EDI for Education Newsletter

(continued on page 3)

EDI: Charting the Course

Developing an Implementation Strategy

The second in a three-part series, this article provides guidance to EDI

proponents on how to plan a successful implementation of an EDI

program within their educational community. In Phase 1, the

stakeholders will have been mobilized through educational activities,

collaboration, and after determining the feasibility of utilizing EDI to

streamline the records sharing process between organizations. Now

your organization is ready to develop an implementation strategy for each participating institution.

1. Decide institutional implementation strategy - Since EDI can be implemented at various Decide institutional implementation strategy

organizational levels, the first step is to decide how big that “first step” will be. Initially, consider

all the opportunities for EDI in order to simplify multiple business processes within the organization. Once the candidate documents have been determined, set priorities for implementation

based on need of the staff responsible for the current paper-based process.

2. Obtain management approval - Prepare a business case or statement showing the long and oval

short term costs and benefits of EDI investment. The current paper-based processes will need

to be reviewed to determine the cost of managing information exchange today. In addition,

include examples of the indirect benefits of EDI to obtain management and support.

3. Establish a project team - The team will determine requirements, scope, and functional design oject team

of EDI implementation and should include representation from end users as well as technical

staff.

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

Case In Point

VIPs in EDI s in EDI

Web Watch

EDI Standards Update

Across the Continent

“How can I subscribe to

 the Spotlight?”

 “Are there any EDI e any EDI

conferences coming up?”

“Who can I contact to set up

 an EDI implementation

 Workshop for my state?”

Don’t forget about the Help Desk.

We’re here to help. When you

need information regarding EDI in

the education community, just call

1-800-644-SPEX. Leave a message

at the voice mail prompt with your

inquiry, address change, or contact

information request and a staff

member will return your call and

provide you with a solution.

Or visit the SPEEDE/ExPRESS

web site at:

 http://www.nces.ed.gov/edi

to download presentation material,

read more about EDI, and check

out some of the web site links and

a whole lot more!

Charlotte’s Beta

Standardization of Postsecondary Education Electronic Data Exchange Exchange of Permanent Records Electronically for Students and Schools

 Volume VI No.3 Spring ‘99

Speede Expression

8

Watt’s Next

The NCES’ sponsored WEB Server for EDI called Charlotte (Computer for

Harmonizing Administrative Records between Learning Organizations

Targeting Truth about Education) debuted as a demonstration server

in February 1999. The Charlotte Server is designed to simplify the

exchange of student information between educational agencies by using

three specified methods of sending and receiving information-email, HTTP

and the WEB.

During the initial phase of deployment, Charlotte will be beta tested by

approximately 10 state and local educational agencies with the goal of

fine-tuning the user and administrative interfaces and processes. Several state and school district

representatives, who attended the Summer NCES Forum and Data Conference last July in Washington

DC, stepped forward with interest to participate in beta testing after viewing the server demonstration.

States involved include Arizona, Louisiana, New Hampshire, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, West

Virginia, and Wyoming.

Charlotte grew out of an EDI pilot study in Washington state where both K12 and postsecondary were

involved. During the study, the specific needs and problems of K12 and postsecondary in implementing

EDI were observed to differ. K12’s support and information infrastructure is far more distributed and

requires much more assistance than the more centralized postsecondary institutions. Postsecondary

institutions have an architecture and budget structure that will enable them, in many instances, to

design and implement in-house solutions independent of Charlotte. Charlotte was designed to help the

K12 institutions with limited capability to implement EDI. This does not mean that postsecondary

institutions cannot use Charlotte, but simply, that they were not the initial primary target users. The

basic design of the Charlotte beta version is to accept a fixed file format from “sending institutions”

and create a valid electronic student record/transcript in X12 Transaction Set 130 format to send to

postsecondary institutions. Charlotte will perform all required mapping and translation. The main reason

for Charlotte’s development is to help educational agencies implement X12 Transaction Sets. Since the

architecture is flexible, the transaction sets can be adapted to most data and document types.

