The Common Data Standards (CDS) Initiative is a national, collaborative effort to develop voluntary, common data standards  for  a  key  subset  of  K‐12  (e.g.,  demographics,  program  participation,  course  information)  and  K12‐to‐postsecondary education transition variables. Participants in the Initiative include representatives from states, districts,  higher education organizations, and key non‐profit organizations. The CDS Initiative's goal is to identify a list of key K‐12 and K12‐to‐postsecondary transition variables (expansion into PreK and the workforce will be considered in the future) and agree upon standard definitions, code sets, business rules, and technical specifications for those variables. This will increase data interoperability, portability, and comparability across states, districts, and higher education organizations.  

  

The Education Science Reform Act of 2002 gave the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) the authority to determine voluntary standards and guidelines to assist state educational agencies in developing statewide longitudinal data systems (SLDSs). To this end, NCES is working with key stakeholders to develop standards for a core set of data elements  to ensure  that  states  create  P‐20  data  systems  that  meet  the  goals of  the American  Recovery  and Reinvestment Act of 2009. Standard data definitions will help ensure that data shared across institutions are consistent and comparable. This, in turn, will make it easier to transfer student data from one school or level of education to another, and permit states to learn how students fare as they move across institutions, state lines, and school levels.