Texas Charter System Outsources Data Work to Certica

  • By Dian Schaffhauser
  • 10/17/16

A Texas school system is handing off the work of data management to a software-as-a-service provider. YES Prep, which runs 16 public charter schools with 11,600 students in grades 6-12, will be working with Certica Solutions to create a data platform based in part on the Ed-Fi Alliance data standards.

Ed-Fi is a non-profit organization that develops free and open tools for integration of K-12 data sources and systems. The Ed-Fi community includes state departments of education and school districts as well as education technology vendors that adopt the standards to simplify the integration capabilities of their products.

Currently, the school system uses Certica's Certify, an education-oriented web-based enterprise application for data quality that continually validates district databases for adherence to business rules, data quality requirements and compliance. The program is specifically used to ensure the quality and timeliness of the data reported to the Texas Education Agency.

Under the new agreement, Certica will implement, install, configure and maintain an application program interface for integration of data from YES Prep's education applications and set up the data store and data warehouse.

In a prepared statement Richard Charlesworth, vice president of technology and analytics at YES Prep, said the learning model in use by his schools relies on the use of data. "Ed-Fi allows us to adopt best-of-breed education solutions and integrate data between them. Doing so will create a more seamless experience for our teachers and leadership, and ensure that users have access to complete, timely and accurate longitudinal data."

Among Certica's customers are state education agencies in Arkansas, Colorado and Wyoming. In the state of Texas 40 districts work with Certica, including Little Rock and Pasco County.

About the Author

Dian Schaffhauser is a former senior contributing editor for 1105 Media's education publications THE Journal, Campus Technology and Spaces4Learning.

Featured

  • laptop displaying a phishing email icon inside a browser window on the screen

    ED Grant Portal Target of Phishing Campaign

    Threat researchers at BforeAI have identified a phishing campaign spoofing the U.S. Department of Education's G5 grant management portal.

  • Analyst or Scientist uses a computer and dashboard for analysis of information on complex data sets on computer.

    Anthropic Study Tracks AI Adoption Trends Across Countries, Industries

    Adoption of AI tools is growing quickly but remains uneven across countries and industries, with higher-income economies using them far more per person and companies favoring automated deployments over collaborative ones, according to a recent study from Anthropic.

  • AI microchip under cybersecurity attack, surrounded by symbols of threats like a skull, spider, lock, and warning shield

    Report Finds Agentic AI Protocol Vulnerable to Cyber Attacks

    A new report from Backslash Security has identified significant security vulnerabilities in the Model Context Protocol (MCP), technology introduced by Anthropic in November 2024 to facilitate communication between AI agents and external tools.

  • tutor and student working together at a laptop

    You've Paid for Tutoring. Here's How to Make Sure It Works.

    As districts and states nationwide invest in tutoring, it remains one of the best tools in our educational toolkit, yielding positive impacts on student learning at scale. But to maximize return on investment, both financially and academically, we must focus on improving implementation.