From the Editor

There's a lot of attention being concentrated right now on various aspects of data. Part of the push back about too much testing has to do with growing parental awareness that each test administration generates a lot of data points about their children. When that sat on aggregated score sheets in a district office or when individual performance reports became part of a child's cumulative record, there was less concern, but as technology allows more manipulation and analysis of data and storage shift from a file cabinet to the cloud, anxieties mount. Parents not only want reassurances about what schools are doing with that data, some are beginning to question whether lots of it even needs to be gathered. Recent changes to The Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) and pending changes to Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) have made the schools more anxious about compliance and interpretations vary on just what anyone, much less the educational vendors, can do with personally identifiable data. Two new reports look at different aspects of data. The State Educational Technology Directors Association (SETDA) published "Transforming Data to Information in Service of Learning." The Software and Information Industry Association (SIIA) released "Data-Driven Innovation - A Guide for Policymakers: Understanding and Enabling the Economic and Social Value of Data."

Market Insights

5 Tips to Spring Clean Your Data

Chuck Romans, Education Database Marketing Consultant, MDR

Spring is that time of year when thoughts turn to cleaning up, clearing out, and starting fresh. It also happens to be the sweet spot in the education marketing calendar between finalizing one year’s sales results and preparing for the new school season. With four to six weeks needed for a data cleanse project, there is no better time to evaluate and update the condition of your customer data.

Here are some tips on what to prioritize in a springtime data review:

• Strategize and Set Your Scope
• Out With the Old
• Align to the Truth
• Get to Know Your Best Customers
• Add-on for Growth

She Snoops for Scoops: The Personal Side of the EdNET Community

I know most of you are looking forward to a long weekend, and I am with you! But before you head out, take just a minute so you don't miss out on this week's scoops....

Featured News

Per Student Public Education Spending Decreases in 2011

U.S. Census Burea — Tuesday, May 21, 2013

Fiscal year 2011 marked the first decrease in per student public education spending since the U.S. Census Bureau began collecting data on an annual basis in 1977, according to new statistics released today (dollars not adjusted for inflation). The 50 states and the District of Columbia spent $10,560 per student in 2011, down 0.4 percent from 2010. The top spenders were New York ($19,076), the District of Columbia ($18,475), Alaska ($16,674), New Jersey ($15,968) and Vermont ($15,925). Total expenditures by public elementary and secondary school systems totaled $595.1 billion in 2011, down 1.1 percent from 2010. This is the second time total expenditures have shown a year-to-year decrease, the first time being 2010.

SETDA Releases "Transforming Data to Information in Service of Learning"

State Educational Technology Directors Association — Tuesday, May 21, 2013

To raise awareness about many of the major K-12 data standards and interoperability initiatives underway to address these and related issues, the State Educational Technology Directors Association (SETDA) today released a new report entitled, Transforming Data to Information in Service of Learning. SETDA developed this new report to help education leaders understand how technical interoperability initiatives relate to teaching and learning and to offer recommendations for how states, districts, and schools can become more responsive to educator needs and personalize learning for students.

Teachers Call for Social and Emotional Learning in School

Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning — Saturday, May 18, 2013

Teachers across America believe that social and emotional learning is critical to student success in school, work and life, according to a new national survey released today at the 2013 CASEL Forum. The survey, highlighted in “The Missing Piece,” a report by Civic Enterprises with Hart Research for CASEL: Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning, also found that teachers believe social and emotional skills can be taught, and that the development of those skills in all students should take far more priority in U.S. schools and state learning standards than they do today.