October 2006 — Features
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Data Warehousing :: Too Much Information
The surge in the collection and use of data has created a new problem for K-12 administrators—where to put it all, while ensuring it stays safe and accessible. Data warehouses have the answer.
AMONG ITS MANY SWEEPING CONSEQUENCES over the past five
years, the No Child Left Behind Act, with its mandates for collecting and documenting
student achievement statistics, has fueled a surge in the volume of
data collected by schools, districts, and state education departments. But this
information explosion has gone hand in hand with technology’s growing affordability
and availability, and the realization by school officials that they can put
data to work to improve both administrative and instructional processes.
Yet as the collection and use of data has grown, a subsequent problem has emerged—where to store it all, while ensuring it remains protected yet accessible, usable, and meaningful. That’s where data warehouses come in. Born in the corporate world, data warehouses integrate data from the various operational systems a school or district uses, and when combined with a data analysis tool, enable administrators to analyze performance over time. More and more administrators at every level are using data warehouses to help manage huge volumes of data and to monitor student progress.
Why a Data Warehouse?
“The first thing that needs to be understood is that data warehouses are tools, not solutions,” says Jill Abbott, learning strategist for the Schools Interoperability Framework Association, which promotes the use of a common technology framework to allow interoperability between the different applications used by schools. “In general, there is a lack of understanding about what a data warehouse truly is.”
A data warehouse is essentially a facilitator. Without one, or with one that is limited or poorly constructed, the data that a school collects often ends up in disparate silos, preventing the school from obtaining a comprehensive view of how students are performing, how poor performance might relate to absenteeism, how effective teachers are, where the most effective instruction is taking place, and so forth.
“Without a way to manage data, educators miss opportunities to help children that they would have seen had they had access to data,” says Shawn Bay, founder of eScholar, a New York-based company that has implemented hundreds of district-level data warehouses. “Not having a data warehouse also means administrators spend huge amounts of time collecting and integrating data manually to meet compliance reporting requirements—time that could have been spent helping children.”
