Educational institutions have access to more data than ever before. Yet, this data is often only accessible through disparate software solutions that are simply not designed or intended to work together. This is a significant obstacle for educators who need to use that data to track, monitor, and assess student performance to make data-informed decisions about instruction.
Connected data provides educators and administrators with a clearer picture of the whole child, giving them insight to help them reach the ultimate goal of personalized learning. But how can educators effectively utilize data generally housed in silos?
By signing the IMS Global Standards First Pledge, PowerSchool agrees that this challenge must be addressed and is committed to building interoperable software while adhering to a set of rigorous and third-party-validated open standards. As part of this community, we are committed to making open standards the first choice for edtech integrations.
Pledging Our Commitment to Open Standards
As strong advocates for standards-based integrations, we’re proud supporters and signers of the Standards First pledge, an edtech community call-to-action by IMS Global Learning Consortium, the world’s leading non-profit collaborative advancing edtech and learning impact.
The Standards First pledge focuses on bringing the education community together to create a more integrated, student-centered, accessible, and equitable edtech ecosystem. It promotes open standards integrations to serve as the foundation for enabling product choice, improved cost, enhanced data, and student privacy. We know that K-12 school districts need a resilient, flexible, and data-rich technology experience—whether in the classroom, the back office, or at home—and integrated solutions can help improve productivity, increase engagement, and address learning challenges for all students at every level.
As the leader in cloud-based K-12 education software, we support fair and open business practices for edtech software suppliers. That’s why we believe in adhering to and promoting official product certifications to open standards. We openly commit to creating a more intuitive, equitable edtech ecosystem for schools and districts of all sizes by signing this pledge.
The Standards First pledge is a commitment to making open standards the primary choice for edtech companies, schools, districts, and educational institutions and agencies. We recognize that open standards can empower educators and students to choose and combine the tools and resources that best work for them to provide better experiences and outcomes.
Certified Products Ensure Interoperability Across Solutions
Working toward providing seamless, out-of-the-box integrations based on open standards, PowerSchool recently passed the product certification process issued by IMS Global for many of our cloud-based software solutions. These 19 products have all been certified as compliant with specific IMS standards and features:
- PowerSchool Schoology Learning
- PowerSchool Performance Matters
- PowerSchool Ecollect Forms
- PowerSchool Enrollment
- PowerSchool Enrollment Express
- PowerSchool SIS
- PowerSchool eSchoolPlus SIS
- PowerSchool Atrieve
- PowerSchool BusinessPlus
- PowerSchool eFinance Plus
- PowerSchool Special Programs
- PowerSchool Analytics & Insights [Unified Insights]
- PowerSchool Applicant Tracking
- PowerSchool Candidate Assessment
- PowerSchool Employee Records
- PowerSchool Perform
- PowerSchool Professional Learning
- PowerSchool SchoolSpring Job Board
- PowerSchool SmartFind Express
For K-12 educational institutions, we believe that knowing these solutions adhere to IMS Global’s open standards will help them make the best decisions in support of their goals. It will help them build a plug-and-play ecosystem—one in which tools throughout the district work together seamlessly—giving them more choice and reducing the total cost of ownership.
Open Standards Support Accelerated Digital Transformation
In addition to IMS Global’s interoperability standards, PowerSchool is committed to supporting industry-leading open standards such as OneRoster and LTI from IMS Global and Ed-Fi. Specifically, Performance Matters is QTI 2.1 certified, PowerSchool SIS is OneRoster 1.1 certified, Schoology is OneRoster 1.2 certified, and we are working on additional product certifications as well. Showing support for these open standards further provides educational institutions with the choice of which software platforms make the most sense for their students, educators, and families.
For K-12 schools and districts worldwide, knowing which solutions adhere to industry-leading open standards can help support an accelerated digital transformation, efficient school operations, and student learning by helping them bring together a suite of integrated solutions from validated edtech companies.
IMS Global PowerSchool Certifications: https://site.imsglobal.org/certifications/powerschool-group-llc
Learn more about the Standards First pledge
As a part of a community committed to making open standards the first and primary choice, PowerSchool advocates for standards-based edtech integrations.
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