Interoperability for schools
Updated: November 5, 2007
The more smoothly information flows from one school system to another, the more school administrators and teachers can concentrate on doing what they do best: Providing a great educational experience for the students. Using interoperable systems allows schools to synchronize and share data effectively which saves time and money, improves data quality, enhances student services, and increases student achievement.
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What is interoperability?
Most schools function with a variety of software applications to handle grading, instruction, assessment, student information, network accounts, library, transportation, cafeteria, and many other kinds of essential information. This means that data often exists in isolated systems and a single student's information must to be entered in multiple systems. The challenge of aggregating and correlating this data from all these systems—in a way that meaningfully affects the outcomes a student and the learning community expect—is difficult.
Microsoft and its partners are helping to solve the challenges of interoperability for schools through participation in the Schools Interoperability Framework Association (SIFA). By using a common specification for interoperability, educational systems that were once operated independently of other systems and processes are now able to interact with each other and share data. This means each system's information can be used more productively in realizing an institution's objectives and mission. The key to interoperability is basing your strategy on standards like those defined in the Schools Interoperability Framework Implementation Specification.
As an introduction to the specification, three critical concepts should be understood:
| • | SIF Zone: A SIF Zone is a logical grouping of applications that need to exchange data with one another, each with a SIF Agent.
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| • | SIF Agents: A SIF Agent is a component of an application that communicates with other SIF Agents through the Zone Integration Server (ZIS).
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| • | Zone Integration Server (ZIS): The Zone Integration Server handles all security information and routes all messages between the agents in a zone.
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Interoperability in action
The animated image below demonstrates how the SIF components can help different systems share data. Data entered in one place moves from the point of entry to every other one of your applications that need it.
Note
To see the animation again, click your browser’s refresh button (F5).
Key:
Zone Integration Server (ZIS)
SIF Agents
Applications
SIF Data Objects
The benefits of interoperability
There are many things interoperability can help you do, including:
| • | Put your students at the center. With SIF, student information automatically populates in every application, enabling students to check out a book, eat in the cafeteria, and log onto the network from the first day of school.
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| • | Improve data quality. Data is entered only once in one application and is automatically propagated to other applications, reducing data entry errors.
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| • | Use data to drive decisions. Interoperable systems allow teachers and administrators to easily access data, make sound instructional decisions and drive a unique, relevant education experience for every student. School communities can access data from different applications allowing for thorough and accurate reporting to local constituencies, local authorities, policymakers, or funding sources.
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| • | Get a minute or an hour of your life back. Interoperability allows teachers and administrators to spend more time on instruction and less time on paperwork.
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| • | Reduce costs. With interoperability, support costs are reduced—and better reporting reduces the danger of funding losses. Read a third-party study that demonstrates the cost benefits of implementing SIF.
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| • | Be compliant. Interoperability also helps schools meet new governmental regulations and their extensive requirements for data collection and reporting.
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About Schools Interoperability Framework Association (SIFA)
The SIF Association is an industry initiative that develops the SIF open specification to ensure that primary through secondary (K–12) instructional and administrative software applications work together more effectively. More than ten years ago, the Schools Interoperability Framework Association (SIFA) was formed to address the issues of interoperability. SIFA is a unique, nonprofit collaborative membership organization, comprising more than 570 software vendors, school districts, state departments of education, the U.S. Department of Education, and other organizations nationally and internationally that are active in the K-12 markets. These organizations have come together to create a set of rules and definitions—essentially a technical blueprint—to enable software programs from different companies to share information efficiently, accurately, securely, and automatically.
Microsoft has been a key participant in SIFA since its inception. Microsoft's worldwide managing director for K-12 Education, Mitch Benson, currently serves as the co-chair of the SIFA board of directors.
Visit the SIFA Web Site to learn about the organization, get technical specifications, take online training classes, find events, and more.
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