The Michael & Susan Dell Foundation is pleased to announce the release of Ed-Fi Version 1.0.  Ed-Fi is a free tool suite that aligns with Common Education Data Standards and that is specifically designed to empower educators with relevant, timely, student-centric information that enables better decisions, targeted action plans and improved student outcomes.

With this release, the following Ed-Fi Version 1.0 components are now available to help accelerate state leaders’ and vendors’ abilities to put meaningful dashboards and tools into educators’ hands:

  • Unifying data model
  • Data exchange framework
  • Application extension framework
  • Sample dashboards

The release of Version 1.0 follows an extensive request for comment period that incorporated feedback from IT representatives from a diverse collection of 110 organizations, including federal and state governments, school districts from across the US, educational software vendors, nonprofit organizations and consortiums that are involved in shaping educational data standards. The feedback focused primarily on emerging trends in educational data capture and resulted in additional Ed-Fi capabilities that allow users to:

  • Report on holistic assessment information  –  including competency and mastery, day-to day-grades, multiple objective levels, classroom assessments and more  –   for a more detailed map of individual student capabilities against learning standards
  • Track student progress against individually defined graduation plans and career pathways, including career-specific, technical education requirements
  • Report on nuanced student profile information about learning styles, discipline offenses and more

These enhancements further Ed-Fi’s ability to power tools that provide rich, holistic student information to educators.

Compatible with many existing education data standards – including the Common Education Data Standards (CEDS) with which it aligns –  Ed-Fi is easy-to-implement and is now available to state and local education agencies, organizations and vendors serving the education sector through a free license.

  • Join the growing Ed-Fi community here.
  • Learn more about Ed-Fi benefits here or by visiting edfi.
  • Learn more about Ed-Fi alignment with CEDS, and about the working relationship of the Michael & Susan Dell Foundation and the National Center for Education Statistics, by reading page three of this document.

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