The Ed-Fi Alliance is an Austin, Texas-based nonprofit / education technology & data interoperability organization that develops and maintains open-source data standards and tools aimed at helping K-12 education data systems communicate with each other. The Ed-Fi Alliance is supported by the Michael & Susan Dell Foundation.

The Alliance works with technology providers, school districts, and state education agencies to enable different education software platforms to exchange data in a consistent format. The goal is to give educators and administrators real-time access to information about student progress. Daily data such as attendance, grades, and test scores can often be housed in separate and incompatible platforms. The Ed-Fi Alliance helps bridge these gaps through a shared framework that allows the platforms to communicate with one another and create a complete picture of each student viewable in a centralized place.

The Alliance does not work as a vendor. It provides its standard and core tools at no cost.

The Ed-Fi Data Standard

At the core of the Alliance's work is the Ed-Fi Data Standard, an open-source s language for moving education data from one system to another. Rather than building a single platform, the standard allows technology providers to build their own products that can communicate with each other using shared definitions.

Applications of the standard include addressing attendance challenges, streamlining student transfers, personalizing classroom instruction, supporting educator development, and connecting students to college and career pathways.

The standard is supported by a suite of open-source tools, including the Ed-Fi Application Programming Interface (API) and the Ed-Fi Operational Data Store (ODS).

Partners & Impact

The Ed-Fi Data Standard has been implemented by education technology providers including Skyward, PowerSchool, Infinite Campus, Education Analytics, and EdGraph. These partners integrate the standard into their existing products.

The Ed-Fi Data Standard is being used in the following states:

• Arizona
• New Mexico
• Texas
• Tennessee
• Georgia
• South Carolina
• Kansas
• Nebraska
• Indiana
• Michigan
• Wisconsin
• Minnesota
• Vermont
• Delaware

Resources

Ed-Fi Alliance. (n.d.). What is the Ed-Fi Alliance? https://www.ed-fi.org/what-is-ed-fi/

Ed-Fi Alliance. (n.d.). What is the Ed-Fi Data Standard? https://www.ed-fi.org/ed-fi-data-standard/

Ed-Fi Alliance. (n.d.). Ed-Fi technology suite. https://www.ed-fi.org/ed-fi-technology-suite/

Ed-Fi Alliance. (n.d.). Technology partners. https://www.ed-fi.org/technology-partners/