KY: Big Data in Action
If you've been following the discussions of Competency Based Education and personalized educationand huge new data mining, and you've been wondering what it would all look like on the ground--well, let's go to Kentucky!
The US Department of Education is might proud of Kentucky and their embrace of a one-stop shop for data about students and teachers. That stop is called the Continuous Instructional Improvement Technology System, and yes, there are so many naming and branding problems with the system that it is almost endearing in its clunkiness. I would not be surprised for a moment if I learned that Kentucky teachers are in-serviced by watching a filmstrip accompanied by a cassette that includes droning narration and a beep every time the filmstrip is supposed to be advanced. The sort-of-logo is a misshapen star that is clearing racing across something, carrying the words "Unbridled learning" on its...um... back. I presume that's some sort of Kentucky horsey reference. On top of that, nobody seems to know what to do with the name, which I have now seen rendered as "CIITS" or "CiiTS" in a variety of fonts and, well, it comes across anywhere between awkward and grossly inappropriate. And how is it pronounced? Apparently "sits," which is kind of awesome, because now when a Kentucky teacher gets a lousy rating through the system, colleagues can say the teacher took a real sitz bath.
All I'm saying is that somebody did not perform due diligence on the naming of this thing.
So what is this thing actually?
It gives teachers ready access to student data, customizable lessons and assessments, and a growing CURMUDGUCATION: KY: Big Data in Action: