CONTENTS

Introduction 2
1.0 The CEDS Conceptual Model 3
Key Concepts (super classes) 4
Relationship Concepts 5
1.1 Example Subclasses 6
Organization 6
Resource 7
Event 7
2.0 Applying the Model (Informative) 8
2.1. Enrollment and Rostering 8
2.2. Identity, Access, and Control 11
2.3. Competencies, Credentials, and Employment 13

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INTRODUCTION
The Common Education Data Standards (CEDS) initiative contains a broad scope of data element
definitions spanning much of the P-20W (early learning through postsecondary and workforce) spectrum
and provides context for understanding the standards’ interrelationships and practical utility. CEDS
focuses on data elements and modeling across early learning, K-12, postsecondary, career and technical
education (CTE), adult education, and workforce sectors, and it has data domains for Assessments,
Competencies, Credentials, Learning Resources, Authentication and Authorization, Facilities, and
Implementation Variables.

CEDS includes data definitions at multiple levels:

● Domains organize data into the areas of Early Learning, K-12, Postsecondary, Career and
Technical, Adult Education, Workforce, Assessments, Credentials, Competencies, Learning
Resources, Facilities, Implementation Variables, and Authentication and Authorization.
● Entities represent a class of a Person, Organization, Role, Event, Resource, or Relationship.
● Elements are attributes of entities.
● Option Sets define acceptable values for elements.
● Related Uses of the Elements include references to the CEDS Connect Tool, which allows
stakeholders across P-20W to define and share metrics and indicators such as graduation rates,
program enrollment, employment outcomes, and academic outcomes that use CEDS-defined
data elements.

CEDS includes data models that organize the common definitions to serve different purposes:

● Conceptual Model. The Conceptual Model is a canonical organization of entities based on a

foundation of Person, Organization, Resource, and Relationship.
● Domain Entity Schema (DES). The DES is used as a web interface on the CEDS website and
within the CEDS tools, Align and Connect, to organize and present data element definitions
organized by domain.
● Normalized Data Schema (NDS)/Integration Data Store (IDS). A P-20W logical NDS and physical
IDS relational data model are based on super classes/categories in the Conceptual Model.
● Data Warehouse Reporting Data Store (DW RDS). The P-20W DW RDS is a star-schema data
model designed initially to support state reporting needs.

The latest version of the standards and related resources can be found at the CEDS website,
http://ceds.ed.gov.

This document focuses on the Conceptual Model and represents a consensus of key stakeholders about
the key entities and relationships that underlie CEDS.

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1.0 THE CEDS CONCEPTUAL MODEL
This overview of the CEDS Conceptual Model contains general information that can be applied broadly
across the four domains of P-20W education and training:

1. Early Childhood
2. K-12
3. Higher Education
4. Workforce (including military)

The CEDS Conceptual Data Model is built on four key concepts: Person, Organization, Resource, and
Relationship. These key concepts are modeled as CEDS Entity super classes. They also serve as broad
categories for understanding and organizing P-20W longitudinal data. The model supports longitudinal
data, recognizing that data and relationships change over time:

● People have roles in Organizations for specific periods of time.

● The status of a Person, Organization, Resource, or Relationship may be different at different
points in time.
● Events involving one or more Persons, Organizations, Resources, or Relationships occur at a
point in time and over periods of time.

Figure 1. A diagram showing connections among the key concepts of the CEDS Conceptual Model

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Key Concepts (super classes)
Concept Definition Clarification/Examples

Person A human being, alive or deceased, as A person may have more than one
recognized by each jurisdiction’s legal Role (See Role).
definitions.

Organization An organized group of one or more Examples:

people with a particular purpose. ● Course Section
● K-12 School
● Postsecondary Institution
● Local Education Agency
● State Education Agency
● Program
● Employer
● Military Branch, Division, Squad,
etc.
● Professional Association

Resource Anything could be a resource, Broadly applicable to creative works

depending on its context defined in and information resources.
metadata. Examples:
● Learning Resource
● Competency Definition
● Credential Definition
● Assessment Item (Definition)

Relationship People, Organizations, and Resources Example association types: Enrolled

can all have standard association In, Is Child Of, Precedes, Is Part Of, Is
types within and across concepts. Equivalent To, Is Related To, Awards,
Is Awarded, Created By.
Example uses:
● Relationship of a Person to an
Organization
● Relationship of a Person to a
Resource
● Relationship of an Organization
to a Resource
● Relationship between a Resource
and a Resource (e.g., alignment
between a Learning Resource and
Competency Definition)

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Relationship Concepts
The CEDS Conceptual Data Model includes additional concepts to support relationships for all aspects of
P20-W education and training. Key types include Role and Event relationships.

Figure 2. A version of the conceptual model showing relationship types, Role and Event.

