Data

Big Data and your education

Big Data and your education

I wrote recently about a program the College Board is testing to use data about your school, neighborhood, and family to give you a sort of adversity score that colleges can use for admissions purposes. I originally titled the post "Big Data is coming to college admissions," but instead decided to focus on the personal implications.

But since then I've seen two more stories about algorithms--and people gaming the algorithms--that affect your K-12 education and college choices.

Making meaning out of your adversity

Making meaning out of your adversity

A long time ago, over ten years ago, I had assigned a persuasive essay as a practice for the up-coming high stakes state exam. I don't remember the exact prompt, but it was from a previous year's test so it was probably pretty lame. "The Importance of Being True to Yourself" or something vague like that. And, as most anybody would predict, the vague and lame prompt generated a lot of vague and lame responses.