Since the 1990s, European school policy has been steered by management dreams that systematic monitoring and assessment would guide schools and society toward a future of greater quality, efficiency, and growth. This article, drawing on Jean Baudrillard, explores whether it makes sense to rearticulate this dream of optimization by assessment in…

Although the number of countries conducting large-scale assessments has increased significantly over the past two decades, this has not necessarily led to the effective use of learning assessment data in policy-making and planning. To better understand the reasons for this, the UNESCO International Institute for Educational Planning (IIEP)…

COVID-19 has exacerbated existing equity gaps and made college persistence even more difficult for students with less access to resources and opportunities than their White or wealthier peers. Altogether, these challenges require organizations to establish new approaches to engaging college students and monitoring their academic progress and…

The use of student data to inform decision-making and communication is still evolving in higher education. Often missing from campus conversations about use of student data are student voices about their preferences and needs. NASPA and New America engaged in a joint research effort to better understand student perceptions of data use within…

Missing values that fail to be appropriately accounted for may lead to reduced statistical power, biased estimators, reduced representativeness of the sample, and incorrect interpretations and conclusions (Gorelick, 2006). The current study provided an ontological perspective of data manipulation by explaining how statistical results can…

The advances in technology to capture and process unprecedented amounts of educational data has boosted the interest in Learning Analytics Dashboard (LAD) applications as a way to provide meaningful visual information to administrators, parents, teachers and learners. Despite the frequent argument that LADs are useful to support target users and…

The outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic has changed education dramatically, with the sudden shift from face-to-face to emergency remote teaching. Online learning environments may facilitate data-driven instructional process; yet, our understanding regarding data-driven decisions is still limited. This quantitative study examined types of learners'…

In this chapter, we explore the contexts within which institutional researchers must try to ensure the ethical use of data. We also identify challenges institutional research professionals can face when navigating college culture while trying to ensure the ethical use of data. Finally, we identify potential solutions for improving institutional…

This article provides a critical review of school leaders' data-driven decision making (DDDM), drawing attention to the potential tension between DDDM and moral decision making. With mounting accountability in education, DDDM has been espoused as one of the core values in school leadership. Making a data-driven decision means that school leaders…

This article describes how statistics are scrutinised as evidence. It focuses on the uses of a labour market statistic during House of Commons select committee evidence sessions. The statistic in question was '55.5% of economically active black men, aged 16-24, are unemployed'. The article describes how this individual piece of evidence was…

This article reports on an innovative Social Media Marketing Analytics course that was developed to respond to current industry needs for marketing analysts with data-driven and multiperspective marketing strategy development skills. Teaching approaches, resources, and insights are shared to encourage future development of similar courses.

Participation in web surveys via smartphones increased continuously in recent years. The reasons for this increase are a growing proportion of smartphone owners and an increase in mobile Internet access. However, research has shown that smartphone respondents are frequently distracted and/or multitasking, which might affect completion and response…

Response to Intervention (RTI) is a general education initiative intended to identify struggling readers and provide them with early, targeted intervention. The RTI model--which emphasized research-based instruction presented with fidelity along with the use of informed student data--was adopted by many school districts not only to provide…

Our current federal postsecondary data system is incomplete and fails to provide today's students with the accurate, timely information that they need to inform their college choices and promote their success. As policymakers consider proposals to improve this federal data system, they should model best practices of responsible data-use to ensure…

The main purpose of institutional research (IR) is to provide objective, systematic, and thorough data that support an institution's enrollment goals, planning, policy formation, and decision making. Traditionally, institutions gathered data on their activities, students and staff, programs, management, and operations. University staff then…