Concept Definition Clarification/Examples

Role People have roles in Organizations Examples:

for specific periods of time. ● K-12 Student
● Postsecondary Student
● Adult Education Student
● Parent/Guardian
● Employee
● Educator
● Credential Issuer

Event People and Organizations have Event data may reflect changes in
events with each other and with Relationships over time.
Resources on or over specific Examples:
periods of time. ● Enrollment Event
● Employment Event
● Credential Award/Assertion
Event records may include actions,
evidence, result/grade, verification,
endorsement start date, end date,
credits earned, term, license number,
status, role, etc.

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In addition, relationships between a Person and a Resource could signify, for example, that the person
has been awarded a credential, mastered a competency, authored a resource, or owns a resource.
Relationships between an Organization and a Resource could represent ownership, authorship,
stewardship, etc.

1.1 EXAMPLE SUBCLASSES

CEDS Entities may be further defined as types of one of the four key concepts (super classes). For
example, a “Postsecondary Institution” is a type of “Organization” (an organized group of one or more
people with a particular purpose.) As a special type of Organization, the Postsecondary Institution has all
of the attributes of the “Organization” along with additional postsecondary-specific attributes.

(This section is illustrative. Please see the data standard for complete list of CEDS entities.)

Organization
Subtypes of Organization:

● Employer
● K12 School
● Local Education Agency (LEA)
● Intermediate Educational Unit (IEU)
● State Education Agency (SEA)
● Recruiter
● Employee Benefit Carrier
● Employee Benefit Contributor
● Professional Membership Organization
● Education Institution
● Staff Development Provider
● Facility
● Course
● Course Section
● Program
● Postsecondary Institution
● Adult Education Provider
● Service Provider
● Affiliated Institution
● Governing Board
● Credentialing Organization
● Accrediting Organization
● Education Organization Network
● IDEA Part C Lead Agency

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 ● Charter School Management Organization
● Charter School Authorizing Organization
● Emergency Response Agency

Resource
Resource is a broad category for CEDS Entities that includes information assets or metadata objects
other than people and organizations. Resource entities defined in this document include:

• Competency Definition. A resource that includes a statement that describes a capability or

behavior that a person may learn or be able to do within a given situation and environment, and
may include definitions of the potential levels of mastery and metadata related to that
statement.
• Credential Definition. A resource that defines a competency or qualification, achievement,
personal or organizational quality, experience, attribute, or aspect of an identity typically used
to indicate suitability (See: Credential Engine’s ceterms:Credential).
• System. A collection of components organized to accomplish a specific function or set of
functions. (In this context an information system that functions as an Actor in a use case.)
• Learning Resource. The content, materials, or informational resources that support learning.
• Assessment Item. A specific prompt that defines a question or protocol for a measurable
activity that triggers a response from a person used to determine whether the person has
mastered a learning objective.

Event
Event is a broad category for CEDS Entities that includes information that captures changes in
Relationships or properties of other entities over time.

• Competency Assertion. An assertion by an issuer about a person regarding their competency as

of a certain date.
• Credential Award. A record that includes an assertion by an agent/issuer that documents a
person’s or organization’s qualification, achievement, personal or organizational quality,
experience, attribute, or aspect of an identity as of a certain date or date range.

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2.0 APPLYING THE MODEL (INFORMATIVE)
The following section offers examples of applications for the CEDS Conceptual Model using the following
structure:

● Context. Each area focuses on the application of the six key concepts of the model to a
particular context.
● Key Concepts. Any concepts used in the context are defined.
● Use Cases. Sets of use cases are defined first by a scenario. Specific use cases define actors
(people, organizations, and systems) and events.

The following section is intended to illustrate cases in which the standard concepts may be applied.
These use cases are not standards. This document is intended to be a living document that will grow with
additional use cases over time. It is also intended to support coordination across standards. Feedback on
these examples may help inform future development of CEDS and may be updated to reflect new or
changed standards.

2.1. Enrollment and Rostering

2.1.1. Context
Education organizations often have relationships with each other, including a
primary taxonomical relationship that is the source of legal authority and
accountability. Any person can have one or more roles in one or more
organizations for specific periods of time. The relationship between an
organization and a person with a role with a start and end date can be
considered “enrollment.”
2.1.2. Key Concepts
A. Person
B. Organization
C. Role

2.1.3. Use Cases

2.1.3.1. U.S. K-12 Enrollment
Scenario: Each K-12 school (an organization) is part of one local
education agency (LEA) (an organization). Each LEA is part of one state
education agency (SEA) jurisdiction (an organization). A person may be
enrolled with the role of “K-12 Student.” For purposes of U.S.
Department of Education official EDFacts reporting, the relationship
between K-12 organizations and a person enrolled as a K-12 Student can
be accounted for in different ways:

