Ed-Fi 1.1 Request for Comment Webinar 3Adam Miller - adam.miller@msdf.orgMichael & Susan Dell Foundation

Audio lines are muted during the presentationPlease use the chat box to type your questions

Webinar Logistics

• Please introduce yourself in the chat box– You can type your name and organization to All

Participants

• All questions/comments welcome!

• We will stop occasionally toanswer chat questions.

• The Michael & Susan Dell Foundation was established in 1999 to help improve the lives of children in need around the world. The Ed-Fi initiative supports children's access to quality education in public schools, one of the foundation’s key objectives.

• Ed-Fi is based on input from state and local education agencies and vendors. Ed-Fi is governed by foundation representatives working with an advisory council of education agency representatives from states that opt to implement the standard.

• The Ed-Fi standard is vendor-neutral and does not require any specific vendor’s hardware or software.

RFC Goals

• Solicit feedback to keep Ed-Fi useful and easy to adopt

• Discover potential errors, problems, or compatibility issues

• Provide the public portal to capture feedback at https://discussions.zoho.com/ed-fi

• Most importantly, tell us missing Ed-Fi data elements that you need.

RFC Conference ScheduleAugust 1st to September 26th

• 9/11 - 12-1pm Central• 9/26 - 12-1pm Central• 9/27 - RFC phase wrap up - Last call for

changes• 9/30 - RFC phase lockdown• TBD Ed-Fi Advisory Council meeting

to confirm proposed changes• TBD Ed-Fi v1.1 Release Announcement

Webinar recordings and RFC schema on ed-fi.org

© 2011 Michael & Susan Dell Foundation 6

Ed-Fi Discussion Forumhttps://discussions.zoho.com/ed-fi

© 2011 Michael & Susan Dell Foundation 7

Ed-Fi recap in 90 Seconds

• What is the recipe for widespread high quality, student level dashboards?

© 2011 Michael & Susan Dell Foundation 8

RecipeIngredients• Multiple data sources (historical and daily)• Well-defined data schema• Metrics based on quality research• User interface designed for action

Procedure1. Blend data from various source systems2. Sift data through an ETL layer of metric

calculations3. Carefully place data inside the user interface4. Serve with detailed documentation for easier

adoption

© 2011 Michael & Susan Dell Foundation 9

Ed-Fi is the recipe and ingredients

• Public XML data schema• Documented student performance metrics• Operational data store with sample data• ETL code to move data• Source code for fully-functional Web-based

dashboards• Packaged with a brand name and permissive

licensing for others to build on and share

• Presented as the model for a new quality bar that fits within the “free” price range

© 2011 Michael & Susan Dell Foundation 10

© 2011 Michael & Susan Dell Foundation 11

Ed-Fi Web site provides free licensing

Ed-Fi aligned to CEDS

© 2011 Michael & Susan Dell Foundation 12

Ed-Fi in the CEDS alignment tool

© 2011 Michael & Susan Dell Foundation 13

What’s New in the Ed-Fi 1.1Dashboards

• New dashboard platform capabilities• User interface enhancements from

usability analysis• New metric calculations• Subject Area grade enhancements• Architectural changes and bug fixes

© 2011 Michael & Susan Dell Foundation 14

Dashboard Platform Capabilities

• Data extractors available from major vendors (Skyward , ProLogic, Eduphoria, and ACT)

• Custom cohorts, student grouping, and watch lists

• Critical performance updates from load testing • Goal setting for district and campus levels• Security improvements• Longitudinal student view across campuses in

district• Race/ethnicity updates• ADA UI improvements regarding red/green color

blindness• End of year database snapshots © 2011 Michael & Susan Dell Foundation 15

User Interface Enhancements

• Early reading metrics• Campus lists navigation consistency• Legend clarity• Searching by ID• Freeze panes in various screens• New assessment views

© 2011 Michael & Susan Dell Foundation 16

User Interface Enhancements (Cont.)

