Course, Section and Grade Information
These three resources form the core of the Teaching & Learning domain in Ed-Fi and are closely related:
Course → Section → Grade
- A Course defines what is being taught.
- A Section defines when, where, and to whom the course is taught.
- A Grade records how a student performed in that section/course.
Core Conceptual Architecture
The instructional hierarchy in Ed-Fi typically looks like:
Course
└── CourseOffering
└── Section
├── StaffSectionAssociation
|── SectionEducator
└── StudentSectionAssociation
Important Conceptual Distinction
| Entity | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Course | Academic curriculum definition |
| CourseOffering | School/session-specific offering |
| Section | Actual scheduled class instance |
Real-World Example
Course:
Algebra I
CourseOffering:
Algebra I offered at Lincoln HS during Fall 2025
Sections:
1st Period Algebra I
3rd Period Algebra I
5th Period Algebra I
Course Offering – Guidance:
Why CourseOffering Exists
A course definition alone is insufficient operationally.
A school needs to specify:
- when the course is offered
- at which school
- during which session
- under which instructional structure
CourseOffering provides that academic context.
This entity represents an entry in the course catalog of available courses offered by the school during a session.
Course Offering - Fields:
Grade – Guidance:
This educational entity represents an overall score or assessment tied to a course over a period of time (i.e., the grading period). Student grades are usually a compilation of marks and other scores.
The Grade resource in Ed-Fi models:
a student’s earned academic evaluation for instructional work.
The Grade resource is deeply interconnected with:
- Sections
- Courses
- Grading Periods
- Sessions
- StudentSectionAssociations
Core Conceptual Model
High-level instructional hierarchy:
Course
└── CourseOffering
└── Section
└── StudentSectionAssociation
└── Grade
Grade - Fields:
Section – Guidance:
A Section represents:
An actual scheduled instructional class instance.
Example:
Algebra I
→ 1st Period
→ Room 205
→ Ms. Johnson
Students and staff associate to Sections
—not directly to Courses or CourseOfferings.
This entity represents a setting in which organized instruction of course content is provided, in-person or otherwise, to one or more students for a given period of time. A course offering may be offered to more than one section.
Section - Fields:
Section Educator – Guidance:
This entity represents the section's educator.
Note: The SectionEducator is only required if the staff assigned to the Section does not have a valid Staff State Identifier.
Staff Section Association – Guidance:
StaffSectionAssociation models:
A staff member assigned to a section.
This association indicates the class sections to which a staff member is assigned.
Staff Section Association - Fields:
Student Section Association – Guidance:
Represents class enrollment for an individual student.