It’s not all about big data
From Community College Daily:
Andy Smarick, a former White House aide and deputy assistant secretary at the U.S. Education Department who now works for the R Street Institute, a policy research group, said he too was deeply engaged with the accountability movement as the way to determine student success. He came to realize that elements such as students’ happiness and teaching good citizenship are also an important part of learning at school but more difficult to measure.
“Reading, math and graduation numbers, yes. But what about things beyond the metrics?” he said.
The panel also discussed similarities facing urban and rural schools and communities. While the two are often distinguished by their differences, there’s quite a bit they have in common. Smarick noted that both have a large number of low-income residents with high-level needs. And in both areas the communities often feel like they have been forgotten or that leaders don’t care about them. They also resent the feeling that outsiders come in as experts who think they can turn the tide, though they know little about the communities.
