Interoperability is finally getting the attention it deserves

This interoperability post originally appeared on the CoSN blog and is republished here with permission.

Key points:

Interoperability is the seamless, secure, and controlled exchange of data between applications. Implementing interoperability can bring together information from educational technology tools to comprehensively contextualize student learning, allowing educators, schools, and districts to better understand their students and support their paths to graduation. Enforcing data interoperability standards creates a modern data infrastructure by supporting development, privacy, and cybersecurity best practices while ensuring compliance with industry best practices.

Interoperability has often been seen as an extra step that districts could not necessarily implement due to their capacity. However, as privacy and security become increasingly important due to the advancement of technology, so does the need for interoperable systems.

As Director of Project Unicorn, my role has been to show educators and educational technology providers why interoperability is a fundamental and critical component of a data ecosystem. I often talk to district administrators or educational technology providers who have never heard of “interoperability” or who don't know how to use K-12 data standards. That's why Project Unicorn was created: to create a movement for data interoperability and ensure that everyone can access important knowledge about the creation and implementation side of data interoperability.

Project Unicorn works with early adopters who are ready to begin their interoperability journey, knowing they have the privacy and security practices in place to get started. But as new technologies, such as generative ai, emerge and cybersecurity breaches continue to increase (80 percent of school IT professionals reported their schools were affected by ransomware in 2023, up from 56 percent in 2022), technology/schools-are-a-top-target-of-ransomware-attacks-and-its-getting-worse/2023/08″ target=”_blank” rel=”noreferrer noopener”>noted in a recent article), educators, solution providers, and government officials have realized that interoperability, privacy, and security enhance each other, and that an integrated ecosystem is important.

“The importance of the intersection of interoperability with privacy and security cannot be overstated,” said Paula Maylahn, CoSN, interoperability project manager and principal consultant at Paula Maylahn Consulting. “Often the focus on interoperability is on one side of the coin: getting data where it needs to go. Equally important is the other side of the coin: keeping data where it shouldn't go.”

How interoperability, privacy and security enhance each other

Practicing data interoperability can support better development, privacy, and cybersecurity, while ensuring compliance with industry best practices for both districts and providers in these ways:

Interoperability standards add clarity to data collection and management
Interoperability has the potential to support data portability and ownership.
Interoperability standards can improve product usability and security
Supporting interoperability increases transparency around data practices
Interoperability standards can help simplify the process of complying with privacy laws.

(Learn more about privacy, security, and interoperability at https://www.projectunicorn.org/resources/privacy-security-interoperability)

Interoperability in the White House

On Monday, August 7, 2023, a group of school superintendents, educators, and educational technology providers met at the White House with First Lady Jill Biden, Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona, and Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas to present the new Infrastructure reportsa series of three documents from the Office of Educational technology, one of which includes the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA). They discussed the importance of interoperability and cybersecurity to building secure and resilient data ecosystems in K-12. This “Back to School Safely” event framed how to build an interoperable, secure, and privacy-enabled ecosystem for educational technology and support the field.

A national plan for educational technology

Following the Infrastructure Reports, the United States Department of Education published tech.ed.gov/NETP/” target=”_blank” rel=”noreferrer noopener”>the National Educational technology Plan (NETP) 2024 on January 22, 2024.

Since 1996, the NETP has served as the flagship educational technology policy document for the United States, establishing a vision and plan for technology-enabled K-12 learning in the U.S., territories, tribal lands, and DoDEA schools around the world. This latest version of the NETP delves deeper into the transformative potential of educational technology, highlighting systemic solutions to close digital gaps in use, design, and access, particularly in the context of educational equity.

NETP 2024 aligns with the activities to support the effective use of technology (Title IV A) of the Every Student Succeeds Act and continues to promote a vision of equity, active use, and collaborative leadership. Its goal is to ensure equitable access to technology and the transformative learning experiences that technology enables.

“In the real, everyday work of interoperability in a K-12 school district, the goal is to put actionable data in the hands of administrators and educators to make the best possible decisions to ensure all of our students are successful.” said Dr. Chantell Manahan, Chief technology Officer (Steuben County MSD and CoSN Board Member) “While we can achieve this through hard work by intentionally designing infrastructure, building local capacity, aligning with vetted data standards and choosing edtech providers who also Defend this vision is never easy. And we have an obligation to achieve this interoperability at scale, while protecting the privacy of student data. This means ensuring access to student data when necessary, following all federal, state, and local laws and community standards. “It is a delicate balancing act between access to the right data for the right decision makers and support from the federal level through infrastructure reports and NETP that provide guidance and prioritization of interoperability to achieve this digital equity.”

Don't be left behind: Steps districts can take

To keep up with emerging technologies and keep your data infrastructure and your students' data secure, you need to ensure that the fundamental pieces of the data ecosystem are in place: interoperability, privacy, and cybersecurity. With that foundation established, your technology can advance, benefiting students without worrying about security.

Use the PUnicorn School System Data Survey project tool to evaluate your data ecosystem. The brief survey is designed to help the education sector better understand the K-12 school system's current capabilities to leverage educational data. Review your results with free personalized resources and technical support from the Project Unicorn team.