The cancer survival rate has increased and family physicians (FPs) follow cancer survivors who experience long-term problems. Clinical practice guidelines outline best practices in cancer survivor care, but most FPs are unaware of this information. Little is known about specific barriers to survivorship guideline implementation in primary health…

The Civil Rights Data Collection (CRDC), formerly known as the Elementary and Secondary School Civil Rights Survey, is a part of the U.S. Department of Education's (ED's) Office for Civil Rights (OCR) strategy for administering and enforcing civil rights laws in U.S. public school districts and schools, including Puerto Rico.The CRDC collects a…

Evidence-based decision-making requires access to good and reliable data. In recent years, there has been a tremendous increase of data available to institutions, from internal as well as external sources. With this increase in data and its analytics, new challenges and questions arise. One of the most pertinent of which is the ethics and best…

As employability has become a more visible graduate attribute, it is becoming recognised that a better understanding of information practices in work may enable a smoother transition from university to employment. This paper discusses the current state of workplace information literacy and presents the findings of research into staff experiences…

The work of the National Forum on Education Statistics (Forum) is a key aspect of the National Cooperative Education Statistics System (Cooperative System). The Cooperative System was established to produce and maintain, with the cooperation of the states, comparable and uniform education information and data that are useful for policymaking at…

Even before Florence Nightingale diagrammed soldiers' changing mortality rates to save lives, we have seen clever design used to convey statistics and other complex concepts. In the field of education, student data is used extensively, and those who share such data need to ensure this communication is effective. This article is based on education…

Education, Big Data, and student privacy are a combustible mix. The improvement of education and the protection of student privacy are key societal values. Big Data and Learning Analytics offer the promise of unlocking insights to improving education through large-scale empirical analysis of data generated from student information and student…

In 2016, Dalhousie University's Research Ethics Board created an interdisciplinary working group to identify the key ethical challenges of SoTL research, with the overarching aim of recommending best practices and communicating these to researchers in order to support and expand the conduct of ethically sound SoTL research. This essay reflects on…

Non-government actors such as think-tanks are playing an important role in Australian policy work. As governments increasingly outsource policy work previously done by education departments and academics to these new policy actors, more think-tanks have emerged that represent a wide range of political views and ideological positions. This paper…

In February 2014, the Privacy Technical Assistance Center (PTAC) issued guidance titled "Protecting Student Privacy While Using Online Educational Services: Requirements and Best Practices." This Model Terms of Service document is intended to further assist schools and school districts in implementing that guidance. In a traditional…

District administrators who want to build capacity for data use in schools may be well-served by starting in the central office. This case study of the Boston Public Schools shows how central office administrators can leverage their own data inquiry cycles to improve the ways they support schools in using data. Using the Data Wise Improvement…

Every student, no matter where he or she lives, deserves a great teacher. States, educator preparation programs (EPPs), and K-12 leaders must work together to ensure that all teachers are learner ready on day one in the classroom. But too often, these actors do not have access to the necessary information to fully prepare teachers for the unique…

This report identifies effective strategies to tackle skills imbalances, based on five country-specific policy notes for France, Italy, Spain, South Africa and the United Kingdom. It provides a comparative assessment of practices and policies in the following areas: the collection and use of information on skill needs to foster a better alignment…

All across the country, leaders in colleges and universities are asking the same question: What can we do to improve student success, especially for the low-income students and students of color whose graduation rates often lag behind? This second practice guide: "Using Data to Improve Student Outcomes: Learning from Leading Colleges"…

Most distance learning institutions collect vast amounts of learning data. Making sense of this 'Big Data' can be a challenge, in particular when data are stored at different data warehouses and require advanced statistical skills to interpret complex patterns of data. As a leading institute on learning analytics, the Open University UK instigated…