CEDS

Common Education Data Standards

CEDS is an open-source P-20W education data standard, vocabulary, model set, tooling ecosystem, and community for improving how education data is understood across sectors.

Open CEDS GitBookView GitHub assets

Overview

CEDS streamlines education data understanding

CEDS is an education data management initiative whose purpose is to streamline the understanding of data within and across P-20W institutions and sectors.

The initiative includes a common vocabulary, data models that reflect that vocabulary, tools to help education stakeholders understand and use education data, metadata from other education data initiatives, and a community of stakeholders who discuss the uses of CEDS and development of the standard.

CEDS can be used by early learning providers, schools, postsecondary institutions, Local Education Agencies, State Education Agencies, and postsecondary coordinating or governing boards.

Why Use CEDS?

What CEDS makes possible

CEDS gives education data teams a shared vocabulary and technical foundation for understanding, mapping, and exchanging data across systems.

Open-source standard

CEDS is open-source, meaning the community drives the standard and helps build out the technology stack associated with it.

Free to use

The data standard and the CEDS technology stack are free resources. The standard is available through the CEDS GitBook and the technology stack is available through GitHub.

Shared meaning across systems

CEDS goes beyond local column names to provide valid, certifiable definitions. Local fields such as STUDENT_FIRST and FIRSTNAME can find each other through CEDS mapping.

Data Models

Data models

CEDS is expressed through multiple models so implementers can understand the standard, describe relationships, store operational data, and support longitudinal reporting.

  1. Domain Entity Schema

    Primarily used for easy understanding of the standard.

  2. Ontology

    Primarily used to demonstrate the relationship between elements in the standard.

  3. Integrated Data Store

    Primarily used for transactional storage of data based on the standard.

  4. Data Warehouse

    Primarily used for longitudinal storage and efficient reporting.

Webinars and Resources

Webinars and resources

Start with the GitBook, then use the webinar archive, data model guide, and resource library to go deeper into implementation details.

Overview

CEDS GitBook

Read the overview content and documentation for the current CEDS standard.

Open GitBook

Guide

Data models

Explore the CEDS model descriptions and links to additional model-specific information.

Open data models

Learning

Webinars

Review webinars that explain how to use CEDS and the CEDS tools. Some older content may need updating as funding becomes available.

Open webinars

Library

Resources

Find CEDS reports, case studies, toolkits, research papers, and other materials for standards and community development.

Open resources

Open Source Community

CEDS is governed by its community

The CEDS Community includes anyone interested in education data standards, including developers, program staff, federal, state, and local education staff, and researchers.

The standard is expanded and modified based on the needs and input of the Community. CEDS manages those needs and inputs through the Open Source Community on GitHub.

With the cancellation of support contracts, CEDS change requests and enhancements are not supported as they were. As funding and future plans are solidified, updates will be shared with the community. Data Standards United has submitted a proposal to house that work, and the Open Source Community has started a CEDS Sustainability Project staffed by State Education Agency leaders.

CEDS Collaborative Exchange

A collaborative home for open-source CEDS resources

The CEDS Collaborative Exchange supports projects that require or benefit from collaboration with other projects. It gives contributors who build open-source resources using the CEDS data models a place to distribute and maintain those resources collaboratively.

DSU will coordinate between the Collaborative Exchange and the DSU Open Projects site, which also includes non-CEDS projects.

CEDS on GitHub

Explore CEDS on GitHub

Find the public CEDS repositories for elements, ontology, the Integrated Data Store, the Data Warehouse, Parquet models, and collaborative exchange resources.

View CEDS on GitHub