Schools Interoperability Framework (Sif) Implications

Schools Interoperability Framework (SIF) Implications on No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Compliance The lack of integration across the many databases, Student Information Management systems (SIMS), databases, and No Child Left Behind (NCLB) reporting and compliance systems has created a series of disconnected, often inefficient silos of information throughout schools and the districts that serve them.

This lack of integration has become so severe as to limit the ability of school districts to retain their funding, as many have not been able to show compliance to NCLB according to the Schools Interoperability Framework Association (2007).

The intent of this paper is to illustrate why it is critical for schools and the districts that serve them to aggressively pursue strategies to attain a high level of integration across their many systems, adopting the Schools Interoperability Framework (SIF), enabling systems integration and therefore higher levels of compliance to the NCLB requirements in the process.

Schools Interoperability Framework (SIF) Defined The Schools Interoperability Framework Association is comprised of government agencies, partners, schools and school districts, and vendors who have created and manage this association to solve the lack of data and process integration between school, district, city, state and federal government educational systems. The association was launched formally on April 25, 2003 and develops integration standards to ensure 3rd party validation of application conformance to the SIF specification. The association also has a wide variety of programs that promote the adoption of the SIF specifications and framework.

In collaborating with its many members to create the specification, the decision was made to base its foundation on XML specifications, a technology standard which as emerged in enterprise software and Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) platforms including many of the companies who rely on XML as their primary messaging platform, including salesforce.com for example.

By relying on XML as the integration standard for the SIF, there is less cost associated with integrating with and connecting to the wide variety of existing systems installed in schools and school districts, in addition, XML is also an open-market standard and as a result does not require a fee to use. The SIF specification also is based on existing educational standards SPEEDE, ExPRESS, IMS, and NCES.

The Schools Interoperability Framework Association also has worked to ensure the underlying standards that support the framework stay vendor-agnostic, therefore free of vendor influence. To accomplish this design objective, the networking integration is based on the TCP/IP networking protocol, relying on the Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) and Secured Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTPS), all of which are standards widely supported throughout the Internet. All these foundational elements contribute to the SIF Framework, which is shown in Figure 1.

Figure 1: The SIF Structure Sources: (SIF 2007) (SIF Architecture 2007) The Return on Integration Investment: Why the SIF Framework Matters The NCLB Act (2002) stresses accountability and therefore the need for a high level of data and reporting integration from the school level at a micro level to the governments' educational evaluation systems at the macro level. The NCLB Act (2002) stresses the use of key performance indicators (KPIs) and metrics of performance.

The Open Group (2003) in defining the need for integration says that the data captured in SIF "are subsequently moved through state information systems to be used. Federal, state and local dependence on the quality and availability of education data to inform decision-making has never been higher as funding to the school level based on NCLB benchmarks and measure adequate yearly progress (AYP) requirements" (Open Group 2003).

All of these many requirements for reporting the performance of learning programs upward through district, municipal, and state and federal levels is to benchmark the effectiveness of teaching programs, adherence to and compliance with NCLB measures of success, and ultimately to define which schools will continue to receive state and federal funding for their programs, or conversely, those schools that will be audited as a result of their performance being under the minimum requirements defined.

Clearly the role of the SIF (2007) and resulting architectural definitions of this standard including the extensive use of XML and other open standards for systems integration (SIF Architecture 2007) all underscore a very critical bottom line for any school and its associated district. The bottom line is that investments in integration using the SIF Specification as the framework yields significant returns in the most critical, strategic areas of a company.

These include the ability to gain greater funding due to compliance with NCLB requirements, greater agility and use of information to serve students, teachers and parents and provide greater accuracy of planning and goal attainment for students, teachers, schools, and districts. Ultimately the use of the SIF Framework puts each school.