The Ed-Fi Alliance released the Ed-Fi Data Standard v5.0, along with the latest version of the Ed-Fi ODS/API (v7.1). With the Ed-Fi Data Standard v5.0, users receive a new domain, Student Program Evaluation, a new association, Student Special Education Program Eligibility Association, and breaking changes to the Section Model, Special Education Program Association, Student School Association, and Student Academic Record.
The Ed-Fi Data Standard version 4.0, released in 2022, introduced breaking changes in descriptor mapping, student academic report domain, assessment domain and finance domain. During that time, the Ed-Fi Alliance decided to test a new policy on the Data Standard release cadence: allow major (breaking) changes to the core model in two consecutive years, followed by a third year of minor (non-breaking) changes.
The Ed-Fi Data Standard v5.0 is the product of the second year of breaking changes aligned with this policy and there will not be any breaking changes to the standard in 2024. These changes are a direct result of the Ed-Fi Alliance Community’s feedback received over the last two years. Two early releases (v5.0-pre1 and v5.0-pre2) included all but the section model updates, giving community members a chance to review the proposed changes in a live environment using ODS/API 7.0. Below, you will find details about changes introduced to the Ed-Fi Data Standard this year.
Special education (SpEd) has been added to the focus areas because of the SpEd program eligibility assessment process and procedures and its conjunction with the early childhood education domain. With this addition to the core model, community members can now store and track students’ SpEd program eligibility assessments and eligibility determination directly in the Ed-Fi API.
In addition, a new domain Student Program Evaluation was created. The domain introduces program evaluation specific data collection through the rubric, objective, and element entities as well as Program Evaluation and Student Program Evaluation entities which are associated with the Student, Staff and Program entities. More than two dozen previously deprecated data elements have been removed with this latest version. To assist community members with future removals, users are encouraged to follow the new guide provided at the attached link.
The final update introduced in the v5.0 model is inclusive renaming. These changes include renaming the Parent entity to Contact, adding Preferred First and Last Surname, clarifying the purpose of Sex Descriptor, and adding Gender Identity. A full list of these domains and more details can be found at the What’s New – v5.0 page.
