FY24 education budget proposal

Reviewed this Joint Letter: FY24 Biden-Harris Budget Proposal with my students a couple months back; sharing it here for members of the community who have an interest in their school/district priorities and budget allocation.

Statewide data systems and State Assessment Grants play a critical role in identifying barriers to student learning, achievement, and equity. Simply put, we can’t fund what we can’t measure. 

Thank you to All4Ed; Center for American Progress; Education Reform Now; Learning Policy Institute; National Center for Learning Disabilities; Teach Plus; The Education Trust; SchoolHouse Connection; UnidosUS for addressing Data, Innovation, and Connectivity Programs.

Strategic Data Use in Higher Education: Using Data to Improve Postsecondary Success

The Strategic Data Project (SDP) at Harvard University interviewed 40 leaders and analysts at 29 institutions of higher education and postsecondary organizations to understand why some colleges and university systems are excelling in using data and others have yet to fully realize the potential of their data to inform strategic decisions that transform student success in school and the workforce.

[Their] key finding is that the missing link is not in the technical infrastructure but in human capacity. If higher education is to take advantage of data analytics to improve student outcomes and increase organizational effectiveness, it will have to find better ways to attract, train, and retain strategic data professionals who can inform policy and practice.

Citation:

Project, S. D. (2020). Strategic Data Use in Higher Education: Using Data to Improve Postsecondary Success

Recent study on student clickstream data

The benefits and caveats of using clickstream data to understand student self-regulatory behaviors: opening the black box of learning processes

By automatically recording students’ interactions with online course materials, clickstream data provide a valuable new source of information on student learning behaviors. These data can be used to define and identify behavioral patterns that are related to student learning outcomes, suggest behavioral changes to students for greater success, and provide insights regarding the mechanisms by which education interventions affect student outcomes.

Baker, R., Xu, D., Park, J. et al. The benefits and caveats of using clickstream data to understand student self-regulatory behaviors: opening the black box of learning processes. Int J Educ Technol High Educ 17, 13 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1186/s41239-020-00187-1

(I had the honor of speaking with Dr. Baker last week about U.S. education metrics & policy. What a dedicated person and professor.)