It is truly an exciting and invigorating time to be an active part of the A4L Community. There is so much positive energy and momentum driving numerous productive projects forward, fueled by the dedication of our members. This was undeniably evident at our recent 2026 SDPC & Unity Convening in the beautiful city of Long Beach, just a couple of weeks ago.
The new school year is well underway, and we want to recognize the incredible work our employees, volunteers, members, partners, and Alliances are doing to support students and protect their privacy. As classrooms come alive with learning, the Access 4 Learning (A4L) Community remains committed to providing the resources, collaboration, and community you need to navigate this important work…
I can still remember my first A4L conference in 2016. Walking into the room, filled with people whose names I recognized from emails and phone conversations, the “old guard” of SIF. I had so much respect for that group that had founded not just a standard but a movement, a cause worth fighting for, to simplify the way education data was shared across the rapidly increasing number of software systems that schools, districts, and states were using to manage the operational and instructional business of education. And I also saw opportunities for change and modernization, as we looked to move forward and continue to ensure that our cause was relevant to the needs of our stakeholders. I found a like-minded group within the organization, and together we created exciting new possibilities at A4L.
The Access 4 Learning (A4L) Community is proud to announce the release of the collaboratively developed global SIF Infrastructure Specification 3.7 (global) which is unique in the technical standards world in that it supports data movement via greater interoperability by standardizing ‘data and privacy on the wire’.
It has been a very exciting and fulfilling first month as full time Executive Director. There is so much positive energy and engaged members it is difficult not to get excited!
There are great new developments both in the SDPC and with SIF. In SDPC work has begun on developing the Registry 2.0! This is a very large project and many of you will be engaged throughout the process. In the end we will be delivering a much more robust and user friendly Resource Registry. Much more to come on this in the near future.
Following the success of the May release, The A4L Community Australian Data Standards Working Group is proud to announce the launch of the SIF Data Model Specification (Australia) 3.6.1. This release builds on the foundation laid in May, where critical steps were taken to affirm individuals’ identities within the education technology landscape. Now, with version 3.6.1, the Specification continues its commitment to advancing standards and interoperability, with a particular focus on the enhancement of the OpenAPI presentation.
The Access 4 Learning (A4L) Community in North America is proud to announce the release of the global SIF Infrastructure Specification 3.6 enhancing quality of service and ease of use for the marketplace.
The National Schools Interoperability Program (NSIP) on behalf of the Australian A4L Community is proud to publish the SIF Data Model Specification (Australia) 3.5 to the marketplace. This represents the first major release of the Australian SIF Data Model Specification since October 2016.
The Access 4 Learning® (A4L) Community is proud to announce the latest release of the Unity Specification which has enhanced and optimized many features including Grade Passback, standards-based grading, and EDFacts reporting.
The Access 4 Learning (A4L) Community is proud to announce the release of the collaboratively developed global SIF Infrastructure Specification 3.5 which is unique in the technical standards world in that it supports data movement via greater interoperability by standardizing ‘data and privacy on the wire’.
