A PEAK INTO THE NATIONAL LANDSCAPE
Part 2: Some Good News, Big Data is Texas is Big
Background: This is my second post discussing the early lessons from my research with NYU Metro Center on Big Data in Public Education.
If you’re not sure what Big Data is, or how it can be “in” education, I suggest peeping my previous post.
Where were we?
Within the last 15 years, advances in computing, data capturing, and data storage technology have redefined how we observe, interpret and shape the most critical pillars of our lives. The emergence and rapid adoption of this technology has been coined as the era of big data (Capatosto, 2017; Wang, 2016; Data-Pop Alliance, 2015).
The emergence of big data is seen as a critical tool in education, with the potential to create new learning experiences for children that meet their individual needs. State and district policy-makers around the country are partnering with big data practitioners, implementing data-driven technologies with ambitious goals.
Oh so you’re from Missouri huh, fine I’ll prove it!
In 2013 district leaders in Dallas Independent School District (serving nearly 157,000 students in 230 schools) invested in a data-driven initiative, implementing personalized learning models in 5 schools. The Dallas ISD felt the initial results of the initiative were promising, as students across the 5 target schools saw growth relative to their peers; promising metrics and family support have led to rapid expansion. (Roger, 2018) As of May 2018 the program now serves over 20,000 students in over 100 Dallas ISD schools.
Still skeptical, Here:
Why did this work?
Bottom Line: The policies and practices of the Dallas ISD are unique, rooted in their commitment to using big data technology as a tool to address education equity in collaboration with community partners and educators.
The key word here is UNIQUE, not all big data initiatives go according to plan. (see post 3) 