Although Charlotte allows for varying formats, agencies are urged to adopt a common one, to avoid

finding the cost of developing and maintaining their own unique maps prohibitive.
CASE IN POINT

Looking back at the last “Case In Point” installment, the

interview with Coleen McClanahan of Iowa’s Project

EASIER (Electronic Access System for Iowa Education

Records), readers learned about their initial steps.

Project EASIER is an EDI initiative to develop and

implement a system for sharing essential student

information among educational institutions and

agences. Coleen continues her Spotlight contribution

by sharing the next steps toward EASIER’s success.

Steps six through twelve, as defined in “Charting the

Course Toward EDI,” are highlighted below.

Project EASIER Step 6 (Develop cost/benefit analysis):

A case study of cost/benefit analysis was shared with

department personnel by an independent consultant

hired to assist with the beginning stages of the project.

No other formal analysis was done, but internal discussions included how the project would benefit the

agency in cost savings. Reduction in data entry, the

processing and handling of paper forms, and mailing

costs were some of the identified benefits. In addition, similar savings will occur at the local district level.

Project EASIER Step 7 (Select participants/components):

To continue the enablement process, the Department

of Education identified seven paper-based data

collection documents that included student level data

elements. From these documents, a set of 16 data

elements was identified. The project team goal for the

development of a set of data elements was to select a

set that would be “significant, yet manageable”. This

set of 16 data elements met that criteria, and provide

the information necessary to eliminate the need for

required reports to be completed by participating

sites. This set of data elements became the project’s

district-to-state data element list. Likewise, a committee composed of representatives from postsecondary

institutions and the Department of Education identified a set of data elements needed for postsecondary

transcripts that became the district-to-postsecondary

data element list. Both of these lists were shared with

and endorsed by the advisory council. At the November 29, 1995 advisory committee meeting, plans were

announced to members that a pilot project involving

sites from advisory committee representation would be

implemented in January of 1996. At that time, all public

school districts with representation on the advisory

committee were invited to notify the Department of

Education through a letter of intent if they had an

interest in becoming a pilot site.

The Department of Education established a Project

EASIER team at the beginning of the project. Individuals on the team include administrators, data processing

and technology personnel, and a project coordinator.

This team continues to function. It was the Project

EASIER team that reviewed the letters of intent in

accordance with pre-specified criteria and conducted

follow-up team telephone interviews with potential

pilot site candidates. Ultimately six pilot sites were

identified.

Specific expectations for pilot sites included the

following: 1) with technical assistance, conduct an

initial EDI assessment to provide a foundation for

future direction, 2) organize a pilot site team, 3)

develop a site team plan, 4) participate in overall

team meetings with other pilot sites, 5) communicate with the Department of Education and with

other pilot sites, 6) record/report progress and share

technical problems and issues with other site teams

and the Department of Education, 7) develop cooperative agreements with other pilot sites and

postsecondary institutions, and 8) transfer student

data electronically to the Department of Education

and postsecondary institutions.

Project EASIER Step 8 (Complete technical development):

The Iowa Department of Education was fortunate to

have National Computer Systems (NCS) located in the

state. National Computer Systems has been on the

cutting edge of research and development in the

area of electronic data interchange, SPEEDE/ExPRESS, and

translation software development. The Department

of Education contracted with this vendor for technical assistance. In addition, the department has added

one full-time technology staff person to the project

and has appointed a full-time coordinator as well.

The department Project EASIER team also provides

additional assistance.

Project EASIER Step 9 (Establish EDI trading partner

agreements between organizations):

At an early stage, a decision was made not to go the

route of formal trading partner agreements for

Project EASIER. The nature of the entities involved

lend themselves more to “cooperative agreements”,

which have evolved among the department, local

school district sites, and the involved postsecondary

institutions. As a result of on-going discussion,

procedures, processes, and data element lists have

been standardized. The data elements identified in

Step 7 have been mapped to Transaction Set 130,

and the results of this mapping effort has been

agreed to by local school districts and the

postsecondary institutions.

Project EASIER Steps 10, 11, & 12 (Pilot test, SIER Steps 10, 11, & 12 (Pilot test,

evaluate & review, implement):

Following the identification of the original pilot sites,

and up to the present time, which is considered the

“production” phase of the project, there has been

constant testing, evaluating and review of project

activities. This has been somewhat of an evolutionary

process in that many unanticipated occurrences have

developed along the way. Sometimes these developments would be positive and assist the forward movement of the project, and other times they would

provide challenges calling for more in-depth study.

