The American education system, from top to bottom, is prone to fads, and one of the latest is the idea of “data dashboards” that are supposed to allow those in charge to make better decisions and for students to choose as wisely as possible. How valuable is this information?
In today’s Martin Center article, Esam Sohail Mohammad looks into this question. He is not much impressed with the handiwork of the dashboard designers, writing:
Presentation trumps process as dashboards allow users to bypass the analytical rigor that spreadsheets or similar traditional tools once required. Sleek visuals obscure the underlying methodology. Filters replace definitions. Trendlines substitute for understanding. Because humans are inherently visual creatures, the allure of a polished dashboard can overshadow important questions: What decisions led to these categorizations? What assumptions are built into the calculations? What limitations accompany the data? These questions fade into the background when presentation eclipses process.
Mohammad argues that we seem to be suffering from a deluge of data that obscures the few metrics that really matter.
Read the whole thing.