SuperTECH NEWS is the bi-monthly newsletter of the BLE GROUP's CIO-Time Share service, which provides small- and medium-size school systems with supplementary technology management to produce high-quality educational results and efficient management. The purpose of SuperTECH NEWS is to provide education decision makers with concise information that allows them to make informed technology decisions to impact instruction, management and communication. This is information you can use on Monday morning. Editor, Susan DeMark Web Design, Charlene Polanosky Publisher, Eliot Levinson DID YOU MISS AN ISSUE? You can read past issues of SuperTECH NEWS online: August 2002 - Focus: Purchasing Hardware 2002 June 2002 - Focus: Web-based Applications for Early Reading May 2002 - Focus: Web-based Professional Development March 2002 - Focus: Technology of Accountability Enter your email address to subscribe to SuperTECH NEWS

Our December issue theme is "Student Information Systems" . Select from the following articles. Note from Eliot—An introduction to the CIO-Time Share Service, and the BLE GROUP by Eliot Levinson, CEO Theme of the Month—Student Information Systems (SIS) - These systems, the core administrative systems in schools, have vastly improved and are worthy of your attention. There are major new developments with SIS's, which come at a time when the accountability movement is compelling school districts to produce student data instantaneously. The section tells you what you need to know about purchasing an SIS. Products— A wide variety of student information systems are available. There has been an advent of Web-based SIS products, which are accurate, flexible, and scalable to different sizes of school districts. We examine in detail eight of the new-generation products and focus on their key features, delivery, security, cost, and the existence and availability of add-on products that incorporate other administrative systems of a district, such as special education and modules for parent-school connection. Lastly, we look at whether the Product Fits with the Schools Interoperability Network (SIF), a protocol that will enable different networked applications in schools to share data back and forth. SuperTECH NEWS Perspectives- SIF: Empty promise or reality? Many educators believe that SIF is the solution that would connect disparate administrative systems together and streamline administrative work. We analyze the situation with SIF, explain why SIF is not further along, and figure out the mid-course corrections that are necessary to make SIF happen and make sure it accomplishes its initial aim and addresses the needs of schools. Practitioner's Insights— SuperTECH News features the work and insights of Roy Herrold, a Pennsylvania educator and technology leader who is a trailblazer and advocate in the Schools Interoperability Framework. He is pioneering SIF applications in Pennsylvania and is on a national board for the SIF initiative. Conferences—Relevant conferences in the next 120 days We want to hear from you. What do you agree and disagree with on this issue on hardware (we will post comments from readers in the next issue). Please write us at eliot@blegroup.com.

THE BLE GROUP AND CIO TIME-SHARE SERVICE

WHO IS THE BLE GROUP? We're a group of 25 educational technology directors and school administrators who use technology to improve instruction and management. Over the last three years, we've developed technology plans and provided management services in over 40 school systems.

Eliot Levinson is the CEO of the BLE GROUP. Levinson founded the BLE GROUP (www.blegroup.com) in 1998 and has worked in over 40 school districts. Levinson is known nationally for his work in technology planning and management for school districts. He co-authors "Tech from the Top," a monthly column in Converge Magazine. He has experience in education and technology as a teacher in California and Pennsylvania, a middle school principal in Massachusetts and an Assistant to the chancellor of schools in New York City. He has held research positions in educational change at the Rand corporation and MIT's Sloan School of Management. Levinson holds masters degrees in Education and Anthropology and a PhD in Organizational Studies from Stanford University.

THE BLE Group's principals, our leadership team, consists of:

• Eliot Levinson—CEO
• Rick Rozzelle—former CIO, Charlotte-Mecklenberg North Carolina Schools
• Charles Garten—Executive Director Education Technology Services, Poway, Calif.
• Kenneth Eastwood—Superintendent, Oswego, N.Y.
• Ann Boyle—Assistant Superintendent, Curriculum, Scottsdale, Ariz.
• Steve Finch—CIO, Oklahoma City Public Schools

WHY WE DEVELOPED THE CIO TIME SHARE SERVICE? If you can't afford $105,000 and benefits for a CIO who will likely leave your organization after 13 months, can you afford $1,500 or $2,000 a month for someone who is knowledgeable about your district and available on a just-in-time, just-enough basis, and will save you enough money to pay for the service. That's what a CIO timeshare is.

