
Read MoreThe Standards Glossary by Project Unicorn is a directory that contains a list of Interoperability Standards in K-12.
Read MoreClarity around how the Ed-Fi Alliance Standards and IMS Global Learning Consortium® Standards can be used in support of educators is a common and increasingly frequent request from the Ed-Fi Community. In many cases, Ed-Fi and IMS Global standards often seek to solve different problems, and therefore a better understanding of the tools and functionality available for various use cases is important to selecting the best solution for a given use case. Each organization’s technologies provide real, and distinct, value to users in their daily lives and work….
Read MoreAs local and state governments, businesses, and institutions across the country implement the first phases of reopening after weeks of lockdown, schools are beginning to plan for learning this fall…
Read MoreThis infographic illustrates that, when all the important people in their lives have appropriate access to information, individuals get the support they need to succeed.
Read MoreLearn about the benefits of signing the Project Unicorn pledge which includes joining a community of districts and vendors, access to other resources, scholarships, and technical support.
Read MoreLearn about the different organizations in K-12 that provide data standards to make Data Interoperability possible.
Read MoreLearn more about why Data Interoperability matters to schools.
Read MoreLearn more about starting your journey towards interoperability as a superintendent.
Read MoreThis issue brief shares state policy recommendations and action steps for policymakers who are supporting the redesign of educator workforce systems.
Read MoreSchool District Administrators: If you are just getting started with interoperability, use these first practical steps to begin.
Read MoreHow does your school network rank? Review the rubric to assess your tier of interoperability.
Read MoreYour customers are demanding interoperability. As more and more school districts commit to procuring interoperable EdTech products and platforms, it's important for vendors to stay ahead of the curve.
Read MoreCoSN has developed this Interoperability Toolkit to help districts increase the interoperability of their academic and operational systems.
Read MoreThis guide has been developed with input from CIOs/CTOs and is meant to address both data management and data privacy which are two major concerns that schools face each day.
Read MoreInsert language from our partners at A4L in your requests for proposals so that your school or district procures only technologies that are interoperable.
Read MoreIn this guide, you’ll find case studies from the perspective of educators and administrators, as well as a series of profiles that share how companies are thinking, planning and guiding their product development process to address these user needs.
Read MoreCheck out this resource from our partners at DQC to see how critical information is to supporting a student's unique path to graduation.
Read MoreRead why interoperability standards matter in K-12 education. CoSN has produced a report that showcases perspectives from district and school leaders and makes the case for data interoperability.
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