Summary
Dr. Derek Elgin of Resultant shares insights from Ed-Fi Summit 2025 in San Antonio, where education leaders explored how real-time, connected, user-friendly data systems improve teaching, support timely intervention, and help students succeed nationwide.
[Estimated read time: 5 minutes]
Inside Ed-Fi Summit 2025: Real-time data, unified systems, and human-centered design
I attended my first Ed-Fi Summit earlier last month in San Antonio. The messages we heard throughout the event reinforced and supported how the education community is turning data interoperability from merely a good idea into real-world results.
Across sessions and conversations, three priorities stood out: enabling real-time data access; resolving data disparity; and implementing “invisible,” user-friendly system design. These themes reflect both the successful momentum of the Ed-Fi Data Standard and the persistent challenges that require collective focus in the coming year.
Why educators need just-in-time data now more than ever
Georgia Department of Education Chief Data and Privacy Officer Nicholas Handville stated that outdated data is functionally useless for driving decisions at the classroom level. State and local leaders emphasized the importance of getting data faster, not months after it’s needed.
Data enablement initiatives must move beyond merely collecting data to accelerating its delivery and meaningful analysis. The future of Ed-Fi implementation must prioritize building data pathways that enable just-in-time intervention systems, before students reach that dangerous point of deep struggle.
To make a real difference for students, data has to reach teachers and school leaders quickly enough to guide instruction in the moment, not after the fact. Structuring how data is interpreted should inform proactive, not reactive, decisions.
How overcoming data disparity will bring a holistic student view
Scattered, unintegrated data remains the primary technical and operational hurdle for schools, districts, and states to overcome in order to achieve the outcomes they seek. Multiple leaders identified the challenges of fragmented and disconnected systems with student data siloed across different LMSs, district platforms, or state platforms.
Kathy McCurley from Michigan Virtual highlighted the inability to create a cohesive picture when pieces of data exist only within isolated systems. Jeff Pennell of Texas Region 10 further cemented this, naming disparate data as the biggest barrier preventing data-driven innovation.
The immediate need is to get different systems aligned on the same standard so data can move smoothly between them. Future work should concentrate on seamlessly and securely linking student information across systems so educators can see a complete, accurate picture as students progress and move through or between schools and programs.
This work includes longitudinal data systems (LDS), trusted execution environments, data linkage protocols, etc. and is foundational to achieving the Summit’s goal of improving how data follows transfer students and creating complete, actionable profiles for educators.
Make infrastructure invisible and operationalizing success
The ultimate metric of success is not the technical implementation of the data standard, but instead the resulting impact on practitioners. Wyatt Cothran, data collection team lead at South Carolina Department of Education’s Office of Research and Data Analysis defined a successful data initiative as one that “works invisibly behind the scenes.” The core value of Ed-Fi rests on providing intuitive tools that empower educators and drive student outcomes, without necessarily requiring the user to understand the underlying infrastructure.
The future need is to double down on creating user-centric tools, dashboards, and systems that translate complex, integrated data into simple, actionable insights, not just snapshots that are outdated the minute they’re created. This includes:
- Enhancing Practitioner Tools: Ensure the tools resulting from Ed-Fi projects are genuinely in the hands of teachers for proactive use.
- Focusing on Early Intervention: Provide clear alerts and data points that help educators check in on struggling students before they fall critically behind.
- Driving Organizational Change and Stakeholder Support: Design data solutions with the end-user (teacher, principal, parent) in mind to ensure adoption and sustained use.
Conclusion: The work ahead for the Ed-Fi community
By prioritizing real-time delivery, unified data alignment, and invisible, user-friendly implementation, the Ed-Fi community can effectively tackle the most entrenched problems in education and deliver measurable student success.
But the true impact of the Summit lies in the collective momentum it built. Each conversation, pilot, and policy discussion reinforced that improving outcomes for students depends not just on better data, but on the people and partnerships that turn data insights into actions. Continued collaboration across states, vendors, and educators will determine how quickly the promise of interoperability becomes everyday practice.