Technology is now central to everything that happens in a school system, from instruction and buses to parent communication and financial management. We're concerned that the 86 percent of American school systems with less than 5,000 students will become second class instructionally and administratively, because they won't be able to effectively manage technology. Good technology staff is hard to find and expensive. Most vendors pay attention to the top 1 percent of school systems that have 20 percent of the students, because it isn't worth their while to work with small school systems. Intermediate units have the same knowledge and staffing problems as the school systems. We developed the CIO-Time Share Service to provide a cost-effective way for intermediate units and small school systems to get the strategic technology support they need.

WHAT IS THE CIO-TIME SHARE SERVICE? The service supplements the technology capability of smaller school systems so that they can remain high-quality instructional institutions. The CIO-Time Share Service is to technology what your outside lawyer and accountant are to contracts and finances: it supplements your internal capability with external expertise. Main service components include:

• An assessment and plan, which addresses the following How well are you using the technology you have and what should you be doing over the next year to have a strategic impact on instruction, management and communication. The assessment and plan focuses on 4 areas; instruction, management systems, infrastructure and technology support.
• An annual implementation plan. Quarter by quarter it lays out what has to be done in each of the 4 areas described above.
• E-rate review. Are you getting the money you should? What can you use E-rate funds for that you were not aware of.
• RFPs. For strategic systems purchases such as instructional management, student information and finance.
• Review of contracts. BLE will review district technology contracts and write effective contracts for the district.
• Vendor Management. BLEgroup will oversee your technology vendors.
• Access to databases on instructional and administrative systems. BLEgroup maintains confidential databases on management and instructional software for its' clients.
• Regional seminars for superintendents. There are annual seminars to provide superintendents with up to date information on managing technology.
• Discounts from collaborative buying of hardware and software.
• SuperTECH NEWS newsletter.

If there is anything more you wish to know about the CIO-Time Share Service or the BLE GROUP, please e-mail or call:

Eliot Levinson <eliot@blegroup.com>, CEO,
THE BLE GROUP
703.437.0482

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STUDENT INFORMATION SYSTEMS

This month's theme is Student Information Systems. SIS's are improved. This is no longer your grandfather's SIS. The systems are worthy of attention because:

• They are the first major administrative systems to go to the Web.
• They are central to producing data for the No Child Left Behind Act.
• They are the core foundational administrative systems used by schools.
• Student information systems have made great leaps in sharing data with other systems, e.g., special education, transportation, etc.

Historically, student information systems have been awkward, costly, and user-hateful. There are new and major developments in the SIS market, which include:

• The advent of Web-based SIS systems, which are more accurate and easier to maintain as school systems do not need their own programmers and hardware;
• The development of SIF, the Schools Interoperability Framework, which facilitates the sharing and use of student data across multiple systems, e.g., enrollment, food service, transportation;
• New SIS brands that use the latest database technologies are transforming student information systems.

These changes have come at the right time when the accountability movement is compelling school districts to produce complex student data instantaneously. The purpose of this issue of STN is to help you be informed about what you need to know concerning the changing SIS products and how they differ from the older, clunky, inefficient counterparts that you are used to. STN will examine a sampling of the new-generation systems and tell you what you need to ask when purchasing an SIS. We'll provide an overview of the topic in this section. Then be sure to check out the Products section for descriptions of a broad sampling of the newest-generation systems. The major themes to keep in mind:

• The newest-generation student systems are using Web technologies and advanced programming languages that make them flexible and scalable for any size of district. They are streamlining administrative tasks and are fully integrated to incorporate the fundamental applications of a district into one interconnected and secure database.
• These new, leading-edge applications are Web-enabled, enterprise-wide systems. You have choices as to whether you want your district to house the data locally on a server or to have it on a remote server. This means that you do not have to have servers or maintain the software yourself. This can save on the purchase of equipment and hiring of staff.
• The new student information systems all promise to be integrated. Check out such promises carefully! Most vendors claim that their SIS is totally integrated, which means their products are built to interconnect all of the key functions of student management and classroom information, across department boundaries, and to interface with district administrative and fiscal systems. Some systems are, and some systems are not. Those that aren't will need to be cobbled together from a number of add-on products, both from that vendor and from other vendors. Non-integrated systems may cause your staff to enter basic information about students multiple times and have to do a lot of importing and exporting of data to get systems to work together, or your technical staff will have to build programming code that gets the various components to share data.
• Student information systems can all sound very alike. However, they are very complex, and there are stark individual differences in how they get done what they do. Don't be fooled by a system's glitz. A good salesperson can sell anything on a good day. We've provided thorough descriptions of several products in that section below. Our intention is to give you such descriptions so that you will know what to keep in mind as you evaluate the way that each system works and most importantly, if it will function as you need it to function. THE ONLY WAY TO REALLY KNOW WHAT YOU'RE GETTING IS TO HAVE THE VENDOR DO A SIMULATION OF THE PRODUCT WITH YOUR DATA.

