Data-Driven Decisionmaking
Education news, analysis, and opinion about how educators use data to identify and address areas of opportunity
Student Well-Being & Movement
After-School Programs Keep Learning Going With Student Data
Through a city-school partnership in Nashville, Tenn., after-school programs are using data to tailor lessons to students' learning needs.
Education
Quiz
Quiz Yourself: How Much Do You Know About Data-Driven Decisionmaking and Predicting Student Success?
Quiz Yourself: What are some of the barriers to data-informed instruction?
Job Hunting Tips & Advice
Opinion
How BIG Data Can Inform and Innovate HR in K-12 Education
In today's data-rich, technology-driven world, being a "data nerd" is cool. Even Harvard Business Review noted "data scientist" as one of the sexist jobs. While BIG data is making headlines globally, if used in appropriate ways, HR data can teach us a great deal about an individual's drivers and behavior, performance, needs, and their potential.
Job Hunting Tips & Advice
Opinion
Research-Savvy Talent Management
Guest blogger Naima Khandaker writes about three strategies Talent Managers should utilize when selecting research to inform decisions and programs in their organizations.
School & District Management
Opinion
Learning to Love Math: How One Teacher is Using MOOCs to Transform Instruction, Inspire Passion in Students
Let's take a moment to imagine a world in which people not only "get" math... but love math. Where would we be as educators? As individuals? As a workforce? As an economy? As a country?
Recruitment & Retention
Opinion
New Report Examines Direction of K-12 Leadership
Today, the nonprofit Education Pioneers released The Invisible Lever: A Profile of Leadership and Management Talent in Education, an analysis of the current state of leadership in K-12 public education. The report offers three major findings developed using survey responses from more than 1,300 alumni of the organization's Graduate and Analyst Fellowship programs, as well as other data and research from across the country. Education Pioneers' fellowship programs recruit law, policy, education, and business graduate students for internships working with school district staff on special projects, performing academic, financial, human capital, or operational data analysis, and more.
Job Hunting Tips & Advice
Opinion
A Quick Look At Our Nation's Education Data
If you're like me and love sharing data with others, infographics are a handy communications tool that breaks information into digestible chunks. Among the latest to join the infographic trend is the U.S. Census Bureau, as part of its "How Do We Know" campaign related to veterans, America's changing labor force, manufacturing, home-based workers, and two related to education that I wanted to share.
Recruitment & Retention
Opinion
Using Customer Feedback for Continuous Improvement
The Chippewa County Department of Human Services (CCDHS) in Wisconsin works like most other government human services groups, providing child protection services, foster and respite care, elder abuse care, and more. However, they recently launched an innovative plan to gather customer feedback and use the data they collect to support improvement. From September 1-15, CCDHS is asking residents of the county to complete a short survey about the department's strengths and weaknesses as well as what services they need from the human services group. This is the first time the county has conducted such a survey.
Recruitment & Retention
Opinion
Making Decisions: Gut Feel or Workforce Analytics?
A few weeks back, a tweet from @BigThink caught my eye. In 140 characters, they summed up how organizations are utilizing big data to create a stronger workforce. The post linked to a video of Haig Nalbantian, a Senior Partner at Mercer and well-known authority on Human Capital Measurement and Management, discussing the use of workforce analytics.
School & District Management
Opinion
Leading and Lagging: Balancing Education Measures
I recently met with superintendents, treasurers, principals, and teacher leaders from across Ohio to discuss the use of measures, process improvement, and performance management in education. The group is working to create a list of metrics for scorecards around human resources, finance, IT, operations, transportation, custodial/maintenance, food services, and stakeholder engagement. The conversation touched on a number of topics, including the use of leading and lagging indicators--what they are and how these measures can be used to support educational improvement.
School Climate & Safety
Opinion
Engaged and Talented Teachers as a School Improvement Strategy
AASPA Board Member Richard Valenta argues that teacher engagement is a key - and often overlooked - factor in school improvement.
Equity & Diversity
Opinion
Planning for Intended Consequences for Education Technology
NASBE Executive Director Jim Kohlmoos calls on the education community to think big - and critically - about how we want to equip our schools for the times to come.
School & District Management
Opinion
Shared Accountability Critical to Achieving Bottom Line in Education
Teresa Daulong, Battelle for Kids' Strategic Measures Specialist, contributed to this post. Teresa works daily with large urban school districts across the country to help every employee understand their impact on student success. With 16 years of experience working with organizations to improve performance, she believes that creating systems of shared accountability is the key to success both at home and in schools everywhere.
Federal
Opinion
Federal Support Should Highlight the Good in Teacher Prep
AACTE's Jane West calls on federal policymakers to focus teacher preparation resources on strengthening teacher preparation programs over the long term, not just raise a heavy hand on accountability.