UPD’s Theory of Performance Management
Performance Management seems to be one of the new buzz words in the market place. A lot of this has been driven by the US Department of Education leveraging “Performance Management” as a means for…
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inBloom, Train Wrecks, and Ed-Fi
As I sat down to write this entry, my day was interrupted most unusually. Doug texted me the picture to the left. The caption said simply, “Say hello to 26th street and the railroad track.”…
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Asking the Right Questions—Data Privacy and Security
There are a lot of good signs to be seen in recent news about security and privacy in the education technology sector. Some of the key questions being asked by educators and administrators are “how…
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Pure as the Driven Data
I like numbers. Numbers are facts. My weight scale reading for today: 165 lbs. Numbers are objective and free of emotion. My pedometer tells me that I ran for three miles today. However, as objective…
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The Baltimore Consensus
In 2008, the Copenhagen Consensus Center asked a group of the world’s top economists to identify optimal social “investments” that could best help reduce malnutrition, broaden educational opportunity, slow global warming, cut air pollution, prevent…
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Predicting Crime with CompStat?
A great article in Slate from Christopher Beam highlights a CompStat program in Los Angeles which will begin to use predictive statistics alongside traditional CompStat figures. CompStat traditionally tracks a slate of common crime stats…
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CompStat and Campbell’s Law
As you may have seen in the news, The New York City Police Department is conducting a comprehensive review of its crime stats. Over the past months, reports have emerged that Precinct Commanders felt pressured…
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CitiStat and Law and Order
Did you know that the Law and Order guy, Sam Waterson, did a video on CitiStat? Check out this video with real shots of meetings and interviews with the originators, then Mayor Martin O’ Malley,…
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For Whom the Bell Curves
The debate, if you can call it that—“jibber jabber” might be a better term (thanks, Mr. T!)—over linking student achievement data to teacher and principal performance started on the wrong foot and seems to be…
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Happy Anniversary, CitiStat.
The CitiStat model, which recently celebrated its 10th anniversary, has expanded and evolved in many different ways over the last decade. Even during the early years of CitiStat in Baltimore under then-Mayor O’Malley, the Stat…
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