January 2004 — Features
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New IDEAS: Putting the School Interoperability Framework to the Test
Phases to Success
As data became pivotal to instructional decisions, storing and retrieving data became processes of vital importance because they would allow principals and district office personnel to query multiple databases. Jurupa USD decided to invest in resources to build a data repository that would meet the overwhelming demands of the multiple measures required for local, state and federal reporting. First, the district hired a database administrator, and small projects such as "data marts" and "cubes" were developed to distribute and collect the appropriate queries to answer local, state and federal reporting requirements. As California instituted tighter accountability measures, the demand for data increased proportionately. It became apparent that the process of developing a data warehouse necessitated a phased plan to ultimately obtain the needed product.
Through a series of meetings with the data committee and school principals, the message became clear to all that the central data repository was vital to the effective operation of the entire district and the effective instruction for its students. The decision was made to commission a project that was able to meet all the data demands within the district. Through diligent research by the district network manager and database administrator, the opportunity for the corporate partnership described earlier emerged. Numerous teleconferencing sessions were conducted over a four-month period before a timeline was proposed for the project.
New IDEAS was launched in July 2003, with its implementation to be conducted in the following four phases:
Phase one involved detailed assessment and documentation of the current infrastructure and processes in place within the district. Meetings with key stakeholders were held to identify and understand the information required for effective employee performance, information flow and end-user access. From the assessment data collected, current procedures were examined for process improvements, data integration and automation opportunities.
Phase two of the project was to lay the foundation for the sharing of data among the existing core business applications in place throughout the district. This was to be accomplished via implementation of the SIF model. SIF is the result of an initiative within the educational software industry to standardize the sharing of information between disparate software applications typically used within K-12 school districts ("The Work Behind SIF's Framework" 2002).
Through the use of open standards information from the Student Information System (SIS), data can be shared automatically and seamlessly with other applications commonly used for library, food services or transportation operations within the district. This eliminates redundant, expensive and error-prone data entry into multiple systems. For example, when a student enrolls at a school site, the information is entered into the SIS and pertinent information is automatically embedded in the other department systems linked to the SIS through the SIF model ("How SIF Works" 2002). Any changes in student records are also automatically updated in all other linked systems.
