Update on Data Quality Campaign to Judge All Knowledge on Corporate Needs

A Jane Roberts clip from the Memphis Corporate Appeal yesterday on DQC:

. . . .In 2012, Tennessee scored six, including that it was among a handful of states taking steps to ensure that teachers — and students training to be teachers — know how to read data so they can better meet student needs. 

“We’ve seen a little gain in this area, but still Tennessee is in a small group here,” said Elizabeth Dabney, DQC senior associate. 

Tennessee also gained ground this year by creating rules around how the data is used, including safeguarding privacy. 

DQC is funded by six foundations; the largest is the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. 

Nationally, states are being pushed to link educational data across state agencies to provide a broader, more usable picture of what is happening. Lawmakers use this to determine policy; parents use it too to make decisions about which K-12 school or college best meets their children’s needs. 

For instance, when boilerplate data on students is tied to state labor data or unemployment records, the public can quickly see how students from one system perform in the workplace compared to students from another. Or they can see which colleges actually produce graduates whose skills are needed. . . .

My comments posted at CM:

When the corporate foundations and Arne Duncan arrive at a number to signify the meaning of life and the essence of human worth, no doubt Tennessee will be at the top of the heap in getting there first, and Jane Roberts will report it as a brilliant accomplishment. While we are waiting for that bright day, Gates will move ahead with his plan for making the world dependent upon his technology to determine which schools produce the most lucrative human capital for corporations. The ones that fall below average, no doubt, will have their courses adjusted in a never-ending war to drive knowledge into the furnace room where it can be shoveled into the corporate crucible.