Monday, April 4, 2016

How Data Can Help Shape Higher Education Policy - Brian C. Mitchell, Huffington Post

The report’s authors - Louis Soares, Patricia Steele, and Lindsay Wayt - make the case that “making the black box transparent and deploying the business intelligence therein are among the keys to re-imagining the academic enterprise itself.” Specifically, they argue that “a model that prioritizes granular data transparency provides stakeholders visibility into the connections between expenses, revenue, and educational outcomes.” Put in other terms, data infuses good policy decisions influenced by a transparent process with nothing to hide. It’s a remarkably simple and telling conclusion. The authors assume, of course, that current governance supports full transparency. But there are some sticking points that must first be overcome if “networked leadership” that will guide transparency is going to work. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/dr-brian-c-mitchell/how-data-can-help-shape-h_b_9556700.html