Any K-12 education software vendor or educational institution that is committed to improving interoperability among diverse software applications and to supporting these specifications in future products is invited to participate. With its longstanding leadership in the educational software industry, SIIA is uniquely positioned to drive SIF forward. SIIA will bring together players from across the software industry and ensure that the SIF vision of empowering educators to build powerful technology foundations is fully realized. With the public availability of the Preliminary Interoperability Specification version 1.0, educators, vendors, districts, and state and federal agencies can review and provide feedback on whether the specification addresses their data-sharing needs until Jan. 30, 2000. In addition, software vendors can deploy SIF in their applications, and school districts can apply to be SIF pilot sites.
Schools are notorious for duplication and redundancy.
SIF is making our district a much more efficient and effective operation. Patrick Plant, technology director at Anoka-Hennepin, recalls when the SIF pilot was first discussed in his district. We felt like it was a necessary and critical step forward. For educators to make meaningful progress in improving student achievement, we will need to have more accurate, time-sensitive information accessible for teachers to make better decisions about a student's educational needs. SIIA represents more than 1,400 leading high-tech companies that develop and market software and digital content for education, business, consumers and the Internet.