We’re seeing that eye-catching “I” word more and more in the education wild. Just over a week ago, EdWeek put out this special report on interoperability comprised of a handful of articles on the topic, even including an interoperability quiz. It’s not the front page of the Times, yet—but we’re overjoyed with the attention the issue is gaining with big education publications.
COSN’s 2018 survey gives us an idea of where IT leaders nationwide are at with interoperability; while only 10% reported having fully implemented data interoperability, 60% responded that their current status is “partially implemented”. There’s certainly still work to be done raising awareness in our own backyard, but the large majority are on track:
Source: COSN 2018
The same survey asked respondents whether interoperability can make state and federal reporting more efficient, and 56% said they “completely agree”. As do we!
Beyond these demonstrations of growing awareness and adoption, the proof is in the pledge. When Project Unicorn was launched in the spring, 21 vendors had signed on. Now, there are more than 80 vendors listed on the site along with hundreds of school systems.
We’re nearing a tipping point. We expect that interoperability will start to be awarded more prominent sections in education reports and will be peppered into education news more and more. In 2019, we will be working to involve more leaders who can serve as spokespeople for this movement and expedite the momentum.
