Delving into the Data
Imagine an afternoon when a teacher can sit down at a computer desktop and quickly sort through reams of data she'll use to plan lessons for the next day.
That technological capability can be found only in the rare classroom today, but some experts say that such a data-rich approach to instruction will eventually be commonplace. So far, the infrastructure needed to support such applications doesn't exist in many places, but the situation may be starting to change.
"We're poised to do much better," says Dale Mann, a former professor at Teachers College, Columbia University, and the president of Interactive Inc., a Huntington, N.Y.-based consulting firm advising states on how to build educational data networks. "The data-based-decision making rhetoric has started to get real."
This article, written by David J. Hoff, appeared in the May 4th, 2005 publication of Education Week.
Published Friday, May. 5, 2006