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 ● Accountability. The organization is responsible for student
learning under federal Elementary and Secondary Education Act
and state accountability plans.
● Attendance. The organization operates the physical or virtual
site in which delivery of educational services take place.
● Funding. The organization is responsible for funding related to a
student’s enrollment.
● Graduation. The organization is responsible for issuing or
awarding diplomas (e.g., for graduation rate reporting).
● Individualized Education Program (IEP). The organization is
responsible for the enrolled student’s IEP, a written
instructional plan for students with disabilities designated as
special education students under the Individuals with
Disabilities Education Act (IDEA Part B).
● Transportation. The organization is responsible for transporting
the student to the physical location of the school or facility in
which educational services are delivered.

In this case, the person has a role (K-12 Student) and the organization
has one or more specific responsibilities as a result of that relationship.
The same person may hold roles in multiple organizations based on a
single enrollment. If one of the organizations involved is a
postsecondary institution, the person may be dual-enrolled as a K-12
Student and a Postsecondary Student.

Actor Action

A Person Enrolled in a school that is part of a school

district (LEA)

B Organization Enrolls a person and takes on one or more

responsibilities

2.1.3.2. Educator Working in One or More Colleges

Scenario: A professor (a person with the role of Postsecondary Staff) in
a community college system (an organization with the type
Postsecondary Institution) may work in one or more colleges. This case
is of a person having the same role in multiple organizations. There is a
need to uniquely identify the person independent of any one college.

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 Professors and educators can be identified in the following ways:

● Social Security number (as a Staff Person). Although Social

Security numbers are universal identifiers (IDs) in the United
States, they usually cannot be shared as a public identifier.
● Local enterprise resource planning or learning management
system ID. This ID is common but only applies to a particular
piece of software and is bounded by the single college that is
hosting or using the software. If the software changes, the ID
will change.
● Organization ID. This is the college’s ID, usually managed by its
human resources (HR) system. This ID also is confined by the
organizational boundaries supported by the HR system. If the
educator leaves the organization and returns, they might be
given a different ID.
● State ID. The use of a state ID is rare but would be ideal for
educators working in multiple colleges. Its usefulness as an
identifier would start to break down if the educator worked
across state borders.

Actor Action

A Person Employed by one or more colleges with the role

of professor/educator using a consistent digital
identifier

B Organization Employs professors/educators

(community
colleges)

C Organization Applies an identifier to the person being

(state, region, employed by the community colleges
or district)

2.1.3.3. Course-Section Rostering

Scenario: A person is enrolled in an instance of a course for a given
period of time. The Course Section (a.k.a. Section) provides the
organizational context for delivery of course content to a roster of
students by one or more instructors, or via a different medium.

The Course Section is an organization in the CEDS Conceptual Model. It

represents an instance of a Course. The Course (definition) falls within
the resource category of the CEDS Conceptual Model. It defines “the
sequence of one or more educational events and/or creative works

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 which aims to build knowledge, competence, or ability of learners.” The
Course definition may link to other kinds of resource data such as
competency definitions, learning resources, assessment forms, and
credential definitions.

Actor Action

A Person Enrolled as a student in a Course Section

B Person Assigned as an instructor or other position

related to Course Section

C Organization Course Section taught by one or more

instructors with a roster of one or more
students

2.2. Identity, Access, and Control

[This area is new and should be considered in draft form only and offered as an example with a
request for feedback before final publication.]

Context
People and things have real-world identities and one or more digital identities.
When the digital identity is tightly aligned with the real-world identity, it can be
called a “digital twin.” When the digital identity is loosely or not at all connected
to a real-world identity, it can be called an “alias” or, with people, a “persona.”
Digital identities have unique information within a context, called identifiers.
People have the rights to secure personally identifiable information (PII), access
information about themselves, and control who else has access to education
records about themselves. These rights may vary based on role and jurisdiction.

2.2.1. Key Concepts

A. Person
B. Organization
C. Role
D. Identity: The unique fact of being who or what a person or thing is.
E. Digital identity: A unique fact of being who or what a person is in the
digital world. Digital identity may be connected to a real-world Identity
(digital twin) or not (alias/persona).
F. Digital identifier: Unique information used to identify people,
organizations, or things within a context. Examples include Social
Security number, email address, State Assigned Student Identifier
(SASID), and Local Assigned Student Identifier (LASID). A digital identity
can have more than one digital identifier.

