SIF Program 2014 Executive Office Of Education William A. Holscher State SIF Program Manager

SIF Solution Problem: Need to put actionable information in the hands of those who can make a difference and the data we have is periodic not reflective of what is happening in our schools today Solution: Collect near-real time data from school districts that can be turned around and used in tools as actionable information 2

What is SIF? Schools Interoperability Framework (SIF) - the first, largest, and most implemented open global standard for seamless, real time data transfer and usage. The SIF Association is an international open source consortium that developed the standard for the education industry. Copyright 2007 Schools Interoperability Framework (SIF ) Association. All Rights Reserved.

SIF Program The MA SIF Program went operational on November 30, 2013. 108 districts certified thru SIF for the SIMS 2014 EOY Collection 90% of our 234 Race To The Top (RTTT) districts online with SIF. All 403 MA Districts to be connected to the State using the real-time event driven SIF Framework by July 2015 The standards, policies and procedures established from this initiative were designed to be rolled forward for all future annual SIF Program infrastructure, data element, and subscribing application enhancements 5

SIF Program 2013 Process SIF Program Repeatable Process Agent Vendor Certification Web Site Requirements Test Scripts and Sites established Documentation District Process Real-time event driven verses scheduled batch file uploads Real-time local data validations implemented Error Reports available 24/7-365 days a year Real-time State EDWIN Data Warehouse reports updates Dedicated District SIF support and on-boarding teams District On-Boarding Vendor Specific District User Guides District Best Practices Established District Pre-Validation Tools SIF District Dashboard

District Focused SIF Documentation Enhanced SIF Reporting Guide designed in conjunction with District Vendor and specifically targeted to seamlessly integrate with current SIS application documentation. Includes Best Practices Data Quality Validation Checklist designed to assist Districts and Schools verify data for SIF compliance prior to on-boarding with State.

SIF Program 2013 Tools SIF Production Support Help Desk Operational Support Guide SIF Program Documentation Reusable System Development Life Cycle (SDLC) Documentation Architectural Designs Technical Designs Application Work Flows Requirements Functional Specifications Use Cases Test Plans Test Cases SharePoint Repository Standardized MA SIF Profile and Associated Guide

SIF Program 2013 Deliverables SIF Applications Student Information Management System (SIMS) Student Course Schedule (SCS) Education Personnel Information Management System (EPIMS) Student Claiming and Un-claiming SIF Integrations EDWIN Teaching and Learning (IIS via Thinkgate) EDWIN Analytics (Longitudinal Data System - LDS) MA Data Collections Applications

SIF Program 2013 Technology SIF Infrastructure Established and Tested Visual Software Commercial Off The Shelf (COTS) Software DEV, QA, Staging Prod Environments Load balanced, Multi-Server, Zone Integration Server (ZIS) Veracity rules engine established (over 230+ business rules) Preliminary Performance Benchmarks completed SIF Architecture and POC Oracle Data Integrator (ODI) Validations (1000+ rules) Real-time Event Driven Push Mode Level 3 Authentication & Level 4 Encryption

Production State: District Perspective EDWIN SIS District Level Publishing Agent (push) ESE ZIS Teaching and Learning Stage Subscribing Agent Horizontal ZIS

Team Resources ESE Data Collections ESE Data Quality Agent Vendors Team Resources are incremental, scalable, and available as needed. New State Test Environments Dev QA Staging Districts IT Support and outside services

SIF Firsts: MA is first State to require a real-time district initiated push model MA is first State to require level 3 authentication and level 4 encryption MA is the first State to wrap the SIF certification requirement with its own vendor certification program. o Assists vendors to get their agents and SIS working properly, so that data is pre-validated in real-time reducing everyone s operational support costs. o Vendors are rated and listed on State website MA is first State to implement a two-way, push mode, load balanced ZIS implementation MA is first State to implement a near real time, cross-object data quality checking and feedback loop MA is first State to provide district focused SIF /SIS documentation and provide a support team dedicated to assist them in cleaning up their data and on-boarding. MA was first to implement a Statewide COTS SIF solution doing the work mostly by itself (Training and Support from the COTS supplier)

SIF Program 2014 Description SIF Version 2.7 Upgrade Visual Software Enhancements Enhanced Performance Metrics Point in Time Transaction Recovery Automated State to District Code Table Updating SIMS, SCS and EPIMS Element Expansion Web Services Automatic SASID Assignment Via SIF - Pilot Student Claiming Enhancements for 2015 Deployment

SIF Program 2014 Description Legacy Backend Re-Architecture ODI Validations (1000+ rules) SIMS, SCS and EPIMS Processing School Safety Discipline Report (SSDR) Re-Architecture State SIS Software As A Service (SAAS) Springfield MA State Data Center Hosted IBM Tivoli Service Management (COMiT) Integration Rational Team Concert (RTC) Integration Agent Vendor Re-Certification New Vendor Test Environments and Process Enhancements MA SIF Profile v2.7 Certification Self Certification enabled District On-Boarding Significant reduction in District On-boarding schedule

SIF Program 2014 Process Phase I District Agent Vendor Certification Vendor successfully certifies in MA QA SIF Test Environment without Agent Vendor Errors Vendor successfully demonstrates 100% District load via Push mode to State Vendor successfully demonstrates automatic State to District Code Table Update integration Vendor Dress Rehearsal District successfully clears QA Testing without Vendor Errors or manual District assistance Vendor DR + n Districts successfully clear QA Testing without Vendor Errors or manual District data entry assistance

SIF Program 2014 Process Phase II District Pre-Onboarding Process Documentation Walk-through SIF Staging Connectivity Check District clears Staging Data Quality Validation Checks without Vendor Errors or manual District data entry assistance Phase III - Onboarding Process Connecting district to the State SIF production environment District data is exclusively loaded via push mode except SAS object District clears production Data Quality Validation Checks without Vendor Errors or manual District data entry assistance

The Future with SIF Standard Framework by which all MA data will flow SIF Version 3.1 Upgrade Statewide Daily Attendance Reporting Real-Time State Assigned Student Identifiers (SASID) Real-Time Mass Education Personal Identifiers (MEPID) Real-Time Student Claiming and Un-claiming Enhanced EDWIN State Reporting District to District data sharing Intra-State data sharing via national exchange

Contacts: William A. Holscher MA SIF State Program Manager Executive Office of Education 75 Pleasant Street Malden, MA 02148 (781)338-6780 (Office) (603) 717-2725 (Cell) Wholscher@doe.mass.edu Robert Hutchison President Visual Software Inc. 1105 Taylorsville Rd, Suite 16 Washington Crossing, PA 18977 (215) 493 8210 x114 (Office) (215) 272 5231 (Cell) rchutch@visualsi.com www.visualsi.com

Questions

Class SIF Data in ET&L Instructional Improvement System (IIS)

Student profiles An early warning indicator system Dashboards & reports Model curriculum units Curriculum mapping and Lesson planning tools Aligned to Standards Tools to assess student understanding of multiple standards Competency Tracking System Aligned to standards High-quality digital resources to support instruction Aligned to standards 24

SharePoint Repository SharePoint Repository MA SIF User and Support documentation including the MA SIF Operational Support guide. District SIF Support and Onboarding Dashboard that identifies all district information including vendors, contacts, SIF Onboarding Status, ET&L integration, and Technical product and connectivity information. PMO and SDLC Documentation including Architectural and System Designs

Massachusetts SIF Validations