OneRoster vs Clever: open standard or single vendor for K-12 rostering
OneRoster is not a company you sign up with — it is an open IMS Global / 1EdTech standard that many systems already speak. Clever is a single vendor’s own platform, with its own identity product (Instant Login) and its own separate roster product (Secure Sync). Here is how each reaches your district’s rostering data as a JobCannon integration.
| OneRoster | Clever | |
|---|---|---|
| What it is | An open IMS Global / 1EdTech REST data-interchange standard | A single company’s identity + roster-sync platform |
| Auth model | OAuth2 client-credentials, per district base URL (OAuth 1.0a not yet supported — a documented gap) | Clever’s own Instant Login protocol |
| Systems reachable | Any OneRoster-conformant server: ClassLink, Feide, Skolfederation, VIDIS, or a SIS exposing OneRoster directly (PowerSchool, Infinite Campus, Skyward) | Districts provisioned in Clever’s own network |
| What it syncs | Courses, classes, users (students and teachers) and enrollments — the standard OneRoster object set | Sign-in identity only through JobCannon’s Clever connector; Clever’s own Secure Sync roster product is separate and not integrated |
| Vendor-specific code needed | None — one generic client reaches every conformant source | Yes — a named-vendor integration against Clever’s own API |
| JobCannon status | Coming soon | Available on request |
Status is read live from the same flag each integration page reads — it will change here automatically if it changes there, never the other way around.
Which one fits your district’s rostering source?
Pick OneRoster if
Your rostering source is anything other than Clever itself — including a SIS like PowerSchool, Infinite Campus or Skyward that exposes its own OneRoster feed, or a federation like ClassLink, Feide, Skolfederation or VIDIS.
See the OneRoster integration page →Pick Clever if
You only need sign-in, and your district already runs a Clever portal — Clever Instant Login is the more direct path for identity alone.
See the Clever integration page →Frequently asked
Is OneRoster a company, like Clever?+
No. OneRoster is a data-interchange standard published by IMS Global (now 1EdTech) that many rostering systems and student information systems implement — ClassLink, Feide, Skolfederation, VIDIS, and SIS platforms such as PowerSchool, Infinite Campus and Skyward when they expose a OneRoster feed directly. Clever is one company’s own platform.
Does JobCannon have a separate adapter for PowerSchool, Infinite Campus and Skyward?+
No, and that is deliberate rather than a gap: none of the three has a dedicated JobCannon adapter. Reachability runs entirely through the generic OneRoster connector — if that district's SIS exposes a OneRoster-conformant feed and JobCannon's OneRoster connector is itself live, the same client reaches all three without vendor-specific code.
Which authentication does each use?+
Clever Instant Login uses Clever's own OAuth-based protocol. JobCannon's OneRoster client authenticates with OAuth2 client-credentials, per district — OAuth 1.0a, OneRoster 1.1's nominal security model, is a documented gap and not yet supported.
Which one is available on JobCannon today?+
Checking directly is more reliable than assuming: OneRoster is currently "Coming soon", and Clever Instant Login is currently "Available on request". Both are real, built code paths — the difference is whether the connector has been validated against a live server, not whether it exists.
Tell us what your rostering source is
Email partners@jobcannon.io with your OneRoster base URL or Clever district ID and we’ll confirm the fastest path for your district.