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Imagine a stack of phone books, one on top of another, reaching 20 stories high. That's how much data an average school districts keep on just one grade of students -- 4 million fields on everything from grades and standardized test scores to attendance records and demographics!
However, while schools are data rich, they tend to be information poor. For most schools, managing reams of data -- much of it residing in a variety of filing and computer systems -- so that it provides greater insight into the best ways to improve teaching and learning is a time-consuming and difficult challenge.
But without the right information delivered in a timely manner, effective decision-making is thwarted. For example, a district may fail to see that while reading scores are good overall, they are poor in a particular grade, and thus would be unable to make the accelerated intervention necessary to correct a possibly damaging trend. Or a teacher, not knowing that the student new to the classroom has a history of poor performance in math, would be unable to provide appropriate support immediately.
A lack of information also prevents the development of an accountability system to hold teachers and administrators responsible for student performance at a time when educators are being held to increasingly higher levels of accountability as a result of the No Child Left Behind Act
Beginning with the Broward County Schools, Florida, and through Reinventing Education 2 grants with the Texas Education Agency and the South Carolina Department of Education, IBM has developed Insight at School, a data warehouse and services offering for use in schools. The warehouse collects and integrates school-based data, offering teachers and district and state administrators quick and easy access to information from any computer, including those in the classroom, from which they can make informed decisions on a wide range of subjects, including curricula, budgets and personnel. Administrators can use the system to analyze trends, enabling them to avoid potential problems and to institute long-range planning. The data warehouse also enhances accountability by providing better information for internal evaluation and public reporting (e.g. NCLB accountability).
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