TSDS Upgrade Project   

What is the TSDS Upgrade Project?

The TSDS Upgrade Project is a multi-year initiative to upgrade the Operational Data Store (ODS) and Texas Education Data Standards (TEDS) to a current version of Ed-Fi.

The original TEDS and the associated data collections were built upon the initial version of the national-level Ed-Fi data standard. Those data standards are now more than two major versions behind the most recent Ed-Fi version, so TEA is performing a major system upgrade to be compatible with the latest standards and to make future updates easier.

This upgrade includes:

• transactional loading via an Application Programming Interface (API) 
• changes to the data standards (see the TSDS Upgrade Project version of TEDS)
• new individual ODSs to house Ed-Fi- and TEA-compliant data.
• a new Data Management Center (DMC) application to manage local education agency (LEA) data in the individual ODSs

The TSDS Upgrade Project will benefit LEAs, Education Service Centers (ESCs), educators, students, and stakeholders by:

• automating data loading and eliminating bulk load processes
• improving performance
• providing more robust validations earlier in the data loading process
• aligning to vendor products that utilize Ed-Fi

Implementation Timeline

TEA is using a staged approach for system deployment. TEA is offering both a pilot program and a parallel submission to ensure vendor and LEA readiness:

Pilot Program: September 2021 – August 2023

• Optional: TSDS vendors can participate in pilot program to develop and test their product solutions.
• Optional: LEAs can partner with their vendors to conduct end-to-end testing in preparation for parallel submission.

Parallel Submission: August 2023 – August 2024

• Required: All TSDS vendors test their product solutions.
• Optional: LEAs will submit both API transactions and XML submissions and compare results to ensure vendor readiness.

Go-Live: 2024 – 2025 School Year

• Required: All LEAs will submit their TSDS official data through API transactions.
• XML submissions no longer accepted for TSDS.

TSDS Upgrade Rollout

Data Flow

What Is Changing?

Once the TSDS Upgrade Project has been implemented, systems used by LEAs such as student information, assessment, human resource, and/or finance systems submit reporting data to TSDS via transactional, near-real-time, automated loads using an API based on the most current TEDS version.

For example, when a user updates TSDS data in their local student information system, that change will be automatically mirrored on the LEA’s Individual ODS, (IODS). LEAs will no longer have to extract and load their data into TSDS for state reporting. 

In addition, users will be able to run data validations earlier in the process through the Data Management Center application.

What Is Staying the Same?

LEAs will continue to promote, validate, and verify their TSDS data submissions in the same way they do currently. Those processes, applications, and reports are not expected to be significantly impacted by the TEDS  changes. Additionally, LEAs will continue to use the following existing systems and process: 

• TSDS Web-Enabled Data Standards (TWEDS) (specifications and guidance)
• TEA login (TEAL) (access and authentication)
• Unique ID (management and assignment of student and staff IDs)
• Existing PEIMS and TSDS Core applications (data promotion)
• Existing TSDS validation process (data quality verification)
• Existing TSDS reports (data verification)

Components Diagram

Get Involved
If you have any questions please contact TSDSDeployment@tea.texas.gov.