SIF Program Status

How many districts have onboarded to SIF?

97% of Massachusetts school districts send information via SIF. Of the 13 districts using legacy, there are 7 districts expected to onboard for the start of the 2020 school year. Districts without a vendor certified in all collections should contact Melissa Marino, Sujata Pun, and Danielle Norton, to discuss options for 2019 and beyond.

SIF onboarding can take place at any time during the year. We recommend that all districts make plans to onboard and start to work with the SIF error reports while the Legacy filing option is still available as a backup.

How many districts are certifying using SIF?

The ability to certify data using SIF as the only means of communication has increased significantly in the last two years.

• In October 2017, 288 MA school districts certified all collections (SIMS, SCS, EPIMS) using SIF.
• In October 2018, 386 MA school districts certified all collections (SIMS, SCS, EPIMS) using SIF.
• In EOY 2017 collection, 282 districts certified SSDR using SIF.
• In EOY 2018 collection, 358 districts certified SSDR using SIF.

What are some districts saying?

• Better data quality at the local level
• Newer collections, SSDR and EPIMS are quicker in SIF than legacy

Continuous Improvement

SIF received Capital Funding to make a number of enhancements to improve performance, usability, and the ability of districts to certify data using SIF. Completed improvements included:

• Replacing older hardware and optimizing queries to improve performance
• Increasing quality assurance capabilities through the addition of staff and automation of regression testing
• Redesigned SIF Claiming functionality
• Improvements to Teacher Access to Edwin reports
• SIF Transmission Reports to assist in troubleshooting
• Enhancements to Data Collection applications to assist certification, such as single edits for SIMS, SCS and EPIMS as well as emailed Summary reports
• Continuous performance enhancement of data processing and validation

Over the next year, the Department is focused on upgrading our messaging infrastructure; redesigning the error messages to assist districts and vendors in troubleshooting; working with vendors to ensure that districts are able to certify all collections via SIF; optimizing the data collections processes and reports; and on-boarding the remaining districts.

Last Updated: February 20, 2019