Illuminations and Insights

K-12 has lived through many “next big things” in edtech. Some have delivered real value, especially in large-scale data collection and adaptive learning. But across states and districts, student outcome progress and gaps remain stubborn, and leaders are rightly skeptical that a new wave of AI tools alone will change that. This is not simply a failure of technology. It reflects a basic fact: no algorithm can solve challenges rooted in resource inequities or social conditions. What AI can do is help educators, policymakers, and researchers reason more clearly with the information they already have. That only works if the data are accurate, standardized, and connected, and if the people closest to students remain in charge of how those data are used. In this blog, Vice President of Data Science Dan Jarratt discusses how, in order to ensure that AI systems that are effective, auditable, and equitable for students, we must start with something more basic: open, interoperable, standardized data infrastructure that public agencies can govern and sustain.

Every fall, the Ed-Fi Alliance hosts its annual Ed-Fi Summit conference to bring together state and local education leaders, EdTech providers, educators, and technical experts who are turning data into real solutions for students. Several EA staff attended Ed-Fi Summit 2025 and left the conference energized by the dedication, expertise, and passions of people within the Ed-Fi community that they learned from, presented to, and chatted with at Ed-Fi Summit. In this blog, EA staff share some of their key reflections after attending, presenting, and collaborating at Ed-Fi Summit 2025.