Cost
The cost of most Web-based student information systems is based on an annual fee, charged per student, rather than a one-time purchase price. Prices usually average in the $10-12 range, meaning that a school with 1,000 students would have an annual cost of $10,000-12,000 for its SIS. Look very carefully at additional fees and add -ons. There are some at the higher end and some at the lower end, depending on the types of configurations and services you choose.

How to Choose?
There are four very broad categories to consider when weighing the choice of an SIS, says Rick Rozelle, former CIO of the Charlotte-Mecklenburg, N.C. schools and president of Tech-Knowledge Consulting, Inc., a firm engaged in technology management consulting for school districts. Rozzelle gives the following insight into what to look for when you choose an SIS:

• Functionality: What does the system do, how does it do it, and what doesn't it do?
• System architecture: Is it build on a robust platform that is scalable?
• Vendor background: Is the vendor you are considering an established vendor? What is the market share of that vendor? What are the vendor's financials?
• Total cost of the system: Be sure to weigh total cost. Over a five-year period, what will it cost to get the system up, as well as what will it cost for training, hardware, and ongoing maintenance?

Implementation
Implementation, more than the purchase of an SIS, is the key to such a system working well. Implementation is where almost all districts run into problems. The lack of responsibility for implementation increases the likelihood that a district will get a problematic system. SIS's are often hampered because school districts do not properly train staff and are confused about who should be responsible for:

• Identifying the right information;
• Inputting the data;
• Maintaining the data.

Get the right people within your district to test out and evaluate the system. Be certain to evaluate the system at all of its levels, meaning technical, functional, etc. The technical people should evaluate all of the technical and security aspects of the student information system. And, make sure that the end-users, namely teachers, administrators, and staff, evaluate the functionalities and the look and feel of the product. Brenda Barker, former CIO of the Wake County, N.C. schools and now Eastern U.S. Manager for IBM's No Child Left Behind Practice, offers the following cautionary advice: "When you are going to do the implementation, you need to look at involving everybody who has a stake in the information. When you are doing a management system, the people who own the data need to own the change of the product and to own the implementation of the product."

Do a simulation using your own data. This will help to make the implementation of an SIS work well. The simulation will allow you to provide the vendor with specifics concerning your own network and how it is laid out; current capacity; exactly how your teachers and staff will use the data, etc. DO NOT BUY A SYSTEM WITHOUT HAVING THE VENDOR PUT YOUR DATA INTO IT FOR A DEMONSTRATION.

Lastly, don't overpromise your staff concerning how good the new SIS system will be. "It's important to be very open and honest with people in the district. `No, it's not going to be easy,' " Barker says. "Change is going to be hard for some people. I think it's good not to try to do everything in the beginning. It's better to have a small success than to do something very big wrong."

The Schools Interoperability Framework, the four year old initiative to create integrated administrative systems is not yet as real as it needs to be. SIF is the most important issue in making student information systems work better. SIF is protocol for enabling different networked applications within a district to share data. An example of this is that instead of entering a student's name and family data in the student, bus, food, and library system separately, you would enter such data once in the student system, and SIF would allow the other systems to share this data. SIF is still promising, but it has not reached the desired impact for a few reasons. Many vendors have not yet full gotten behind it and adopted it, and school systems have not been demanding SIF strongly enough in their RFPs.

The 64K question for school systems that are buying SIS systems is: Will SIF become a reality or won't it? The question for you is: Are your vendors serious about SIF, or aren't they?