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 G. PII: Personally Identifiable Information is any item, collection, or
grouping of information about an individual that is maintained by an
organization, including identifying information, education, financial
transactions, medical history, Social Security number, and criminal or
employment history. (See: NIST Special Publication 800-122)
H. Personal information: PII, demographics, and linked event information.
Some information becomes personal in context, such as small group size
aggregates.
I. Learner information: Information about a learner.
J. Privacy rights: Rights of a person to control access to and use of their
personal information.
K. Authentication: Actions and mechanisms that can authenticate the
identity of a person, including information about an authentication
provider, the login identifier used to authenticate a person’s identity,
and other information related to authentication of a person’s identity.
L. Authorization: The authority to grant access to data or services to
authorized entities.
M. Access control: The protocols in a system that limit access to data or
services to authorized entities. Access controls also govern the
information about a data system or application that an authenticated
person or system may access.
N. Self-sovereign identity: An identity system architecture based on the
core principle that identity owners have the right to permanently
control one or more identifiers together with the use of the associated
identity data.
O. Information security: Systems of controls designed to enforce privacy
access controls and operational continuity.
P. Data stewardship/processor: Responsibility for properly securing
privacy access controls(https://www.dama.org/content/body-
knowledge).
Q. Trust: A person’s or system’s ability to rely on something from another.
Fiduciary trust can be delegated from one entity to another.

Additional sources for concept definitions include the Sovrin Foundation Glossary and the W3C
Verifiable Credentials Recommendation.

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 2.2.2. Use Cases
2.2.2.1. Someone Requesting Access to Student Data
Scenario: A person enrolled with the role of student in an organization
has a digital identity in the organization’s systems, which use a unique
identifier to link personal information. As the steward of those data, the
organization is responsible for ensuring security, including controlled
access to agents of the organization with legitimate educational
purposes and/or permission from the person or their guardian to access
the data.

Actor Action

A Person Data steward responsible for granting access or

not to the student’s data

B Person Student about whom data are being requested

C Person The student’s guardian who is responsible for

making decisions about that student’s data

D Person The requestor: The person requesting the data

E Organization Educational organization(s) that has enrolled

and registered the student

2.3. Competencies, Credentials, and Employment

2.3.1. Context
Competencies and credentials are closely related terms that have evolved broad
and overlapping common uses and should be clearly delineated when modeling.
Both competencies and credentials are described by resource data—including a
definition that applies to any instance of the competency or credential—and
event data pertaining to a specific instance of a competency or credential being
issued to a learner.

Concept Resource Data Event Data

Competency Competency Definition Competency Assertion

Credential Credential Definition Credential Award

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 2.3.2. Key Concepts
A. Person
B. Organization
C. Role
D. Competency Definition
E. Competency Assertion
F. Credential Definition
G. Credential Award
H. System

2.3.3. Use Cases

2.3.3.1. Competency-Based Achievement
Scenario: A person enrolled with the role of Instructor in a Course
Section (organization) asserts that a person enrolled with the role of
Student in that organization has achieved a specific competency
defined by that organization as a learning target. This transaction
includes an event (the Competency Assertion) and a resource (the
Competency Definition).

A person with the role of an employee of an organization participates in

a performance assessment within a simulated environment. The
simulator collects data about the person’s actions on the job task in
response to the simulation. A software algorithm analyzes the data as
evidence and records an assertion (on behalf of the organization) that
the person has achieved a competency defined for the job within a
professional competency framework.

Actor Action

A Person Makes a Competency Assertion about a learner

based on a Competency Definition applicable to
the Course

B Organization Issues a micro-credential with linked data for a

Competency Definition and evidence supporting
the assertion

[The following use case is in draft form only and offered as one example of a talent marketplace
use scenario with a request for feedback before final publication. The intent is to update this
example based on use cases being developed by T3 Innovation Network pilot projects.

2.3.3.2. Talent Marketplace

Scenario: An organization posts a machine-readable, skill-based, job
posting (resource). A person in the role of Applicant shares a verifiable
skill record (resource) that matches competency definitions (resource)
with linked data in the job posting. The following processes are
supported:

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 ● Signal, search, and discover. This process includes the ability to
identify the opportunities meeting user requirements. Examples
include finding relevant jobs and education, training and
credentialing opportunities, and potential job applicants.
● Apply, screen, and verify. This process includes the ability to
manage the application, screening, and verification process for
employment, military, and education training and credentialing
opportunities.
● Manage participation, completion, and transition. This process
includes the ability to manage participation and completion of
employment, military, and education training and credentialing
opportunities, including monitoring, assessing, and
documenting performance and updating learner records.
● Conduct talent analytics. This process includes the ability to
analyze large numbers of de-identified learner/worker records
to improve and support other applications and get better
results.

Actor Action

A Organization Posts job descriptions with explicit, linked data

competencies that can be matched with shared
learner records

B Person Shares a verifiable skill record that matches

competency descriptions with linked data in the
job posting

C System Matches job descriptions and shared skills

profiles to support screening and verification

D System Allows for analyzing de-identified

learner/worker records to improve and support
other applications and get better results

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