uLead 2017

Education is turning the corner as system and school leaders move away from the almost singular focus on big data. From international benchmarking such as PISA to national and system-level assessments, policy-makers should now consider a new approach. This session will illustrate how ‘big data’ analysis alone without small data leads to unintended outcomes in policy-making and practice. Examples will include efforts of school systems where much broader sets of information are analyzed and used to guide the work of the school. For example in Finland, a central element of each school is a “student welfare team” that is made of teachers, wellbeing specialists, counselors, and school leaders. Through these first-hand small data, early interventions to help students at risk are then decided and made in schools.