Governance is taking root at Ed-Fi. We’ve launched a comprehensive approach to Governance at the 2018 Technical Congress, and as a direct response to feedback from our Community, there are three new Special Interest Groups, and two new community work groups starting up.
New Special Interest Groups
Ed-Fi Special Interest Groups (SIGs) are convened to address key important topics in the evolution of Ed-Fi standards and technology. Unlike governance workgroups, SIGs are initiated by the Alliance, with a narrow focus and designed to produce specific, discrete outputs. They therefore generally only meet a limited number of times. The following are new SIG’s being formed:
| SIG | Goal | Scheduled Meetings |
| Strategies for Data Out from the ODS / API
Convener: Vinaya Maya (Vinaya.maya@ed-fi.org) | The goals of this Special Interest Group are to convene community experts to: -Collect and document data out use cases -Review and prioritize community needs and use cases in this area -Provide actionable recommendations for the Ed-Fi Technology Roadmap | Thursday, June 6, 2019 at 1:00 pm CT Thursday, June 20 2019 at 10:30 am CT Tuesday, July 2 2019 at 1:00 pm CT Thursday, July 18, 2019 at 1:00 pm CT |
| Open Source Rules Engine and Validation Results API
Convener: Chris Moffatt (chris.moffatt@ed-fi.org) | The goals of this Special Interest Group are to convene community experts to: -Review and provide input to the deliverables from the Alliance-sponsored work (Feasibility Study: Open Source Rules Engine & Technical specification and data model for level 2 validation reports) -Identify an Ed-Fi implementation to adopt one of the recommended open source rules engine. -Identify an Ed-Fi implementation that can serve as a testbed for implementation of the Validation Results API. | -Thursday, May 30th, 2019, at 2:00 pm CT -Thursday, June 9th, 2019 at 2:00 pm CT -Additional meetings to be scheduled |
| Ed-Fi Integration with Google Classroom
Convener: Eric Jansson (eric.jansson@ed-fi.org) | The goals of this Special Interest Group are to convene community experts to: -Define and refine use cases around the integration of Ed-Fi and Google Classroom. -Propose technical solutions to enable prioritized use cases. | We will set the first meeting date once we reach a critical mass of interested participants, including two or more educators who use Google Classroom. |
If you are interested in getting involved in any of these groups, please send an email to the identified convener of the SIG.
New Community Work Groups
Community work groups are at the heart of Ed-Fi governance, and are…
| Work Group | Description | Next Meeting |
| Special Education (SPED) | The SPED work groups main purpose is to represent the perspectives of the special education community (SEAs, LEAs, vendors and thought leaders) to the Ed-Fi Governance processes with the purpose of making the Ed-Fi data and technology standards more widely adopted and used. The SPED-WG may make recommendations through the Ed-Fi Governance processes about investment in the Ed-Fi product roadmap and business strategies. | These meeting dates are TBD. |
| Teacher Prep Data Model (TPDM) | The TPDM work group aims to help improve teacher preparation programs across the country, through data interoperability, utilizing the Ed-Fi Data Standard and Technology Suite. The TPDM’s main purpose is to represent the perspectives of the teacher prep community (higher ed, professional development organizations, SEAs, LEAs, vendors and thought leaders) to the Ed-Fi Governance processes with the purpose of making the Ed-Fi data and technology standards more widely adopted and used. | -Friday, May 24th, 2019, at 10 am CT
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The full list of active work groups can be found here. If you are interested in getting involved in any of these groups, please send an email to governance@ed-fi.org, stating which group you are interested in.
In addition to the work group and SIG activities described above, at the Technical Congress we welcomed the incoming members of the Technical Advisory Group for 2019 and are pleased to welcome the following new members of the Governance Advisory Team:
- Veronica Amundson, Pittsburgh Public Schools
- Jon Berry, Infinite Campus
- Eric Miller, Illuminate
As we noted in our report out from the 2019 Technical Congress, we are deeply invested in ensuring that our work is informed by the needs of the Ed-Fi community, and this is on display in the myriad activities within our governance structures. Thank you for the amazing contributions and investment each of you brings!
