I worked for a compay that sold Pnnicle Analytics and the stuff you can learn from data mining is awesome. Especially when they make an intuitive interface.
I can see how collecting data on teachers is a problem until we answer the question of how do we evaluate quality teachers. What if someone points to a implementation dip and uses that as grounds for termination?
use their data to
help struggling teachers and to reward successful ones
While it's useful to
have that kind of longitudinal data [for policy purposes]," he says,
"one should not impute conclusions about the true depth of a child's
intellectual development in terms of math, science, or whatever."
results on statewide tests
aren't as useful as many policymakers think.
Students take the tests
at the start of every quarter in every subject, and the results are
available the same day. The data are broken down by the racial, ethnic,
economic, and other subgroups used in NCLB accountability reports.