STN has two additional articles on SIF. The Practitioner's Insight column features the work and insights of Roy Herrold, an SIF trailblazer and advocate, who is pioneering SIF applications in Pennsylvania and is on a national board for the SIF initiative. In the STN Perspective, publisher Eliot Levinson reflects on what has to happen for SIF to have the impact that is needed on integrating administrative systems.

Now that we've given you a sense of the current marketplace and trends, let's examine some of the specific student information systems offered by the major players, in the Products section.

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Note: STN does not endorse any of the products included in this section. We have described them because we think they are good examples of the current crop of SIS products.

Student information systems (SIS) have become far more effective in data sharing, and much more complex, powerful, flexible, and integrated than ever, but there are substantial differences between the systems offered by different vendors. Some systems are far and above better than others in terms of efficiency, integration with other instructional and administrative applications, user-friendliness, and the ability to deliver accurate data in real time. The demanding data collection and reporting requirements mandated by the No Child Left Behind Act and the increasing ways that districts rely on accessible, dependable data for decision making mean that there is no room for error in selecting an SIS.

We are providing you with concise and vendor-neutral descriptions of a number of leading student information systems. This list is not a complete one, but it provides a look at the functions and infrastructure of some of the well recognized, new-generation of SIS. It's intended to guide you as you assess such systems and their varied array of applications as well as help you understand what you should keep in mind when looking at any SIS. We compiled these summaries from interviews with company leaders and from company information on their products.

How We Describe the Products
For the products in which company officials provided an interview with SIS, we examine their products through a number of important categories, which are listed below. Other companies did not respond to STN's inquiries for interviews, so in those cases, we provide a summary description of their products, gathered from information about the SIS posted on the companies' Web sites.

• Key Features: What are some of the most important functionalities and features of the SIS?
• Delivery: How is it deployed? For example, is it a Web-enabled system? Do you host the information on your system and/or have the option to have everything hosted on the company's data center? What are other means of delivery offered?
• Security: How does the company ensure that the SIS is a secure system?
• Cost: What does the SIS cost? Is this, for instance, a one-time purchase fee or is it on a per student per year basis, for example?
• Product Fit with the Schools Interoperability Network (SIF): SIF, the Schools Interoperability Framework, is a protocol that will enable different networked applications in schools to share data back and forth. Does the company support the SIF initiative? And, is the company's SIS compliant for SIF, which means that it meets a standard that will allow various applications to share data without multiple entries of the same data in systems such as transportation, library, classroom enrollment, etc.?
• Product Add-ons: What types of modules are available to add on to the product for other administrative systems needed in schools, such as for transportation, special education, grading, parent-school connection, etc.?

Products featured include:

• C4SI SD from C4SI, Inc.
• AAL- eSIS: Enterprise Student Information System
• SchoolExtra Campus
• SASIxp
• STIOffice
• Chancery Student Management Solutions
• Pentamation Open Series Student System
• PowerSchool by Apple

Other Products (Information Based on Company Web Sites)

NOTE Following are descriptions of some other top student information system products available, culled from material on the company's official Web sites. We contacted company officials for further information, but did not receive responses about each company's SIS.

Chancery Student Management Solution
http://www.chancery.com/index.html

Chancery Student Management Solution is a centralized, enterprise-wide, Web-based complete student information system built on Microsoft .NET technology. Chancery SMS offers teachers and administrators access to students' demographic data, including identification of medical and legal alerts, basic and advanced search options, and definition of working lists for frequently accessed student data. The system has fully integrated enrollment and student demographic data management, including unique student ID generation, contact and family data, school-to-school transfers, standardized tests, and custom data.

Through the system, school districts can have real-time scheduling based on school-defined criteria. Teachers are able to employ its features for roster management, attendance, and grading. The Chancery SMS school-to-home portal permits school professionals to communicate directly and securely with parents.

With the release of Chancery SMS 2.0, the company has enhanced its features for elementary grade and grade reporting in which users can set up multi-level subject frameworks, grading periods, evaluation codes, and report cards. The SMS includes special data mapping geared to making state-specific data reporting easier to implement.
Chancery's system supports personalized user accounts and role-based security, elementary school curriculum course management, elementary calendar management, and attendance code management. Chancery SMS supports role-based security in which users have access only to student data that is relevant to their role.

