Three changes have affected education in the United States; all involve access.

All children now have the right to access educational services. There are no more places to hide those students who are harder to teach or slower to learn.

All customers of educational services - students, teachers, parents, and other taxpayers - now have a right to access educational data. There are no more places to hide those teachers and those practices that fail to educate.

And, of course, technology has produced unprecedented access to the storage and networked connectivity of data.

In theory, we now have access to the information necessary to answer perennial questions: how do we support the growth of a good teacher; what teaching strategies work and which do not; what works differently for different types of learners and teachers; how much should it all cost.

In practice, turning data into useful and actionable information - rather than a bureaucratic shackle on the minds of students and teachers - will be the primary challenge of this generation of educational leaders.

This is historic. It should also be fun.

This entry is also posted in the Data Group at https://schoolleadership.ning.com/group/data. Please post your comments in the Data Group so others can follow the discussion!