Big Data offers opportunities and challenges in all aspects of human life. In relation to research ethics, Big Data represents a normative difference in degree rather than a difference in kind. Data are more messy, rapid, difficult to predict, and difficult to identify owners; but the principles of informed consent, confidentiality, and prevention…

Multi-lab projects are large scale collaborations between participating data collection sites that gather empirical evidence and (usually) analyze that evidence using meta-analyses. They are a valuable form of scientific collaboration, produce outstanding data sets and are a great resource for third-party researchers. Their data may be reanalyzed…

This article explores potential uses, misuses, beneficiaries, and tensions of learning analytics in higher education. While those promoting and using learning analytics generally agree that ethical practice is imperative, and student privacy and rights are important, navigating the complex maze of ethical dilemmas can be challenging, particularly…

As a result of the growing commercial marketplace for teachers' digital data, a new organization that includes educational data brokers has evolved. Educational data brokerage is relatively intangible due to the ease of de-identified data being collected and sold via educational technology. There is an urgent need to expose how the brokerage of…

In today's digital world, higher education institutions collect and use more data than ever. However, institutional silos create barriers for stakeholders who need data for daily operations and strategy. This article presents a vision of a unified, collaborative future for data governance and actionable steps stakeholders can take.

Whilst there is plenty of debate on the nature and role of data in social science research, data in schools tend to be understood in terms of numbers and used in limited ways linked primarily to attainment. The 'datafication' of schooling has been strongly critiqued for its powerful impacts on policy and practice, pupils' experience, the…

Over recent decades, higher education infrastructures have become increasingly digitized and datafied. The COVID-19 pandemic accelerated adoption of online learning platforms, trading the walls of the classroom for digital systems. Yet the surveillance, privacy, and discrimination issues that such systems raise are minimally understood by those…

Amid the increasing reliance on digital tools and services in education, this article examines the datafication and commodification of student life in Denmark. We analyse the web and app (iOS and Android) versions of 45 tools and services that teachers in Danish public primary schools use as part of their teaching, the types of data generated by…

The Private School Universe Survey (PSS) is conducted by the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) on behalf of the U.S. Department of Education to collect basic information on American private elementary and secondary schools. PSS is currently designed to generate biennial data on the total number of private schools, teachers, and…

There is a rapidly expanding and proliferating number of commercial early childhood platforms, competing for market share in what has become a crowded marketplace. Early childhood platforms provide a wide range of functions including an all-in-one digital ecosystem offering a learning management system; social media communication between…

Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports (PBIS) is an evidence-based approach to addressing behavior issues in schools. A significant amount of research has been done to identify the critical features of PBIS. More generally, implementation science points to a specific sequence to ensure that PBIS is implemented with fidelity. This fall…

This article evaluates the applicability at the state and district level of web scraping--an automated data-extraction technique that regularly exports and refreshes data from the Internet--to provide a low-cost way to get a close-to-real-time snapshot of the demand side of the teacher labor market. Once set up, web scraping can quickly build and…

The purpose of this paper is to analyze various dimensions for measurement of human behavior. Human behaviour is complex. Behaviors, emotions, cognitions, and attitudes can rarely be described in terms of one or two variables. It is multimodal in nature. Furthermore, the traits, modalities and dimensions cannot be measured directly, but must be…

Special education and related professionals often understand the importance of adhering to intervention procedures (i.e., fidelity), but may be less familiar with concepts of intervention intensity. In some cases, professionals may correctly apply an intervention, but with insufficient intensity. This can result in an intervention failing to…

When the COVID-19 pandemic drove schools online in March 2020, state education leaders were left without access to data needed to understand how best to support students. The pandemic revealed the strengths and limitations of state education data systems while inspiring new strategies for collecting, reporting and using data. In 2021, DataSmith…