Pentamation - Open Series Student System
http://www.pentamation.com/

SUNGARD Pentamation Inc., based in Bethlehem, Pa., offers the Open Series Student System. It is a real-time application, maintaining a single, complete record for all of a pupil's information. At the same time that it fully supports site-based management, te system's centralized database automatically addresses district-wide such as data aggregation for state reporting, multiple building schedules/enrollment, and transfers within district.

Key features and functions include: registration, Palm Pilot access, scheduling, master schedule builder, daily attendance, class attendance, discipline, report card, interim progress reporting, school-community Web portal, student portfolio, electronic gradebook, and much more.

The products utilize a fully relational database, advanced programming languages, and Web technologies, and provide portability across various hardware and operating environments. Multiple deployment options include the Internet, an Intranet, or a traditional network. Pentamation also offers an Application Service Provider (ASP) solution that allows school districts to access and utilize its K-12 management software applications without the need to install hardware or software at the district's location.

The company has been a member of the SIF initiative since its inception, and has staff members who are actively participating in the ongoing work on this venture.

PowerSchool from Apple
http://www.apple.com/education/powerschool/

The PowerSchool Student Information System is Apple's offering in this market. It's a leading, Web-based student information system for schools and districts. It has a wide range of features geared toward administrators, teachers, students, parents, and IT staff. The SIS is intended to ensure the accessibility of up-to-date information and to support data-driven decisions.

The range of features include: scheduling, report generation, standards and assessments, state reporting, transcripts, report cards, form letters, demographic information, and master schedule building. For teachers, the SIS provides automated attendance; an integrated grade book; instant grade checks; and master schedule building.

With the PowerSchool SIS, parents can choose to receive automated progress reports on their child via e-mail. Parents can also access up-to-date student performance data; communicate with teachers; and track assignments and attendance. Students are able, through the SIS, to track grades and credits and access homework assignments online.

PowerSchool maintains system administration and security with a Web-based architecture and Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) encryption. It is platform-independent.

Apple is a member of the SIF initiative and is committed to ensuring interoperability of PowerSchool with other administrative applications used by school districts to accomplish their business.

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SIF DOESN'T WORK YET... WHAT CAN WE DO ABOUT IT?
by Eliot Levinson

[Note: STN has talked with many people who are knowledgeable participants in the SIF movement. We have incorporated their comments, but the STN takes full responsibility for the views expressed here.]

SIF, the Schools Interoperability Framework, is celebrating its fourth birthday in January. Most educators view the coming of SIF as the magic bullet that will tie disparate administrative systems together and streamline administrative work. It is the critical component necessary to integrate awkward, stand-alone administrative systems in schools and to create the reliable data needed to address NCLB.

For SIF to become real, then fans like me need to analyze the current situation; accept and understand why the standard is not yet a reality; and figure out what to do so it reaches its initial intent and improves the administration of schools. We will analyze why SIF is not further along and then recommend the mid-course corrections necessary to make it happen.

If we cannot make SIF happen, then we have to accept the consequences, which are not as satisfactory as SIF.

Why SIF Is Not Yet the Universal Standard

To do something about SIF, the first step is to understand where SIF is now. The rationale given for why SIF has not hit it big yet is as follows:

1. The time to gain acceptance of a technical standard is often five years or more, so four years is not really a long time. Unfortunately, schools operate on a three-year innovation cycle. That means that either a reform, like standards, makes it big in three years, or it is cast on to the slag heap of failed fashion mode reforms. With the case of SIF, there will have to be marked progress this year, or it is likely to not happen.

2. Vendors give lip service but have a wait-and-see attitude: Almost all vendors give lip service to SIF; just look in the products section of this newsletter. Supporting SIF is the politically correct thing to do. In reality, the majority of vendors are holding back and not doing what is necessary to really make their products SIF-usable in schools. The reasons for this are understandable, and are as follows:

• Vendors don't want to share data and programs with their competitors.
• It takes a lot of programming effort and financial commitment to make the details of data transfer work between different applications, and individual vendors are putting their development efforts into new products rather than into making their current products work with SIF.
• They are not sure that SIF will be the data-sharing standard and don't want to commit resources.

