CHAPTER 1
FASTER and the SPEEDE/ExPRESS Interface
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Introduction
The Florida Automated System for Transferring Educational Records (FASTER) has been in place since the 88-89 school year. At first, usage was limited as districts, community colleges and universities modified their local student records systems to interface with FASTER. Only 28,000 transcripts were exchanged during that first year. By 1994, through the hard work of a multitude of dedicated state and local people, Florida boasted one of the most progressive, comprehensive and efficient systems for transferring student records in the nation. In 2001, over 900,000 electronic transcripts were exchanged. At about the same time that Florida's FASTER system was going into production, Florida banded toegether with other states to begin developing a nation-wide student record transfer system which has come to be known as SPEEDE/ExPRESS (Standardization of Postsecondary Education Electronic Data Exchange/Exchange of Permanent Records Electronically for Students and Schools). From: 'A Guide to the Implementation of the SPEEDE/ExPRESS Electronic Transcript' (5/94) |
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The National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) and the Council of Chief State School Officers (CCSSO) led the efforts to make the SPEEDE/ExPRESS format appropriate for Pre K - Grade 12 student records. The Exchange of Student Records Electronically for Students and Schools (ExPRESS) committee consisting of representatives of state and local education agencies in five states worked to make sure that the format included key information for Pre K - Grade 12 student records and that the system would be appropriate for school districts and state education agencies. In February 1992, the SPEEDE/ExPRESS format for the student transcript (Transaction Set 130) was approved by the Accredited Standards Committee (ASC X12) of the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) as a Draft Standard for Trial Use. The other three transaction sets used by the SPEEDE/ExPRESS format, Transaction Set 131, 146, and 147, were approved by ASC X12 of ANSI as Draft Standards for Trial Use in October of 1992. The ASC X12 approves standards for the electronic transmission of standard documents. Approval will also be sought for an international Electronic Data Interchange for Administration Commerce and Transport (EDIFACT) standard when this becomes feasible. Therefore, these standard transaction sets should apply to all Pre K -
Grade 12 and postsecondary educational records that will be transmitted
and/or received by any Pre K - Grade 12 school district or postsecondary
institution participating in the project." |
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In 1992 Florida began
building the software necessary to convert FASTER to SPEEDE/ExPRESS at the
central 'post office' in Tallahassee. A central location for this conversion
software had several advantages:
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Unfortunately, though
the software was in place, there were few external schools capable of SPEEDE/
ExPRESS and, therefore, little incentive for Florida schools to make the
minor adjustments to their local systems that were necessary to support the
conversion interface. The system had very little activity and became a 'back
burner' project. Now, however, there are literally hundreds of schools which have registered as being SPEEDE/ExPRESS capable through the National Student Clearinghouse. The EDI Server registrant list continues to grow at a fairly fast pace. This is partially due to third party student software vendors that began building SPEEDE/ExPRESS into their products and these products are now mature enough for general use. Further incentive comes from the fact that at least one Florida FASTER
postsecondary school, the University of South Florida, has converted their
local student system to one with SPEEDE/ExPRESS capability. Beginning
November 2001 the ONLY way for FASTER schools to send/receive student records
to/from USF is through the FASTER/SPEEDE/ExPRESS interface. A second
postsecondary school, Florida Atlantic University, is well on its way. |
Getting Started
with SPEEDE/ExPRESS
Beginning November 2001, proper use of the FASTER interface to SPEEDE/ExPRESS is required. This document provides detail specifications concerning that interface and is intended for use by technical staff. Readers of this document MUST have a good working knowledge of both formats. Specifications for FASTER formats are available in the FASTER User Manual. Instructions for Building an Automated Student Record System may be obtained at http://nces.ed.gov/pubs2000/building/intro.asp . Additional resources regarding Electronic Data Interchange and SPEEDE/ExPRESS can be found at the SPEEDE Server web site and at the Postsecondary Education Standards Council web site. Schools listed on the EDI Server registrant list as in production using encryption are automatically added to the FASTER participants list. Local FASTER systems should use program SRTS31 on a regular basis to get a current list of SPEEDE/ExPRESS trading partners. You should be aware that some SPEEDE/ExPRESS institutions will require a test period (much like our in-state parallel test phase) for each institution with whom they trade. FIRN is not responsible for making sure that your records are acceptable to out-of-state institutions except as relates to SPEEDE/ExPRESS syntax and to the data conversions which are specifically detailed in this document. All Florida FASTER postsecondary main campuses are in the EDI Server registrant list
individually. Individual listing of K-12 FASTER schools is based
on district policy. These need only be listed if they wish to
receive from SPEEDE/ExPRESS institutions other than USF or
FAU. These two schools have built into their systems the ability
to address the FIRN generic address, FIRNX25, in the ISA header envelope with
specific school details embedded in the N1 segments. However, it
is suggested that a district list at least their high schools to take full
advantage of SPEEDE/ExPRESS and to promote the use of EDI in other states. |
What you must do to
enable the SPEEDE/ExPRESS interface for your school(s)...
