eScholar Gains Competitive Edge and Empowers Educators by Licensing Ed-Fi Solution

An early adopter of the Ed-Fi Tool Suite, eScholar further expands its ability to support educator access to timely, actionable data  to improve education outcomes

June 14, 2012 – White Plains, NY and AUSTIN, TX – eScholar, a leader in driving the application of research and data to personalize education, today announced that it is one of the first vendors to license and implement the new Ed-Fi Tool Suite.  The Ed-Fi solution aligns with Common Education Data Standards and supports eScholar’s mission of enabling the education community with timely and personal data to allow individuals to succeed in life.

The Ed-Fi Tool Suite is the only free, flexible and complete ed-tech solution to empower educators with relevant, timely, student-centric information that enables better data collection and reporting to improve decision making, facilitate targeted action plans and drive improved student outcomes.

eScholar is the market leader in education data, with 13 state education agencies and approximately 20 million of the nation’s students relying upon its longitudinal data technology.  Dedicated to improving the education outcomes of students, eScholar’s award-winning products have become the recognized standard in student and staff identification, educational data warehousing and personalized goal management solutions.

The vision of eScholar is to enable educators, parents and students to use data to achieve the best possible educational experience.  When the eScholar Complete Data Warehouse® is powered by Ed-Fi, it will provide another efficient means to keep data up-to-date and report on education data from various data sources.  eScholar is currently working with both the Texas Education Agency and the New York State Education Department to implement state-wide data driven solutions that take advantage of the Ed-Fi solution.

eScholar has found that the lightweight and standards-based approach taken by the Ed-Fi initiative provides the ability to implement large scale solutions that meet the unique needs of states and still maintain compliance with state and federal data standards.

“We have enjoyed working with the Michael & Susan Dell Foundation over the past several years as they developed the Ed-Fi solution to operationalize CEDS.  Ed-Fi solution’s immediate impact is linking the things that people need, including data standards, with the action-oriented dashboards developed by educators and the Dell Family foundation that people want,” shared Shawn Bay, CEO of eScholar.  “We also look forward to continuing to bring our on-the-ground experience implementing data systems into the Ed-Fi solution so we can benefit the largest number of students.”

“States understand they need to aggressively standardize their data and systems, but many are still considering how,” said Lori Fey, director, policy initiatives, U.S. education at the Michael & Susan Dell Foundation. “We applaud eScholars’ move to be among the first ed-tech vendors to license the Ed-Fi Tool Suite. We believe that as vendors move aggressively to implement a widely-adopted data standard, real change in the education sector is within reach, and teachers will be better equipped to help improve student outcomes.”

The implementation of the Ed-Fi solution will impact a number of the 13 states that currently work with eScholar by enabling them to work together to give educators what they need: holistic portraits of students that are detailed, easy to understand and up-to-date at any given moment. Moreover, the Ed-Fi solution addresses a long-standing challenge to meaningful systemic improvement in schools nationwide: the multiple and often non-interoperable information systems used by schools, districts and states.

In addition to eScholars’ work with 13 states, eight states have already licensed or are in discussions to license the Ed-Fi Tool Suite, and an additional four states will benefit from Ed-Fi-enabled tools through the Shared Learning Collaborative. This currently represents 34% of K-12 students and 36% of teachers.  For more detailed information about the Ed-Fi solution including FAQ, technical documentation and to provide comments on the Ed-Fi data standard, visit the website at edfi.

About Ed-Fi
Ed-Fi is a universal educational data standard and tool suite that enables vital academic information on K-12 students to be consolidated from the different data systems of school districts throughout the United States.  The Ed-Fi solution acts as a universal language for academic data, integrating and organizing information so that educators can start addressing the individual needs of each student from day one, and can measure progress and refine action plans throughout the school year.

Developed through funding from the Michael & Susan Dell Foundation, the Ed-Fi Tool Suite licenses provide school districts, state education agencies and vendors with unrestricted access to all Ed-Fi components free of charge. For more information, visit edfi. The Ed-Fi initiative supports the goal of ensuring that all children have access to quality education in public schools, one of the foundation’s key objectives.

About eScholar

eScholar is the nation’s leading innovator in the application of billions of individual education data points to support the needs and goals of each person.  eScholar customers are realizing significant improvements in their ability to meet mandated reporting requirements but more importantly in their ability to improve pre-K through postsecondary student achievement.  eScholar delivers an entire suite of award winning data warehouse, student and staff identifier management and collaborative goal planning solutions.  Relied on by 13 state education agencies and over 4,800 districts across the country, eScholar products transform the way educators use data.  For more information about eScholar, visit www.escholar.com or call 877-328-2969.

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