Insufficient Marketing

The Software and Information Industry Association (SIIA), an industry group comprised of software and information industry vendors, is responsible for the marketing and management of SIF. Before talking about where SIIA needs to improve, it is important to give the group credit for things that have been done right:

• There are now 14 pilot sites underway to implement aspects of SIF.
• The compliance process for vendor products has recently been expedited.
• SIIA has done an excellent job of working with industry groups to establish specifications.

SIIA has marketed SIF, but not as aggressively as necessary to get the software vendors and the schools to rapidly accept the protocol. It is unclear if this is because vendor firms are not giving SIIA the where-with-all to do so or because the size of the task has been underestimated. In either case, if SIF is going to get over the critical hump of acceptance, there will need to be increased pressure on vendors to walk the walk and not just talk the talk. There is also a need for increased technical support and incentives to a critical mass of school systems to implement SIF. The specific marketing and technical activities that SIIA needs to undertake are:

• There is a need to get state and federal education agencies to endorse SIF as a component of accountability programs. This will help create a necessary momentum.
• The specifications for SIF have to be made very crisp and actionable so that vendors and school systems can implement them.
• The SIIA should recruit and certify systems integrators to work with school systems in the integration of SIF systems.

School Systems Must Be More Demanding

The school systems have not been demanding enough to make SIF happen. Schools are saying that they want SIF, but they are not setting detailed specifications in their RFPs or putting pressure on their vendors to use SIF. This is a chicken-and-egg problem. There is a need for systems integrators who will do the detailed work of making SIF link systems together to help make SIF operationally real - and they do not exist yet for SIF. For this layer to exist, a critical number of large school systems will have to make major demands on their vendors and be willing to live with the pain of being close to the bleeding edge of change.

To put it in a nutshell, the vendors and the schools are watching on the sidelines and the SIIA has not acted as a large enough cheerleading squad to get the key stakeholders into the game. The players all have understandable reasons for not fully buying into SIF. Why should schools or vendors make a costly bet on a standard that isn't a sure thing? The reason is if they don't buy in, their administrative systems will continue to be much more costly and messy to manage than they need to be.

What Happens If SIF Fails to Become the Standard for Transferring Data

If SIF doesn't make it, the following are likely scenarios:

1. In the short term, school systems will continue to have inefficient administrative systems that do not talk well to each other. The schools will have to continue to operate inefficiently with a lot of multiple data entry and low data quality.

2. In the longer run, the large database companies and the small integrated educational administrative system companies, e.g., Oracle, C4SI, Skyward, People Soft, SAP, will develop a full set of administrative systems that operate on their platforms. This will allow school systems to have integrated administrative systems, but you will only be able to be on one platform and you will not be able to work with legacy systems.

Without SIF, there will ultimately be integrated administrative solutions, but they will be vendor-centric with a vendor providing all of the administrative solutions a school system needs on its database platform. These types of solutions will be costly, and it will take many years for school systems to get to this point.

Putting the current situation into perspective: Making SIF work is the preferable solution and the time to do it is NOW.

STN's Suggestions for Getting SIF over the Hump

For SIF to happen, school systems and vendors have to understand why SIF is in their interests, get into the weeds of implementation, and commit to making it a reality. STN's recommendations for making this the year that SIF gets over the hump are:

1. A few large and influential school systems have to set RFPs for administrative systems with teeth in them. These RFPs have to detail needed SIF performance. If this type of RFP came out from a few school systems with more than 100,000 students, vendors would make the effort to get into the details of delivering SIF.

2. One or two major vendors have to go past lip service. They have to decide it is financially worth it to make their systems truly SIF-compatible at the integration level.

3. The SIIA has to increase its marketing efforts and technical support. Specifically the group has to:

• get states to endorse SIF as part of their accountability efforts;
• create a supply of systems integrators to help school systems implement SIF;
• make the specifications crisp and implementable for vendors and schools.

The Schools Interoperability Framework is too important to the effective management of schools to throw it onto the garbage dump of failed reforms. Now is the time for all of the stakeholders to make some mid-course corrections and make it work, or… suffer the consequences for the next decade.

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ROY HERROLD ON THE SCHOOLS INTEROPERABILITY FRAMEWORK (SIF)
Roy Herrold is the technology director of the Central Susquehanna Intermediate Unit in Lewisburg, Pa.

