“Listening is a powerful act. You have to put yourself out to do it.”– David Hockney
Today is an exciting day for the Ed-Fi Alliance – the launch of a new version of the Ed-Fi solution. While the new features and capabilities of Ed-Fi Version 1.2 are vitally important and address today’s very real data challenges, what’s most exciting for me is the way they came to life. Ed-Fi Version 1.2 is a direct reflection of what we heard from you – the education agencies, vendors and educators working hard every day to ensure student success.
Like you, we know that schools are troubled, data privacy issues are debated daily, and data system integrations are expensive, lengthy and tedious. These persistent problems won’t disappear soon. So we’re building a solution for the long-haul.
That journey started with listening. First to classroom educators who told us that they were spending far too much time trying to determine what the problem was, leaving too little time to do something about it. One thing came through loud and clear: the first step to a solution is to listen to data that matters. And we heard administrators and technologists frustrated by the major obstacles that prevent data from moving effectively within an education system. We listened and learned … and what we heard formed the foundation for the Ed-Fi solution: a common language for all that data and a classroom dashboard suite that knocks teachers’ socks off.
Today’s release reflects contributions from among the 16 states with 6213 school districts who are putting the Ed-Fi solution into action. This version will spark adoption by even more. As always, the enhanced Ed-Fi solution is licensed for free through the Ed-Fi Alliance, so every teacher in every school can listen to better data. In doing so, we’ve leveled the playing field between all districts, enabling every school to benefit from the same world-class tools .
If we were in this for money or profit, we would be talking more and listening less.
At the Ed-Fi Alliance, we are listening to educators—and building the power for educators to listen, too. Are you?
Join the Listening Movement.
Lori Fey is president of the Ed-Fi Alliance.
