Illuminations and Insights

Enable Data Union (EDU) is now compatible with Databricks. EDU was built on the principle that shared data infrastructure for public education should be open, standards-based, and never locked to a single vendor. When the Tennessee Department of Education told us their environment ran on Microsoft and Databricks — and switching wasn't an option — we saw an opportunity to prove that open, vendor-neutral infrastructure was possible. Thanks to a close collaboration with Tennessee's team, including direct code contributions, EDU now runs on Databricks. One state's contribution becomes a starting point for every agency that comes after them. Technical Lead Manager Rob Little shares the full story in this blog.

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.

Every summer, Education Analytics (EA) is fortunate to welcome a new cohort of interns to provide additional support and learn alongside our teams. Our organization benefits significantly from the diverse range of perspectives and insights that interns bring to EA, and we wanted to highlight the 2025 internship cohort and their accomplishments. In this blog, we invited them to share their thoughts about their internship experience at EA, what they've learned throughout their internship, and what advice they would give to future EA interns.

Vice President of Implementation & Services Silvia Brunet-Jones has more than 25 years of experience in educational technology and data systems, with career-spanning roles as a software engineer, solutions architect, researcher, and executive leader. Her work has focused on designing scalable data infrastructures, advancing interoperability through Ed-Fi, and driving strategic implementation across state agencies, school districts, and nonprofit organizations. In this blog, Silvia outlines five essential elements that create the successful implementation of educational technology within school districts and broader education systems.

Every year the Ed-Fi Alliance hosts its Technical Congress to bring together members from across the EdTech community, including data scientists, chief architects, IT application developers, software engineers, educational technology developers, and more. The goal of the Ed-Fi Alliance’s Tech Congress is to host a discussion-based forum with the community to help the Ed-Fi Data Standard and technology suite grow more usable, practical, and sophisticated to reach our shared goal of making a positive impact to assist student and classroom outcomes. Staff from across Education Analytics (EA) attended the two-day event and connected with school districts, EdTech leaders, and current and potential partner organizations. In this blog, EA staff share their key takeaways from this year's Ed-Fi Tech Congress.

Get to know Principal Researcher Michael Christian in the latest installment of our Day in the Life blog series. In this blog, Mike discusses his role and responsibilities on the Research team, his contributions to various growth projects at EA, and the skills he utilizes in his everyday work.