The actual enablement process for sites includes

built-in tests as the process is implemented. An

example of such a test is as follows: Each site receives a copy of the encryption software with installation instructions. They also receive the

department’s public key and a file of test data. They

are to install the encryption software, generate their

key pairs, encrypt the test file provided by the

department, and send that encrypted file as an email attachment to the department. These steps test

that the encryption software has successfully been

installed, that the site can use it, and that there is

Internet connectivity between the site and the

department.

 Following the Progress of

 Iowa’s Project

 2
(continued from page 1)

Spotlight on VIPs in EDI s in EDI

4. Educate personnel Educate personnel - Because EDI has the potential of Educate personnel 

dramatically changing the way people work, they need to

understand what EDI will do for them and why it is being

done. Educating employees from the start and soliciting

their support broadens ownership, ensures cooperation,

and avoids later complications.

5. Analyze data flow and modeling Analyze data flow and modeling - Use of these tools Analyze data flow and modeling 

allow for a thorough understanding of the business

process that will be automated through EDI. They are

essential to ensure that all information required for an EDI

transaction is present.

6. Develop cost analysis Develop cost analysis - Determine what the EDI imple- Develop cost analysis 

mentation costs will be including hardware, EDI software,

technical training, telecommunications, and personnel

time. On-going costs such as network charges, hardware/

software maintenance contracts, on-going training, and

support personnel resources should also be estimated.

7. Select participants/components for EDI pilot - Engage Select participants/components for EDI pilot

in an EDI pilot test to ensure that meaningful and timely

electronic exchange of information is achieved. When

recruiting other organizations to participate, choose an

institution that frequently shares information with your

institution and that clearly and consistently articulates the

necessary information.

8. Complete technical development - Allow 60-90 days for Complete technical development

development which involves installing and configuring EDI

software, creating maps that define the correlation

between your local data and the standard, and in some

cases, developing an application interface program that

forms an electronic bridge between the EDI translator

software and the administrative applications that house

the data.

9. Establish EDI trading agreements between

organizations ganizations - Formalize the exchange process ganizations 

and procedures by establishing a “trading partner

agreement” to ensure a common understanding of

what is expected of each participant. It should

specify which EDI transaction sets and X12 Standards version to be exchanged, volume and

schedule for transmissions, feedback process, and

any other terms and conditions that are deemed

appropriate.

10. Pilot test Pilot test - Conduct both a pilot and parallel paper- Pilot test 

based test so that the processes and the data

content within the documents can be compared.

Testing should continue until all problems are

solved and both institutions are comfortable with

the new process.

11. Evaluate & review - In the evaluation, issues should eview

be identified and resolved to the satisfaction of

everyone involved. Anticipate that the process will

require some fine-tuning before moving into

production level exchanges.

12. Implement - Prior to going live, announce this Implement

capability to other institutions with which typically

large volumes of information is exchanged. Now

as an EDI expert, offer your assistance in getting

others EDI enabled. Remember: the more records

you exchange electronically, the sooner you realize

a return on investment (not to mention saving

trees).

The final article in the series will focus on common issues,

challenges, and recommended solutions for institutions as

they begin building the administrative records transfer

network. -- Jill Hanson

 Lee Tack, Administrator of the Division of Financial and Information Services ack

 at the Iowa Department of Education, is this Spotlight’s featured VIP in EDI.

 His contributions to the EDI for Education cause are endless.

 In 1995, Lee attended the National Center for Education Statistics’ annual MIS

 Data Conference and became aware of the potential of EDI to benefit schools

 and districts. He followed up with three registrars from Iowa’s state universities

 who had already established trading partner agreements to exchange transcripts,

 and accompanied them in their efforts to create awareness and later form an

 advisory group. In a word, Lee quickly became an ever-sought “champion”. Says Lee,

“I think any new initiative like this requires a champion and our work with the statewide advisory committee created a number of champions—besides me.” He is now a contributing factor to the success of one

of the nation’s most successful pilot EDI projects, Project EASIER, involving all of Iowa’s school districts. He

helped to develop a communication plan that resulted in the production of a ten-minute video about EDI

which has gained tremendous support for the Iowa project.

