Data Definitions & Critical Issues

EDUA 6381 – Critical Issue in Ed Tech

Organizations, including businesses, healthcare providers, workforce agencies, and educational institutions, gather vast amounts of data to enhance their services. However, what exactly is data? Different organizations have their own interpretation of data, with some considering it to be only numerical and alphabetical data, while others view everything as data. As the South Regional Education Board (2015) article titled Data Systems states, “The challenge is that the definition of terms for many data elements do not match across agencies, time frames for collecting data do not correlate.” Therefore, useful data, as outlined in the Data Definitions (SREB, 2013) article, “Education leaders indicated that practitioners develop data definitions that serve as guides for the collection and interpretation of education data elements.”

Within the education system, examples of data include enrollment, attendance, demographics, disabilities, assessments, inventory, fiscal information, and human resources. To analyze this information, school systems must ensure data quality, transparency, accuracy, capacity, and literacy. As South Regional Education Board (2015) specified in the article Data Systems, “ Without consistent standards for data collection shared definition and interoperable systems, there is limited potential for improvement in the critical data-driven decision-making that informs policy and practice.”

As mentioned in the SREB (2015) article named “Data Systems,” it says that: “Education data systems within state agencies collect, store, and manage vast amounts of data about students, teachers, and schools – data can be used to improve educational outcomes.” One example is that with test scores, schools can analyze where they can improve student achievement and teacher effectiveness.

There exist some data critical issues that the education system needs to consider, including data systems and data privacy. According to SREB (2015), “The Education Commission of the States (ECS), the 17 states and the District of Columbia, including nine SREB states, have broad-span data system that encompass early learning, K-12, postsecondary, and the workforce.” By implementing standardized data definitions throughout the K-20 education system, from childhood through college and workforce, education systems across all states could significantly improve their data analysis capabilities that could be more useable and able to assist the targeted populations in a more efficient manner. This would lead to a meaningful flow of information shared across broad-spectrum data companies that could augment and improve their data quality overall.

Another critical issue that education systems need to consider is data privacy. According to SREB (2015), “Data privacy is about the confidentiality rights of the individuals involved, the types of data collected, and how it is used and shared.” Schools, colleges, and administrators collect enormous amounts of data that include student demographics and personal information. This information may include the student’s full name, date of birth, physical address, social security number, and more.

The data is held in different databases and used for different devices. Protecting the information from the multiple companies who have access to these databases poses grave risks to the security of the data. As mentioned in the SREB (2015), “Data security is about protecting technology systems against unauthorized access and maintaining the integrity of the data within those systems.” It is important to understand that network security can be challenging, especially since external sources have access to these networks. Cost plays a big part in how these companies can establish multiple layers of security to protect data.

As mentioned in the Data Privacy article from SREB (2015), one data governance goal limits access to sensitive data and only to those in authorized positions. These individuals are responsible for keeping data secure and available to others with a legitimate need to review it. To achieve this, it is essential to establish clear policies and operational protocols that specify the data being collected, who is accountable for securing it, and who is responsible for executing the necessary procedures.

The SREB (2013) article “Data Definitions” states that the main objective of accurately defining data elements is ensuring stakeholders can easily share and analyze the data. If the data is not defined with mutual agreement, stakeholders won’t be able to transmit or merge their data with others, which can negatively impact analyses and decision-making.

Data resides, both in the area of education and also, in the workplace. Adopting a culture that values data integration, security, and confidentiality will definitely improve the quality of services offered to the different clients and their very diverse needs. This new culture will also facilitate better and more informed decision-making because the more data can be integrated between different databases and made to work together, the greater the degree of accuracy and usefulness of data and “Realize the full benefits of evidence-based decision-making” as quoted in the SREB (2015) Data Systems article.

One Resource For Future Reference:

References

Data Quality Campaign. (2014, January 15). How data help teachers [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cgrfiPvwDBw

Southern Regional Education Board (2013). Data Definitions – Southern Regional Education Board. Southern Regional Education Board. https://www.sreb.org/data-definitions

Southern Regional Education Board (2015). Data Systems – Southern Regional Education Board. [Review of 10 Issues in Educational Technology]. Southern Regional Education Board. https://www.sreb.org/data-systems-0

Southern Regional Education Board (2015). Data Privacy – Southern Regional Education Board. [Review of 10 Issues in Educational Technology]. Southern Regional Education Board. https://www.sreb.org/dataprivacy