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. During the conference, Ed-Fi Summit attendees learn fresh ideas from the field, join interactive sessions, and connect with folks who are tackling education’s toughest challenges.
Several EA staff attended Ed-Fi Summit 2025 and left the conference energized by the dedication, expertise, and passion of people within the Ed-Fi community that they learned from, presented to, and chatted with at Ed-Fi Summit. Here are some of their key reflections after attending, presenting, and collaborating at Ed-Fi Summit 2025:
I’m always eager to hear honest stories from across the community about both the challenges and the wins people encounter on their Ed-Fi journey. Open sharing helps us all grow faster and avoid solving the same problems over and over again.
One key theme that will stick with me from Ed-Fi Summit is how vulnerability is essential to collaboration, and therefore, essential to the success of a shared infrastructure like Ed-Fi. Everyone seemed to have a story about needing to admit when they didn't know something or needing to recognize when to restart their work from scratch. While uncomfortable, this vulnerability accelerated their ability to bring Ed-Fi data to their communities.
Being relatively new to the world of Ed-Fi, I am so grateful for the opportunity to attend the Ed-Fi Summit this year and learn more about the broader eco-system that EA is a part of. It was so exciting to see all of the work being done within the Ed-Fi community, not only to push their work forward, but also the field of education as a whole. It is clear that this community brings incredible people together who are all passionate about improving student outcomes.
The Ed-Fi Summit highlighted the breadth of our education data ecosystem — education agencies, data managers, researchers, and vendors — and showed the power of collaboration to address our shared challenges. I especially valued the care that our field places on governance, implementation, and evaluation of new AI tools, with a consistent focus on student learning outcomes and data privacy. It was a joy and privilege to attend Ed-Fi Summit.
The Ed-Fi Summit offers an encouraging view into the impact of our work. This year, we heard from several districts and states who emphasized that our efforts to build sustainable data infrastructure are making a real difference on the ground.
Throughout the years, Ed-Fi Summit has maintained a strong focus on collaboration and innovation, always centered on improving outcomes for students. This year’s gathering showed how far that focus has taken the community — from early conversations about technology, to celebrating the enablement of educator- and leader-focused tools, and now towards expanding impact in areas such as special education and workforce development.
During Ed-Fi Summit 2025, two of our key collaborators and Ed-Tech Collaboratory Board members, Daniel Ralyea and Vijay Gollapudi, were recognized for their roles as changemakers with the education field during the 2025 Ed-Fi Alliance Community Awards. Daniel Ralyea, Chief Information Officer at the South Carolina Department of Education, received the "Ambassador of the Year" Award. Vijay Gollapudi, Chief Information Officer at the Tennessee Department of Education, received the "Rookie of the Year" Award.