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Overview of
the SPEEDE/ExPRESS Transaction Sets
A subset of the ANSI transaction sets developed specifically for the
education community include: |
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The FASTER - SPEEDE/ExPRESS
interface only supports Transaction Sets 130, 131, 146, 147, and
997. Schools that have native SPEEDE/ExPRESS capabilities might
wish to take advantage of some of the other transaction sets. Transaction Set 997 is automatically generated by the interface when a SPEEDE/ExPRESS transmission is received by the central 'post office' from the EDI Server. A FASTER record set is not generated for incoming SPEEDE/ExPRESS transactions in which errors are detected; therefore, the receiving Florida institution need have no processing in place for such an event. The FIRN Applications Programming Staff will handle any incoming TS997's manually, contacting the sending institution via e-mail or voice communications as necessary. Processing of
FASTER Response Records Addressed to an Out-of-State Institution
First, let us assume that all institutions are fully capable of sending
and receiving both Transaction Sets 130 and 131. Now let us
examine the scenario that would occur when a Florida institution sends a
student's records to an out-of-state institution. |
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If, however, the
addressed out-of-state institution has not yet implemented TS131, then the
setting of the delivered status must be a manual operation. The
sending institution should contact the addressed institution and verify that
the student's records were actually received. We hope that as
SPEEDE/ExPRESS matures and becomes more widely used this manual validation
will no longer be necessary. Processing of
SPEEDE/ExPRESS Transaction Sets 130 and 131 Addressed to a Florida
Institution
The scenario for TS130's coming into Florida from out-of-state
institutions is similar: |
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Again, if the sending
out-of-state institution has not yet implemented receipt of TS131, then it is
up to that institution to contact the FASTER institution to verify that the
student's transcript was received. Conversion specifications from FASTER to SPEEDE/ExPRESS and visa versa are contained in this document: |
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· Chapter 2: |
Postsecondary
Transcript (P00-P08) FASTER formats converted into TS130 Version 4; |
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· Chapter 3: |
Inter-district Student
Records (I00-I09) and Secondary Transcript (S00-S08) FASTER formats converted
into TS130 Version 4; |
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· Chapter 4: |
FASTER Request format (I/S/P00)
converted to TS146 Version 4; |
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· Chapter 5: |
FASTER Negative
Response to Request format (I/S/P00) converted to TS147 Version 4; |
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· Chapter 6: |
SPEEDE/ExPRESS Outer
Envelopes to FASTER Formats; |
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· Chapter 7: |
TS130 Version 4
converted to Postsecondary (P00-P08) FASTER formats; |
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· Chapter 8: |
TS130 Version 4
converted to Inter-district Student Records (I00-I09) and Secondary
Transcript (S00-S08) FASTER formats; |
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· Chapter 9: |
TS131 Version 4
acknowledgement to TS130 processing; |
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· Chapter 10: |
TS146 Version 4
converted to FASTER Request format (I/S/P00); |
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· Chapter 11: |
FASTER Negative
Response to Request format (I/S/P00) converted to TS147 Version 4; |
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· Chapter 12: |
TS997 Version 4
generic acknowledgement processing. |
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MIG: = Migrant Information |
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Changes since the last
release of the document are highlighted using green background when possible. |
When background
coloring is not possible, the text of the change will be in Large Font Bold
Blue Italics. |
Lavender background is
used for change requests to the SPEEDE/ExPRESS formats. |
Yellow background is used
for topics that need to be revisited for next year's implementation. |