Working in education for years, I can tell you there is a real need for an open standard that is palatable and feasible for schools and vendors aiming to integrate with student systems.
this is exactly the point. This is only perpetuating the propriety and just changing the hurdles for vendors and schools to pass data. SIF was great in its time...it was expensive and cumbersome because it required specific knowledge which many district admins don't possess. The new SIF 3 using the CEDS should hope to alleviate many of these issues. As some one who has looked into data integration with Clever, the costs were prohibitive on a large scale, especially when you consider they are continual. While development may be expensive, we aren't paying for it after it is developed...
So open Standards look to be in pretty good shape. Perhaps Clever should support SIF as well? Then it wont be able to be blamed as being so propitiatory.
Working in education for years, I can tell you there is a real need for an open standard that is palatable and feasible for schools and vendors aiming to integrate with student systems.