The Michael & Susan Dell Foundation have announced their Ed-Fi initiative that supports the goal of ensuring that all children have access to quality education in public schools, one of the foundation’s key objectives. Designed to function as a national data standard, Ed-Fi was developed based on input from vendors as well as state and local education agencies. . The Ed-Fi standard is vendor-neutral and does not require any specific vendor’s hardware, software or protocols. Developed for the K-12 sector, Ed-Fi is an open, XML-based data standard that integrates information from a broad range of existing sources so it can be sifted, analyzed and put to use every day.