• Menu/sub-menu structure improvements• Assessment results split between state

and local• “More” button menu improvements• Trend arrows• Viewing and hiding metrics• Student population drilldown views

© 2011 Michael & Susan Dell Foundation 17

New Metrics Calculations

• Days Absent– Display number of days absent as

opposed to percentage of days absent.– Days absent per grading period.

• Early Reading Assessment Enhancements– Ability to display details on early reading

tests

© 2011 Michael & Susan Dell Foundation 18

New Metrics Calculations (Cont.)

• Prior Year Metrics– Adds prior year metrics to the dashboard

views, allowing educators to view data on their students before school begins, in addition to having a point of reference for comparison during the school year.

– Option to display or not display prior year metrics

– Uses a stabilized snapshot of metric data at end of the school year

– Campus and District rollup metrics

© 2011 Michael & Susan Dell Foundation 19

Subject Area Grade Enhancements

• Display of multiple grades or competencies for a subject area (Elementary)

• Multiple grading modes (letter, number)• New composite grade displays to show

number of sub-grades/competencies that met the Student Threshold.

© 2011 Michael & Susan Dell Foundation 20

Architecture Changes

• Separation of Presentation Core and Presentation Web code artifacts leveraging the MVC model for maintainability, extensibility & development simplicity

• Code optimizations to improve runtime• Server side paging for grids• Enhanced code to support metric

initialization activities to enable metric extension capabilities

© 2011 Michael & Susan Dell Foundation 21

Bug Fixes

• Metric variant concept in the Metrics DB to enable implementation specific metrics

• Logging enhancements for failure analysis• Move to GIT for Distributed Source Control• Removal of dependencies from tools/lib to pull

from NuGet• Fixed login impersonation problems• Fixed bug regarding hardcoded values in the

Overview pages• Repaired expand / collapse issue due to Id

mismatch in metric templates

© 2011 Michael & Susan Dell Foundation 22

Descriptors

• Enumeration dilemma– Code lists standardized within the xsd– States use different code lists and change as

education laws and policies change– Using codes (01, 02,..) versus short descriptions

• Descriptors– Moves enumerations from xsd into data (descriptor)

to support enumerations that can align with those defined and published by a State or other organization

Descriptors

• Support references by either code or short description

• Effective dates to model change over time

• Can link to prior descriptor for longitudinal analysis

• Linked to a namespace that defines their scope

• Most map a to common denominator of enumerations to support analysis across states

Defining an enumeration vs. descriptor

<xs:simpleType name="GraduationPlanType"><xs:restriction base="xs:token">

<xs:enumeration value="Minimum"/><xs:enumeration value="Recommended"/><xs:enumeration value="Distinguished"/>

</xs:restriction></xs:simpleType>

With enums, values are fixed in the xsd

With descriptors, values are defined in data, in an xml file<GraduationPlanTypeDescriptor namespace=”http://ritter.tea.state.tx.us/weds/index.html?Code=C062”>

<CodeValue>27</CodeValue><ShortDescription>Minimum<ShortDescription><LongDescription>Minimum High School Program

TAC Chapter 74, revised September 1, 2005; including TAC §89.1070(b)(2) for students receiving special education services, revised August 1, 2002.(for students who entered grade 9 in 2007-2008 and thereafter)</LongDescription>

<EffectiveBeginDate>2007-09-30</EffectiveBeginDate></GraduationPlanDescriptor>

Assigning values to enumeration vs. descriptor

<GraduationPlan>… <GraduationPlanType>Recommended</GraduationPlanType>…</GraduationPlan>

With enumerations:

With descriptors:<GraduationPlan>… <GraduationPlanType namespace=”http://ritter.tea.state.tx.us/teds/index.html?Code=C062”>

<CodeValue>28</CodeValue> </GraduationPlanType>…</GraduationPlan>

<GraduationPlan>… <GraduationPlanType namespace=”http://ritter.tea.state.tx.us/teds/index.html?Code=C062”>

<ShortDescription>Recommended</ShortDescription> </GraduationPlanType>…</GraduationPlan>

Next Steps

1. Expect an invite for the next Web conference.

2. Please invite your peers to these webinars!

3. Don’t be shy to ask questions here or through the Ed-Fi discussion portal.