SIF, the Schools Interoperability Framework, is a protocol that will enable different networked applications in schools to share data back and forth. It is important because instead of schools needing to enter student data in the classroom enrollment, bus, food service, and library systems, etc., separately - and thus having to re-enter data constantly - it will enable all these systems to work together so that such data will be shared automatically. Districts have many automated systems, and very often none of them communicate with each other. It can take weeks or longer to get students entered into different computerized systems. With SIF, it will mean you will have to enter a student's basic information in the system only once. Using SIF-enabled applications, the district can have a student's name, address, etc., entered in the student information system and have it automatically generate a user in the library software, network operating system, the district's Intranet/Internet site, and more.

SIF has been several years in the works and is an initiative involving more than 100 software and hardware vendors, schools and school districts, and many industry leaders across the nation. Roy Herrold is one of them - an educator and a technology leader who believes that SIF is an excellent solution to the inefficiency that currently exists in getting K-12 instructional and administrative applications to communicate with each other. In Herrold's view, SIF is something that must and will happen.

SIF is not a product, but is an industry campaign to develop an open specification and common format for ensuring that K-12 instructional and administrative software applications - from student information systems to transportation planning software - work together more effectively. Ultimately, this framework is expected to enable different networked applications to share data seamlessly, whether they are current or future applications. SIF operates as a division of the Software and Information Industry Association (SIIA).

The SIF initiative was first announced in February 1999. In the fall of 2001, the latest approved version of the SIF specification, 1.0 Revision 1, was released. Then last spring, the successful completion of the first SIF "Connect-a-thon", in which member companies successfully networked their SIF-enabled software applications together over the Internet, was announced.

Now, there are 14 pilot or "showcase" school districts throughout the United States that are demonstration models and incubators for the implementation of SIF. But as the SIF initiative proceeds, many in the educational industry debate as to whether SIF will move beyond a small number of districts to achieve widespread acceptance and success -- and people are waiting for the deliverables. Herrold knows that the SIF effort faces major challenges, but he strongly believes that it will succeed and become a reality.

"There is a value proposition going all the way up the line that will pay off, at the local, state, and federal level," says Herrold, who is the director of the technology group for the Central Susquehanna Intermediate Unit (CSIU), which is one of 29 intermediate units in Pennsylvania. CSIU offers services that an individual school or organization may not be able to conduct as efficiently or economically. Its primary service area consists of Columbia, Montour, Northumberland, Snyder, and Union counties in central Pennsylvania, though the CSIU works with other schools and organizations outside of that area. It provides technical services and student information and management systems for approximately 260 districts in Pennsylvania, Herrold says.

CSIU is a strong supporter of the SIF initiative, and is involved in such areas as the creation of the standards. Herrold sits on the 2002-2003 SIIA SIF Division Board of Directors. He champions SIF with what he calls "missionary zeal." He has been involved in a pilot working with the state of Pennsylvania, testing data collecting and reporting using SIF. How has SIF been received? "The reaction of people was, `Wow, we've been waiting for this!" Herrold says. "Districts have a lot of automated systems, but none of them talk to each other." Herrold cites instances in which a student's enrollment information is already in a district's student information system, but it takes a week or more to get that student entered into the library system. "The reaction of the participants was, `this is what we've been waiting for," Herrold says. "They say, `we're pulling our hair out with the systems we have.' "

The Upper Dauphin Area School District in Pennsylvania, teaming with CSIU, is one of the showcase sites of SIF. Like other school districts, the Upper Dauphin district uses a student information administration suite, library automation, grade book applications, and other systems, according to information about the Upper Dauphin pilot effort posted on the SIF Web site. The entering of student data into various databases was using up a lot of teachers' time in the 1,400-student district, as well as causing other inefficiencies.

With applications that do not have shared specifications, such as a special education or transportation schedule database, etc., continuous re-keying of the same information around a school building becomes necessary. The sharing of student information between applications using common protocols eliminates such repetitive entries of identical data. According to Herrold, backing SIF is in the interest of vendors, districts, and the government. For example, states are writing standards systems, and unless a vendor's package is linked up totally with those systems, many districts have to write custom software to interface with those state standards. Technical personnel end up wasting too much time currently writing processes to exchange info between such applications, and there are different processes for different vendors. With SIF, says Herrold, "you do not need to build that bridge." This reduces expensive custom development costs.

