Data-Driven Decision Making

It Is All in the Data

As the title of one of the features in the October issue of T.H.E. Journal suggests, we're "Swimming in Data." The story examines the question of how much data you really need to make some informed decisions about student achievement. But that's not the only time the concept of data and its significance in education comes up in this issue.

• By Michael Hart
• 09/13/11

As the title of one of the features in the October issue of T.H.E. Journal suggests, we're "Swimming in Data." The story examines the question of how much data you really need to make some informed decisions about student achievement. But that's not the only time the concept of data and its significance in education comes up in this issue.

As often happens, I didn't realize the pattern we have in our story selection until we were practically done preparing the issue. Along with "Swimming in Data," which started out as an examination of longitudinal data systems by veteran contributor Dian Schaffhauser and morphed into something even more meaningful, we look at the ways data is used in the classroom and on the way to school.

In "Map Quests," we learn how GIS technology is being used in project-based learning to help students reach across traditional academic disciplines and come to substantial conclusions about events in their own worlds--employing the data that is available to them.

Then, in "The Long (Inexpensive) Bus Ride Home," we see how school districts are employing the data they have about where their students live and the routes required to take them to and from school--all with the intention of saving money and reducing their carbon footprints.