9:30 AM  - 11:30 AM

Sample Data Generator Application and Beta Program Kickoff

Las Palmas B

The Alliance is releasing a beta of the Sample Data Generator (SDG) tool. Those wishing to participate in the beta program must attend this overview and hands-on training session with the SDG tool.


These broad session notes attempt to capture the spirit of the discussion and should not be interpreted as a transcript. Although Ed-Fi Alliance staff were involved in capturing these observations, the notes below should not be construed as official, complete, or 100% accurate.

Presentation by Dean Goodman

What is the SDG?

  • Overview

    • Produces Ed-Fi standard 2.0 XML output

    • 3.0 XML soon

    • Randomly generated, realistic-looking

  • SDG is Not

    • 100% realistic (it is generated data....)

    • Infinitely configurable (keeping it simple)

    • Multi-year

    • Fully aligned to dashboard

  • Generators applies business logic to generation of data, i.e. homeless doesn’t have an address

  • Data periods - logical periods of school calendar time

  • Mutators - Model changes in the data (simulate realistic errors that occur in data)

  • Seed data - stable records between runs (testing purposes to ensure the same records exist)

  • Demo and workshop on installing, upgrading and uninstalling.  If no admin rights, a local package is available to drag and drop to workstation.

  • Make sure you backup configuration and sample files before upgrading!

  • A new sample set called “Northridge” will be made available via Ed-Fi Exchange, will enable support for other community sets of interest as they are generated

  • XML Configuration

    • If you don’t want mutators to run, set them to zero

    • Batch size helps limit size of XML files

    • Time configuration - sets calendar year for district

    • District profile - city names and area codes for school

    • School profile - schools for data file generation

      • Question:  can we hook this into our existing database with school names?

      • Answer:  you can use undoc feature of source CSV files to generate XML config

    • Discipline and attendance - setting averages for events

    • Grade-level - define grade levels at schools

    • Student population - define attributes for student population at schools

    • Graduation plans

    • Assessments - setting rules for assessment data, performance levels - available on grade level as well

    • Student demographics - setting the demographics for populations for generated data sets

  • CSV files

    • Used to provide first, last and street name

    • Other data in for Assessment, Descriptors, EducationOrganization, EdOrCalendar, MasterSchedule and Standards

    • There are a few generators for CSV files - EdOrg, Calendar, MasterSchedule

  • Once Bulk JSON is established, it is likely that Sample Data Generator will support bulk JSON as well

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