Data-based decision making (DBDM) is a process of using student data to inform instructional decisions and intensify intervention for students whose data indicate inadequate academic and behavioral progress. Data teams, an important structure for DBDM, are a collaborative group of school faculty who meet to systematically analyze student data,…

This article will explore how the influence of the Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU) culture, benefits of inclusionary leadership practices, and organizational structure impact the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act of 1974 (FERPA) implementation and adherence. The purpose of this article will be to educate and influence…

University of Central Oklahoma's (UCO) Student Transformative Learning Record (STLR) leverages the Learning Management System (LMS), rubrics, an online dashboard, transcript services, and badging to assess students' employability and durable soft-skills. Featured by the Chronicle for Higher Ed, this Comprehensive Learner Record model has helped…

The University of Iowa (UI) is the state of Iowa's flagship institution; a public research one, division one university in the Big Ten Conference (B1G) with twelve colleges. One hidden gem in the accomplishments of the Office of the Registrar is UI's FERPA Team (UI-FT); a point of pride unknown to many but greatly appreciated by those who know the…

This paper describes the Berlin "Abitur" examination in the twentieth century and its written documentation in files. By the late nineteenth century, the "Abitur" examination was fully established in Prussia and with it a graduation certificate that was obligatory for university entrance. Thus, the "Abitur"…

Traditional student information systems were designed primarily to collect and manage records of course enrollment and credit hours earned, as well as other data elements needed to monitor each student's progress to graduation. Now, institutions want to monitor and improve the quality and equity of students' learning experiences in courses and the…

Can leveraging an innovative approach to gathering information on co-curricular learning and learning outcomes assessment practices lead to impactful change? This question guided the implementation and operationalization of the Spartan Experience Record (SER) at Michigan State University (MSU). The SER both provides undergraduate students with a…

The adoption by the African Union of its Convention on Cyber Security and Personal Data Protection in 2014 represented a step forward to protect personal data and to ensure that data remain private and secure. This is especially important for students, who often have no autonomy in the educational technology they use. Students cannot choose why…

Student privacy is a critical area of higher education that deserves greater focus, particularly as student data digitalization increases. Many colleges and universities use data literacy as a way to prepare students, sometimes from different disciplines, to work with others' data postgraduation. Data literacy can be an avenue for helping all…

The EdSurvey package helps users download, explore variables in, extract data from, and run analyses on large-scale assessment data. The analysis functions in EdSurvey account for the use of plausible values for test scores, survey sampling weights, and their associated variance estimator. We describe the capabilities of the package in the context…

T. Philip Nichols and Alexander Monea explore the spread of data-driven surveillance (i.e., dataveillance) technologies in schools, which are increasingly used as a strategy for mitigating safety risks. They argue that the sense of security schools derive from these technologies often comes at the cost of students' actual well-being and privacy.…

Engaging students and developing interest can be challenging--and not always successful on the first couple of tries. With the help of Elon University's Information Technology team, the Office of the Registrar created a technology solution to give faculty more data about the students registered for their classes in the upcoming term. Using…

As institutions of higher education increasingly look to data as evidence to support planning, allocate resources, and inform teaching and pedagogy, ethical considerations regarding learning analytics have evolved from being on the margins to more central in the conversations surrounding institutional uses of student data. After outlining this…

The surveillance and securitization of schools has transformed over the last decade to include predictive analytics and algorithms. In Florida, for example, the Pasco Sheriff's Office used school record data sets to identify and monitor youth they believed were "destined for a life of crime." Yet the extent of big data policing as a…

In this digital age, how do institutions know what documents to accept and from whom? This year's school closures, distance learning, online education, and other upheavals have made it even more critical for institutions to ensure that they are accepting official academic records from valid sources. Typically, receiving official documents…