About the Managed Learning System (MLS)

MLS Background Information
The Managed Learning System sets the standards for technology in education. Developed by JES & Co., an educator based non-profit organization, the Managed Learning System ®(MLS) is an open-system, standards-based research and development environment that provides the framework so that all elements of an educational IT system can communicate and interoperate. Managed Learning System components include educational content and delivery; academic standards; assessment and testing; technology and business processes.

The world’s leading education and technology companies, Dell, EdVISION, Intel, Microsoft, OneNet, Riverdeep and SAP are founding sponsors of the MLS Program.

The MLS Specification does not dictate how technology components and systems work internally – only that they be able to work together to allow educators to make full use of their investment in technology.

Companies and integrators who build, modify, and improve educational IT systems to the Managed Learning System Specification address the needs of educators who must find cost-efficient ways to manage and integrate all their schools’ systems and information.

MLS specification and lab
The MLS standards effort is based on an initial set of specifications produced by JES & Co. JES &Co.’s prototype, the VISION project, established the validity of the MLS model and is currently serving applications to nine school districts throughout Oklahoma.

To facilitate development and adoption of the next version of the MLS Specification, JES & Co. is hosting a Managed Learning System Research and Development Lab at its headquarters in Tucson. The lab is open to sponsors to privately test and demonstrate their products for interoperability relative to the MLS Specification. Education agencies and early adopter sponsors will have access to the specification while it’s in development.

The education-run MLS Steering Committee, representing the United States Department of Education, State Departments of Education, higher education, and K-12, will review and revise the specification, producing a version 2.0 in 2002.

Managed Learning System: The education IT solution
Education as an industry is approaching $1 trillion a year. Many larger school districts today have annual budgets in the tens of millions of dollars. Federal spending on education is exceeded only by spending on National Defense and Public Welfare. U.S. elementary, middle, and high schools spend nearly $6 billion per year on IT infrastructure alone.

Most states have pending legislation requiring school accountability for funding, which often drives IT spending to track, manage and account for schools’ activities. As education spending increases to meet state and federal accountability requirements, it’s vitally important that schools have an alternative to proprietary solutions to help curb operating costs while increasing performance.

The JES & Co. Managed Learning System is the solution to accountability required in today’s educational and political environment – allowing all the systems that collect data to interoperate efficiently in an open environment.

MLS FAQ's
MLS Press Releases
MLS White Papers
MLS Lab
Solution Blueprint: Academic Curriculum Alignment and Resource Sharing Solution
(1.4MB PDF)
Solution Blueprint: Datasheet
(166K PDF)
A Framework for the Future of Educational Technology
(96K PDF)