In addition to being the chief policy and financial analyst for the state’s school finance system, Lee is

currently a member of a National Center for Education Statistics task force on data confidentiality, a

federal data coordination task force, and a task group developing a transaction set for exchanging institutional data (TS133). He has chaired several professional organizations and committees such as the National

Forum on Education Statistics and the Education Information Advisory Committee to advocate EDI use

among schools and districts.

Lee’s words of wisdom? “I believe helping schools, districts and states to become EDI enabled will result

in all of us having better information about education than we have ever had. I have always believed

that better decisions result when timely and accurate information is available.” Touché.

3
Postsecondary Electronics Standards Council Highlights

The following two articles appearing in this column are reprinted with permisson from the Standards Council’s web publication “The Standard.”

Visit: http://www.standardcouncil.org/enews/index.htm to view the August 1998 newletter in its entirety. ugust 1998

ETS Offers Test Score Reports in Standard Format

At the end of 1998, the Educational Testing Service began using Internet transmission

to make GRE, SAT, and TOEFL scores available to participating institutions in the US

and Canada, reports Pat Salava of ETS. These colleges and universities now

receive test score reports quickly and securely over the Internet. PGP encryption

software will be used to ensure security of the score data. Test scores will be

transmitted in both the ETS proprietary format of each testing program and in TS 138

format, an EDI transaction set approved last year for reporting test scores. Institutions

have been able to receive their test scores electronically through computer tapes, diskette

and the IBM Advantis network for several years, but this new service gives them another option–one

that is more economical. The institutions will be able to get their scores faster and possibly avoid the extra costs

associated with handling paper reports. After processing the test scores, ETS staff will encrypt the data using an

institution’s unique PGP software key and place encrypted data on an anonymous server (one without an

identifiable address) located at ETS. This triggers an e-mail, which is delivered to the school, informing the

designated contact that the data are available. The e-mail contains a URL where the school may retrieve the

data using a Web browser. The user then decrypts the data and processes it.

For more information on electronic score reporting, contact Jerry Murphy at:

 jmurphy@ets.org.

Dave Stones of UT Austin reports that the use of the Internet EDI Server made available through his shop has matched the

Texas weather this summer–hot! During July the server delivered 8830 transcripts and a total of 18,811 transaction sets.

There were 47 senders and 66 receivers of these transaction sets. They are located primarily in Texas, Iowa, and Florida.

Dave indicates that testing is taking place in a number of other states which plan on using the server, notably South

Carolina, Utah, North Carolina, West Virginia and Georgia.

The Internet EDI Server has been in operation since the fall of 1996. It provides, free of cost to the education

community, a way to send EDI transaction sets securely over the Internet. For more information on the Server,

see the website at: www.utexas.edu/student/giac/speede/ediserv.html.

Free Encrypted Internet EDI Server (AKA The Texas Server)

4

Web Watch

 http://www.metronet.com/~rawlins/bookmag.html

 Maintained by Mike Rawlings of Rawlings EDI Consulting,

this site offers reviews and recommendations for books

and magazines about EDI.

 http://www.aecpii.com/certify_titles.htm

This eCommerce site has a helpful list of job titles and descriptions to

help you design your EDI roles once you decide to begin EDI implementation. The home page of the Association for Electronic Commerce Professionals International also has links to other helpful

resources.

 Here are some additional sites on informative

 EDI and eCommerce resources

 Volume VI No.3 Spring 1999

This issue is printed by the U.S. Governmental

 Printing Office and produced through funding

 from the U.S. Department of Education,

 National Center for Education Statistics by

 contract with Sierra Systems Consultants Inc.

