Advancing Open Standards for Competencies and Academic Standards Exchange®
The landscape of educational technology continues to evolve at an unprecedented pace, driven by the collective need for seamless interoperability and accessible learning standards. At the recent 1EdTech Learning Impact Conference, we participated in a transformative moment that will support how educational organizations access, share, and implement academic standards, competencies, and rubrics across the educational ecosystem.
A Pivotal Partnership to Expand CASE for a More Connected Ecosystem
As we collaborate with and support 1EdTech's leadership, we’re thrilled to announce the strategic expansion of the CASE ecosystem to dramatically broaden learning standards accessibility and deepen product interoperability across the educational landscape. Google for Education believes so strongly in the value of 1EdTech’s work on academic standards, that we are making a bigger commitment than merely adopting the technical specification. In partnership with 1EdTech and certified CASE service provider, Common Good Learning Tools, Google is investing in the digitization and onboarding of new US and international standards. An open, interoperable system benefits everyone—from individual educators to standards issuers. The hope of this partnership is that we encourage even more standards issuers seeking to publish their standards as the authoritative source of truth, making them open to all education technology companies so that more educators can benefit from their usage.
At Google for Education, our commitment to supporting educators and learners has always centered on removing barriers and creating pathways for innovation to transform teaching and learning. By adopting the Competencies and Academic Standards Exchange® (CASE) standard to power key features within our educational products, we're championing our dedication to the open developer ecosystem that benefits everyone in education.
In the coming months, Google for Education will introduce K12 national and state academic learning standards in Google Classroom. Teachers will be able to find, select, and tag relevant standards by grade level, subject area, and even specific keywords in their assignments. Teachers will be able to grade using standards-based rubrics to pinpoint student success and learning. These features save teachers time, support more focused instruction, and give both educators and students clear, actionable insights into progress against key learning goals.
The Power of an Open Standard and a Centralized Repository
Our collaboration with 1EdTech and the broader CASE community reflects the transformative potential of centralized, accessible standards. At Google, we've gained invaluable insights into the challenges educators face when trying to align their curricula with academic standards. Too often, these standards exist in isolated silos, making it difficult for educators to discover relevant frameworks or for developers to create tools that truly serve the classroom. The challenges create a significant overhead for educators and districts, trying to align daily lessons and instructional materials to specific learning objectives to meet their criteria. Then, when platforms change, carefully crafted alignment disappears. The absence of a machine-readable, universally structured standard makes precise curriculum mapping a daunting, often manual, and imprecise exercise. This takes valuable time away from teaching and student support.
By integrating open standards like CASE, we help ensure that framework issuers, teachers, students, and developers alike can seamlessly work with the learning standards that guide instruction—whether they’re aligning a curriculum, designing a formative assessment, or building tools that empower educators in the classroom. Our collaboration with 1EdTech and the broader CASE community reflects a shared belief: open standards fuel innovation, drive equity, and reduce barriers to access.
Championing the CASE Ecosystem and Impact of Interoperability
"At the Georgia Department of Education, we believe that open standards like CASE are foundational to ensuring every student has access to high-quality, aligned learning experiences—regardless of platform or provider. The expansion of CASE Network 2 marks a transformative step forward in our ability to streamline standards alignment, reduce redundancy, and empower educators with actionable data. As a state agency committed to innovation and preparing all students for life, we're proud to support this collaborative effort to build a more connected, learner-centered educational ecosystem."
— Dr. Keith Osburn, Chief Information Officer & Deputy Superintendent of Technology Services, Georgia Department of Education"CASE provides a standard to power competency or standards-based assessment and grading practices by defining the competencies that indicate mastery, enabling teachers to provide more opportunities for students to exercise choice in demonstrating mastery while still preserving coherence in curriculum and assessment."
— Mr. Giovanni Benincasa, Chicago Public Schools, Department of Curriculum, Instruction, and Digital Learning
Through our work alongside state education agencies, districts, edtech providers, and other 1EdTech members, we’ve seen firsthand the transformative potential of an open, interoperable framework. From enabling seamless updates to state standards in digital learning platforms to simplifying curriculum alignment across different tools, the insights we’ve gained have reinforced the value of a shared, community-driven approach.
We encourage all framework issuers—whether they're international organizations, national education bodies, state departments, or specialized competency developers— to support an open, inclusive ecosystem where innovation thrives and educational quality improves for all learners. One way framework issuers can ensure this is by publishing and hosting their frameworks using the CASE specification, either by building CASE-certified systems or working with CASE-certified providers. This isn't just about technical standards; it's about benefiting the entire learning ecosystem:
- For Framework Issuing Organizations: The CASE ecosystem transforms how any framework issuing organization manages, distributes, and maintains their academic standards. Organizations can now publish standards once and ensure immediate availability across all compatible educational platforms, eliminating the need for multiple format conversions and reducing distribution overhead.
- For Educational Institutions: CASE-published frameworks make it easier to align curriculum, instruction, and assessments with accurate, up-to-date standards, creating consistency, reducing the burden of manual alignment, enabling more sophisticated analytics, and allowing institutions to track standards coverage and identify gaps in their instructional materials.
- For Developers: CASE revolutionizes educational technology development by providing a unified API and data model for academic standards. CASE Network 2, hosted by Common Good Learning Tools, helps ed-tech suppliers such as Google take full advantage of the CASE ecosystem by “mirroring” frameworks from all agencies publishing in CASE format, so that standards from all 50 states are available from a single CASE API location. CASE Network 2 also temporarily “fills in the gaps” for agencies that have yet to self-publish their CASE frameworks. CASE opens up a scalable, standards-aligned ecosystem where tools and platforms can integrate seamlessly—unlocking new opportunities for innovation and ensuring that educators and learners benefit from a connected ecosystem.
A Call to Action for Collective Impact
We invite every member of the educational community - from individual educators and their institutions to large scale framework issuers and platforms - to join this movement toward open, interoperable educational standards. Whether you’re developing educational tools, creating curriculum resources, or simply seeking better ways to support student learning, the CASE ecosystem offers a foundation for innovation and collaboration.
At Google for Education, we’re honored to be a part of this initiative alongside 1EdTech and the broader community of educators, developers, and standard organizations. Our adoption of CASE reflects our belief that the most powerful educational technologies emerge from collaborative, open ecosystems where everyone can contribute and benefit. And our investment and partnership in digitizing and onboarding even more standards into CASE will help advance this impact across the edtech landscape, globally. The future of learning depends on our ability to work together, share resources, and maintain our focus on what matters most: empowering educators to inspire and support every student's success.
To learn more about CASE and how your organization can participate in this open standards initiative, visit 1EdTech's CASE Network 2 page and explore the resources available to support your educational technology goals.