The use of artificial intelligence (AI) in higher education has mostly focused on issues associated with teaching and assessment. In this paper I used AI to support the analysis of data which consisted of public comments on a newspaper article. This small, low risk research was chosen to demonstrate the potential use of AI and how it may support…

Data showing what students earn after attending higher education institutions have become increasingly available, bolstering calls from policymakers and advocates that government financial aid programs should be tied to those outcomes. Often overlooked, however, is that these data and policies usually reflect the earnings of only students who…

Because learning from failures is just as important as learning from successes, we used qualitative case study data gathered in the Netherlands and the United States to examine instances in which data teams struggle to contribute to school improvement. Similar factors in both the Dutch and U.S. case hindered the work of the data teams, such as…

The U.S. Department of Education has required educational collection and reporting. For postsecondary institutions, this requirement has evolved from the Higher Education General Information Survey (HEGIS), which was used from the 1960s to the 1980s, to the Integrated postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS) (Aliyeva, Cody, & Low, 2018).…

This article presents a descriptive, critical analysis of the comparability of information concerning students, teachers, and school resources gathered by organisations within government jurisdiction, and the pitfalls for the unwary researcher using government data banks. Differences in the method of compiling information about citizens, and…

The Education Insights Center produced a series of reports culminating in recommendations for the structure and governance of a preschool through higher education and into the workforce (known as a P20W data system). This brief follows up on that series, with a focus on data quality; the brief was informed by the author's experience using…

This paper examines processes of datafication in early childhood education (ECE) settings for children from birth-five years in England and how this relates to increased formalisation. Unusually, ECE in England includes a standardised curriculum and formative and statutory assessments; thus it has been described as subject to both datafication and…

This article addresses school counselor evidence-based accountability practice by summarizing the findings of a hands-on evaluation of readily accessible, free online accountability software that can be used for data collection, management and analysis, and presentations. Using germane school data, four preservice counselors individually rated…

This paper argues that methods used for the classification and measurement of online education are not neutral and objective, but involved in the creation of the educational realities they claim to measure. In particular, the paper draws on material semiotics to examine cluster analysis as a 'performative device' that, to a significant extent,…

Drawing upon recent theorising of numbers and data, and applications to schooling, this paper reveals how tensions between more accountability-oriented logics, and more contextually-situated conceptions of engagement with data, played out in one school in a regional community in northern Queensland, Australia. The research reveals that at the same…

Advances in data science and computing power are rapidly shifting the opportunities available to citizens, changing how systems interact with almost every aspect of our lives: as students, job seekers, patients, citizens and consumers. This report presents the Annie E. Casey Foundation's point of view on the use of advanced analytics in social…

As state governments seek to improve the performance of institutions of K-12 and higher education, they often adopt educational policies that have similar names but different characteristics across states and with variations over time within states. Yet quantitative analyses generally examine the absence or presence of an educational policy…

Federal law requires states and school districts to institute accountability systems that report disaggregated student data to ensure that all children make academic progress. However, one of the mandated categories for disaggregation -- English Learner (EL) -- is reported as a single group despite representing students who are beginning,…

The collection of data by government authorities has a complex history. In Australia, this began with the establishment of British government settlements as a way to account for fiscal viability and social prospects. As the colonies became self-governing entities, the collection of social and economic data increased in importance, and included…

Digital technologies in combination with "big" data and predictive analytics are having a significant impact upon professional practices at individual, organisational, national and international levels. The interplay of code, algorithms and big data are increasingly pervasive in the governing, leadership and practices of different…