Melissa LaRoe/ Jin Lee..........Editors

Joseph Bellofatto.............Graphic Designer
 DM160298 (approved) – Code ‘D – Equivalent Score’ has been added to data element oved)

1160 Test Score Qualifier Code to be used in the SRE Test Scores segment.

 DM184298 (approved) – The Council of Chief State School Officers (CCSSO) was oved)

 listed as the source of the codes for five data elements:

1252 Health Screening Type Code

1253 Immunization Type Code

1255 Disease Condition Type Code

1256 Medical Treatment Type Code

 These are used in the health and immunization segments:

HC Health Condition

HS Health Screening

IMM Immunization Status Code

CCSSO, however, no longer maintained those code lists and they are all subsets of the code lists currently maintained by the US National

Center for Health Statistics, the American Medical Association, and the American Dental Association. The modification changes all four of the

data elements to data element 1271 Industry Code and adds a matching data element 1270 Code List Qualifier Code to the end of the

segment. In the case of the HC segment, two DE1270s were added. Five new codes were added to data elements 1270:

AAU Diagnosis Encountered During Examination and Investigation of Individuals and Populations Code (Code Source 131)

AAV Vaccination, Innoculation or Isolation Code (Code Source 131)

AAW Immunization Injection Code (Code Source 133)

AAX International Classification of Diseases Clinical Modification (ICD-9CM) Code (Code Source 131)

AAY Current Dental Terminology (CDT) Code (Code Source 131)

DM189298 (approved) – In the MKS segment, the paired Syntax Note P0203 which r oved) equired both Academic Grade Qualifier and Academic Grade

be present was changed to a conditional Syntax Note C0302 which requires Academic Grade Qualifier when the Academic Grade is present but not

the reverse. This coincides with usage for these two data elements in the CRS segment.

DM197298 (approved) – In or oved) der to indicate unusual testing conditions associated with all subtests test, data element 1159 was added to the end

of the TST Test Score Record segment at position TST16. New code ‘U – Exempt’ was added to data element 1159 Test Score Interpretation Code

and will be useful in both the TST segment and the SBT Subtest segment. -- Elsa Leslie

X12 Data Maintenance Summary X12 Data Maintenance Summary

 Education Update

Four Data Maintenance Requests (DMRs) submitted by The American National Standards

Institute Accredited Standards Committee X12 Education Administration Subcommittee

(ANSI ASC X12A) were approved with the June 1998 ballot. Three other DMRs elicited a

number of comments which required additional clarification. Two of these three received

approval in October during the X12 trimester meeting. The seven changes would, therefore,

be reflected in Version 4020 of the X12 Standards.

Transaction Set 132 - the Human Resource Record: The Human Resources Task Group (HRTG) met in June 1998 at the d

X12 trimester meeting and continued to meet via bimonthly conference calls in order to develop Transaction Set 132.

Their work was presented for the first time to the Technical Assessment Task Group of the Education Subcommittee

(X12A TG4) at the October X12 trimester meeting in Miami, Florida. Sadly, the HRTG must say adieu to chair, Mike Read,

as his current work assignments will not permit attention to the development of TS132. He will be sorely missed and

we wish him well. However, the task group has a wealth of knowledgeable members and we congratulate the newly

elected chair, Barbara Andrepont, and vice-chair, Mary Pawasarat.

Transaction Set 133 - the Institutional Record: At the June 1998 X12 trimester meeting, the Institutional Record Task d

Group (IRTG) completed the identification of data to be included in the transaction set. This information has now been

turned over to members of the Postsecondary Electronic Standards Council to develop the initial transaction set structure.

IRTG members reviewed the first draft at the October X12 trimester meeting in Miami.

-- Elsa Leslie

ANSI ASC X12 Subcommittee A

 5

ANSI ASC X12A
6

Elementary and Secondary

Texas

Education Service Center, Region 20 in San Antonio

provides software for many school districts throughout

Texas. They added the functionality of SPEEDE/ExPRESS to

their software, complete with easy-to-use front end

transaction processing. A pilot was conducted between

January and June of 1998 among several San Antonio area

school districts and various colleges and universities across

Texas. The pilot was deemed a success and all participants

agreed to begin using these electronic transcripts in a

production environment.

