Wyoming Improves the Quality of Education by Implementing
the Nation’s Most Advanced Education Data System
Sharing student data statewide saves time and money
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AUSTIN, TEX. (August 6, 2005) - The Wyoming Department of Education,
along with ESP Solutions Group, is leading the advancement of data-driven
decision making by implementing the country’s most sophisticated education data
system. The new system, aptly named the Wyoming Integrated Statewide Education
Data System (WISE), is the first full statewide deployment of software based on
technologies compliant with the Schools Interoperability Framework (SIF), a set
of national standards developed for educational software interoperability. SIF
enables applications to securely interact and share data regardless of the
hosting platform.
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To accomplish this, Wyoming selected a premier team of education data system
providers, led by ESP Solutions Group, for the nearly $4 million contract,
spanning five years. ESP Solutions Group, along with its partners Edustructures
and eScholar, has successfully implemented large-scale systems for several other
state education agencies.
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The project includes a next-generation state reporting system from ESP,
Uniq-ID™, eSscholar’s SIF-based unique identifier system, Edustructure’s Zone
Integration Servers, and the installation and configuration of up to 10 SIF
agents (connection points) for every district. Wyoming’s system is unique in
that it will not only allow schools to share information across districts via
SIF, but it will also use SIF to transfer information from district-to-state.
WISE illustrates a major advancement in the adoption of SIF, as well as a major
advancement in statewide education data systems.
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“The Wyoming Department of Education is proof that vision and sound leadership
are more critical ingredients for success than state size or amount of
resources,” said Glynn Ligon, president of ESP Solutions Group, known as a
leading K-12 education data systems integrator. “State education agencies of
every size look to Wyoming for leadership with new technologies and systems.”
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“Wyoming understands that establishing a student identifier and locator system
is an essential building block for using data to help children get a better
education,” explained Shawn Bay, CEO of eScholar, known as a leader in unique
student identification and data warehousing for K-12 education. “Implementing
this system will reduce the state’s reporting burden, enabling Wyoming educators
to spend more time using reporting results to make decisions that support
increasing student achievement.”
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Once the implementation is complete, everyone from the classroom to the Capitol
will have more timely and higher quality data for decision making. In the
process, cost savings from the avoidance of re-keying data into multiple
software applications and reports will return the investment made by the Wyoming
Department of Education many-fold.
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Steve Curtis, chief operating officer of Edustructures and an expert in SIF
software products and services, added: “The entire premise behind the Schools
Interoperability Framework is to save schools time and money. By implementing
SIF statewide, WISE will save time and money, and school administrators and
teachers will have better quality data right away—which is what data-driven
decision making is all about.”
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About ESP Solutions Group
| ESP Solutions Group provides its education agency clients with extraordinary
insight into K-12 data systems and psychometrics. Its team is comprised of
industry experts who pioneered the concept of “data-driven decision-making” in
the 1970s and who now help optimize the management of data by state and local
education agencies. ESP personnel have advised all 52 state education agencies
as well as the U.S. Department of Elementary and Secondary Education on the
practice of K-12 school data management. The firm’s management team is regarded
as leading experts in understanding the data and technology implications of NCLB
(the No Child Left Behind Act), PBDMI (Performance Based Data Management
Initiative), EDEN (Education Data Exchange Network), and SIF (Schools
Interoperability Framework).
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About eScholar
| Based in White Plains, New York, eScholar is the leading provider of data
warehouse and student identifier systems, delivering a common platform of
integrated data that supports the best possible analytical capabilities. The
company's products are licensed for use by more than 2,400 school districts
across the country as well as by seven state education agencies.
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As the recognized standard in K-12 data warehousing, eScholar has partnerships
with leading product and service vendors, consulting firms and educational
organizations. eScholar has been a leader in the Schools Interoperability
Framework (SIF), chairs SIF’s Data Warehousing Working Group, is a founding SIF
Association Board Member, and has assisted in setting the National Center for
Education Statistics (NCES) standards for school data identification.
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About Edustructures
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Edustructures is the first company completely dedicated to delivering an
independent integration solution built on the SIF standard. As a result, it has
quickly become the recognized leader in SIF integration solutions, making it
possible for disparate applications to reliably and securely exchange data with
one another.
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Founded in 2002 and headquartered in the shadow of the Wasatch mountains just
south of Salt Lake City, Edustructures is a privately held company distributing
SIF-based software solutions. Through its SIFWorks® technology platform,
comprehensive professional services, and business relationships with technology
providers and educators, Edustructures connects the systems that power
education.
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Contacts:
ESP Solutions Group
Mark D. Johnson
(512) 458-8364, ext. 107
mjohnson@espsolutionsgroup.com
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Edustructures LLC
Steve Curtis
(801) 858.0066, ext. 413
news@edustructures.com
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eScholar LLC
Shawn Bay
(914) 989-2909
sbay@escholar.com
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SIF is a trademark of the Schools Interoperability Framework Association
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SIFWorks is a registered trademark of Edustructures LLC in the United States and other countries.
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For more information, please contact:
Edustructures LLC
Sandra Richards, 1.877.790.1261 Extension 438
news@edustructures.com
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