One key reason SIF is going to become a reality is "because everybody needs it," Herrold maintains. "Districts need the administrative functions to become more efficient. There is so much inefficiency now," he says. Government needs SIF to create a smoother, more efficient process for data collection required by the No Child Left Behind Act and other legislative measures and regulatory mandates. Vendors will be able to focus on enhancements of their products based on a shared framework.

Yet, there is some pessimism and misunderstanding about SIF that even a hard-core supporter like Herrold acknowledges. Why? For one, he says that much progress is happening with SIF, but it's behind the scenes and not readily apparent. Also, it is not, as he notes, simply a matter of developing a "plug and play" solution. Many different types of systems have to be taken into account, and the solution will vary according to a school district's choices of software applications.

Like any major new technical undertaking, there is a significant investment of time, money, and resources up front for those who believe in SIF. No one has worked out the Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) of it. Some vendors may be holding back on the initiative and waiting to see if it happens, according to Herrold. Still, once there is a critical mass of involvement and some competition, that should lower the costs, proponents say.

What should school districts and their leaders do currently about SIF? First, districts purchasing software can find language that they should put in their RFPs to assess a product's fit with SIF and to determine whether the vendor from whom they are purchasing supports SIF. In Herrold's view, school leaders should be sure that their districts join the SIF initiative and become a member. "You're going to see SIF suddenly explode," says Herrold, "or you wouldn't see people investing so much in it."

To contact Roy Herrold: rherrold@csiu.org

To find out more about the Schools Interoperability Framework (SIF):
http://www.sifinfo.org/

For information about getting involved or joining SIF:
http://www.sifinfo.org/join.html

For the SIF list of SIF-enabled Applications and Zone Integration Servers:
http://www.sifinfo.org/members.html

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Following is a list of educational conferences that you may want to attend in the next 120 days.

Association of Educational Service Agencies: Annual Conference and Exposition
Policy makers, chief executives, and program experts focus on how educational service agencies can best support schools to meet the mandates of the No Child Left Behind Act.
Dec. 4-7
Dallas, Tex.
http://164.116.2.2/aesa_conf/index.html

ICE 2003 Conference: Learning Without Boundaries
This annual conference of teachers, technology staff, administrators, and library and media specialists examines technology issues, standards, assessment in a standards-based classroom, student achievement, and more. Sponsored by Indiana Computer Educators.
Jan. 23-25, 2003
Indianapolis, Ind.
http://www.ptsc.k12.in.us/ice

Texas Administrators' Midwinter Conference
The theme of this year's conference is "New Challenges, New Directors, New Stars." General sessions and a panel discussion address the No Child Left Behind Act. Other key topics include: curriculum and instruction, assessment, staff development, technology, human resources, and administration and finance.
Jan. 27-29, 2003
Austin, Texas
http://www.tea.state.tx.us/midwinter/03/ca/index.html

Council of Urban Boards of Education Issues Cube
Urban school district leaders from across the country gather and exchange ideas about federal legislative concerns affecting their districts.
Feb. 1, 2003
Washington, D.C.
http://www.nsba.org/cube

Florida Educational Technology Conference: FETC 2003
Annual forum allows educators, educational technology coordinators, media specialists, and administrators to share concerning their technology-integrated curriculum strategies and practices. Sessions, workshops, and vendor exhibits provide a look at the latest trends and products available.
Feb. 4-6, 2003
Orlando, Fla.
http://www.fetc.org/fetc2003/index.cfm

American Association of School Administrators: 2003 Annual Conference
Major conference for administrators addresses strategies and ideas for governance. Sessions focus on safe and supportive schools, school reform, achievement and learning, parents and community, the leader's role, and more.
Feb. 20-23, 2003
New Orleans, La.
http://www.aasa.org/nce_2003/index.asp

Eighth Annual K-12 School Networking Conference
Achievement, assessment, and accountability are the focus of this conference sponsored by the Consortium for School Networking. Educators, administrators, and education technology leaders participate.
Feb. 25-27, 2003
Arlington, Va.
http://www.k12schoolnetworking.org/

International Technology Education Association: 65th Annual Conference
This annual gathering provides educators and teachers with new strategies to advance excellence in technological literacy and examines trends in technology education. Includes: student assessment, professional development, and program standards.
March 13-15, 2003
Nashville, Tenn.
http://www.iteawww.org/D.html

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