For more information, please contact John McCauley at the

Education Service Center, Region 20 via email at:

john.mccauley@esc20.k12.tx.us

Alaska

The On-line Alaska School Information System (OASIS)

has come to a crossroad since the Alaska student

data elements list/dictionary has been completed

and the client server database has been built. There is now

real data in the student category of the database that

enables developers to examine and demonstrate some

reporting features.

The results of a successful implementation of

OASIS has become more important with a new

law (Chapter 83, sla 1998) passed by Alaskan

legislature this session. The law requires the

department to: 1) review and confirm or modify

the new district cost factors from this law; 2) develop

a methodology to identify and collect school level data

vs. district level data to make funding decisions, identify

exemplary schools, schools in distress, etc.; and

3) assess how effective students are learning in schools. 

Several groups within the state have formed to identify

potential staff, finance, and facilities data elements. The

Alaska (AK) DOE hopes to meet with the state Retirement

& Benefits division to identify whether the Department

can collect electronically any source data about staff

from their system, rather than have a district report

duplicate data to AKDOE. The Department continues to

review data elements from its Teacher Certification

database for other source data that may be extracted.

Other tasks on the discussion board to be completed by

June 1999 include making the OASIS efforts more widely

known, thoroughly explaining the benefits of OASIS to

district personnel and superintendents while gaining

their support, and identifying the steps necessary for

implementation at the district level.

Funding for implementation is limited, but many vendors

recognize the benefits and are eager to assist in supporting

districts in development and implementation. 

A huge change for Alaska districts is the idea of nonaggregated data being sent to AKDOE. Previously, a

district completed a report in an aggregated format

and sent it to the AKDOE. The information would then

be published at the state level. This method introduced

error, data discrepancy, and a loss of confidence in the

reports and data reported by the AKDOE. 

For more information, please contact Brenda O’Donnell at

907-465-8651 or via email at:

 brenda_odonnell@educ.state.ak.us. enda_odonnell@educ.state.ak.us.

North Car North Carolina

 North Carolina Department of Public Instruction, which

oversees the state’s K-12 public education programs,

has released a Request for Proposal (RFP) for a new

comprehensive student information and accountability

management system. Administrative and classroom/

instructional management components will be combined with a data analysis/decision support system to

give North Carolina’s public schools powerful and

comprehensive tools with which to manage their data

and information needs. One of the requirements

outlined in the RFP is the support for EDI and SPEEDE/

ExPRESS for the exchange of transcripts with the UNC

system as well as related student data movement

among the schools. Most of the schools in the UNC

system are ready to receive electronic high school

transcripts from the North Carolina public high

schools.
7

East Carolina University (ECU) is the pioneer in EDI for the

UNC system. ECU uses the DARS software from the Miami

University of Ohio with its own custom student information system. Fifty-six of the fifty-eight NC Community

Colleges use the same software, which is written and

maintained by the NCCCS central office to generate the

TS130. When the NCCCS software has proved to successfully exchange transcripts between Pitt Community

College and East Carolina, it will be made available to 55

additional North Carolina Community Colleges. This will

give the 16 UNC institutions 56 trading partners. The

other two community colleges will implement EDI on their

own.

UNC Wilmington is developing the mapping from/to

the SCT SIS Plus software, but progress was delayed

until they completed their Y2K upgrade and the

installation of the SCT web products. The SCT COBOL

programs that do the mapping will be made available

to the other 11 UNC institutions that use SCT’s SIS Plus.

These 12 SIS Plus institutions should have transcript

receiving and sending capabilities fully integrated into

their SIS systems by Fall 1999. The other three UNC

institutions will implement EDI with their student

information systems – UNC-G uses SCT Banner, UNC-CH

uses the IDMS version of SIS, NCSU is now using the

IDMS version of SIS but is moving towards PeopleSoft.

 For more information on the UNC EDI initiative, you can

contact Robert Hill at the UNC General Administration Office

via e-mail at:

 fh@ga.unc.edu

The State hopes to be able to award the contract for the

new student information system in 1999, and state-wide

implementation is expected to start in the 1999/2000

school year.

