States Need to Embrace Data-Driven Education

When it comes to education, we are living in the dark ages, writes Daniel Castro in Government Technology. Even as the technology-driven march of progress continues to reshape industries from automakers to financial service providers, the forces of innovation come to a screeching halt at the doors of most schools. Instead of using data to personalize instruction, most educators adopt a one-size-fits-all strategy that fails all but the most “average” child. Instead of using analytics to make schools more efficient, school administrators rely on intuition. And instead of implementing evidenced-based education policy, school boards merely follow tradition. This needs to change, and making this change will require states to bring a new level of technological sophistication to their school systems.