Right now, the Ed-Fi Data Standard has been adopted by 14 states, and its growing popularity speaks for itself. It provides a set of rules for the collection, management, and organization of educational data that allows multiple systems to share their information in a seamless, actionable way.
Schools are using this data standard to make better-informed decisions for Educator Prep Program (EPP) management. But as Dr. James O’Meara, Ph.D., Dean of Education at Texas A&M International University said, “Educator Prep Programs are data-rich, but poor in wisdom”. The data required by this standard is often scattered across many sources and can be challenging to consolidate in a way that’s effective and actionable for monitoring candidate information and success.
The solution for this lies in the Educator Preparation Data Model (EPDM), which leverages the Ed-Fi Data Standard to automatically surface data from relevant sources into actionable, easy-to-use dashboards. Implementation is not an easy task however, and requires substantial time and effort for institutions of any size.
In a recent webinar, Unicon’s Nichole Cota had the chance to converse with James O’Meara from TAMIU about how Unicon and Texas A&M, amongst other schools, have been working to remedy this with the Educator Prep Data Model (EPDM) Starter Kit. Designed to give schools an easy first step to adopting the larger EPDM, the starter kit is an excellent way to centralize key EPP candidate data without the heavy commitment of resources.
For those who are interested in starting to adopt the Ed-Fi data standard at their own institutions but were unable to attend the webinar, you can find a recording embedded below. We hope this video will shed light on the starter kit implementation experience, so you can take your first step with confidence.
If you’re interested in taking your first steps with the Ed-Fi Data Standard, Unicon can help. Please send us a note or give us a call to talk about how we can help you and your team.