For more information on the K-12 public schools EDI

initiative, contact Archie Cowan at the N.C. Department of

Public Instruction via e-mail at:

 acowan@dpi.state.nc.us

North Car North Carolina

The University of North Carolina (UNC) is currently implementing the use of EDI for the exchange of transcripts

following its 1997 adoption of an articulation agreement

with the 58 institutions of the North Carolina Community

College System (NCCCS). Fifteen of the 16 UNC institutions are now using EDI.Smart software.

As of December 1998, 12 of the 16 UNC institutions are

registered with the UT-Austin server in test mode.

The remaining four institutions should be registered with

the server in 1999.

PostSecondary

aaaa aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa You may have noticed two of our regular columns missing from this

issue of the SPEEDE/ExPRESS Spotlight.

“Conference Corner” and the “Vendor Spotlight” will continue to be

covered. Please look for their return in the next issue.

 Case In Point

 The final chapter of the 3-part feature on Iowa’s Project EASIER

concludes with “ Building the Administrative Records Transfer

Network.” Learn about some common issues, challenges, and

recommended solutions for institutions as they begin to build a

trading partner network.

 CHARLOTTE

 Didn’t get enough information from our Beta- testing

announcement? Find out all the details behind the new WWW

EDI server, including cost implications, functionality, development issues, and much more in the Summer 1999 Spotlight.

Look for these and other exciting

 articles in the Summer Spotlight ! articles in the Summer Spotlight !

ANSI American National Standards Institute - founded in

1918, it is the coordinator for national standards in the United

States, responsible for the identification of a single consistent

set of voluntary standards.

DARS Degree Audit Requirements System - a software system

developed by the Miami University of Ohio.

IDMS Integrated Data Management System - a relational data

base product for IBM mainframe computers.

NCES National Center for Education Statistics - an organiza

tion within the U.S. Department of Education that has

cosponsored the development and pilot usage of standardsbased electronic information exchanges, beginning with the

SPEEDE/ExPRESS initiative in 1989.

NCSU North Carolina State University at Raleigh 

SCT Corporation a software and services company providing

information management technology and enterprise

solutions for higher education.

SIS Plus Student Information System Plus - software now

sold by SCT that was originally developed by Information

Associates in the 1980s. Used by 12 of 16 UNC campuses for

their student information system.

UNC University of North Carolina (all 16 campuses unless city

is specified)

UNC-CH University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

UNC-G University of North Carolina at Greensboro

GLOSSARY
U.S. Dept. of Education, National Center for Education Statistics

Statistical Networking Applications Project

555 New Jersey Avenue NW

Room 311

Washington, DC. 20208-5652

FIRST CLASS

8

EDI for Education Newsletter

Across

4 Server undergoing testing. 4

 5 Newly elected chair of the Human Resources Task 5

 Group

 6 The title of the Postsecondary Electronic Standards 6

 Council newsletter

 7 ANSI ASC X12 process for keeping transaction sets 7

 current.

 8 K12 EDI contact in North Carolina. 8

10 Need to be educated to ensure success in EDI 10

 implementation

 11 Participants that will benefit from EDI 11 

 15 Needed to begin EDI implementation 15

Down

1 Establishes rules for sharing records between 1

 trading partners.

 2 College and university educational sector 2

 3 Site for October’s ANSI ASC X12 meeting 3

 9 Early adopter of EDI. 9

12 Desert watering hole 12

 13 What EDI implementers need from management 13

 14 A VIP in the implementation of EDI in Education. 14

 Lose your reading glasses?

 Are you tired of flipping through

 lengthy documents?

 Learn about EDI and Education

 ON VIDEO!

 Title: “SPEEDE/ExPRESS:

 An Electronic System for Exchanging Student Records”

 Produced by: NCES, AACRAO, and CCSSO

 To order:

 Please call the Government Printing Office

 (stock # 065-000-00758-4) at 202-512-1800

 or visit the website at:

 http://www.access.gpo.gov/su_docs/sale.html.

 OR the AACRAO Distribution Center

 (stock # 6005) at (301) 490-7651

 or visit the website at:

 http://www.aacrao.com/pubs/puborder.html.

SPEEDE/ExPRESSIONS

Check out the solution on the SPEEDE/ExPRESS home page at:

 http://www.nces.ed.gov/edi http://www.nces.ed.gov/edi

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NCES 1999-321