大数据怎么服务学校教学呢？这是个有趣的话题。
拍题神器有做题数据，它是自下而上的，源于学生的自发使用，互联网也不保证整个班级和整个学校的全覆盖，更没有作为教学计划纳入日常管理，因此与学校教学管理相距甚远。
阅卷扫描仪有成绩数据，类似智学网这样的送设备模式确实改变了学校的改卷工作习惯，不过输出的成绩分析对班主任的意义不大，班级是否两级分化，学生成绩的短板，老师看到分数自己都会心中有数的。毕竟老师在日常管理中亲临现场，看到的听到的信息维度更多，比如学生是否爱睡觉，班风怎么样，整体入学水平如何。仅仅几次大考成绩和考点判别的维度比较有限，没有给教学带来数据分析上的惊喜。
答题器能拿到全班的课堂答题数据，反映课堂吸收水平，不过需要搭配硬件终端和电子课件，也需要老师适应新的教学方式，转型需要时间，暂时没在学校课堂中全面普及。
教育管理公共服务平台，作为主管单位牵头搭建的统一平台，上面也有很多有用信息。但就像所有政府搭建的大而全云平台一样，总有这样那样的细节无法尽如人意，在真正融入具体学校日常工作前，还有很长路要走。
学校自有的排课系统、学籍管理系统等，也都各掌握了一小部分有用的数据，有的在校内是打通的，有的没有打通。
上述零零总总的数据源有个共同点，都是电子化数据。
只要是电子数据，就能够通过一定的方式整理、清洗、转换，形成可分析的数据基础，为真正多维度的大数据分析奠定基础。这至少需要一个小型的数据仓库，并提供相应的数据可视化服务。
学校的领导层，往往是系统采购的决策者。做过政府机构项目的都知道，数据的可视化展现效果对领导层的吸引力很大，所以不管有没必要，上个GIS地图模块往往可以加分不少。
那么，包含数据可视化的云服务（其实就是数据仓库+分析图表），是否会是更好的进校入口呢？
打通各系统的接口，让维护方愿意交出数据是比较大的难题。相对于厂家来说（教育装备展上那么多同质化的智慧校园），主管部门或学校的话语权还更强些。
以上都是个人的胡思乱想，前阵子工作需要挑选数据可视化软件，偶尔看到Tableau主页介绍的美国教育行业案例，自动忽略其中软文宣传的因素，这确实代表了数据仓库建立后的应用场景，感觉有点意思。翻译如下，供参考：
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Spokane Schools keep high-risk students in school
斯波坎市如何帮助学校里的问题学生
原文链接：https://www.tableau.com/zh-cn/solutions/customer/spokane-schools-keep-high-risk-students-school
Spokane is the second-largest school district in the state ofWashington. “We have slightly less than 30,000 students, and we have higherpoverty than the state average,” explains Chief Academic Officer Steven Geringin this interview. “One of the big areas that we've been focusing on isimproving our student data, and really trying to improve our dropout rates.”Hear how Tableau has helped keep Spokane's high-risk students in school.
斯波坎是华盛顿州第二大的学区，“我们的学生数接近3万名，高于全州的平均水平，”教务主任Steven Gering解释道，“我们最关注的目标就是如何改善学生的表现数据，降低辍学率。”我们来看看Tableau怎么帮助斯波坎学校里的问题学生。
Tableau:In your mission to keep more kids in school, what is data’srole?
Tableau：关于降低学校辍学率，大数据能发挥什么作用呢？
Steven Gering, Chief Academic Officer:I'm a big datanerd, so I really think data has the impetus to drive change. It gets peoplefocused on what we need to do and why we need to do it. Unlike anything else,data can take our personal opinion out of it, show us what's actually happeningwith our kids, and leads us to some thoughtful decision making. It gets usmoving in a way that nothing else can do besides data.
Steven：我是大数据爱好者，坚信数据能带来改变。数据让人们聚焦于两个问题——我们该做什么？我们为什么要做这些？人是有主观偏见的，数据却能够客观审视学生们到底是什么情况，让我们更审慎地决策。如果没有数据依据，这是无法想象的。
Tableau:Tell us about the Early Warning System in your district.
Tableau：说说你们学区的“早期预警系统”吧。
Steven:The early warning system is really exciting. There's been a lotof research and literature about schools creating an early warning system, sowe had a researcher study 7,000 students, most of whom who have graduated, somewho didn't. She then told us that 86 percent of the dropouts had early warningsigns or tipping points. If we could have intervened, we could have probablykept them on track.
Steven：“早期预警系统”很令人振奋。关于这种系统在学校的运用，已经有很多研究成果了，而我们也针对这边7000个学生进行了模拟研究，其中既有已顺利毕业的学生，也有未能毕业的。早期预警系统分析这些历史记录后，对86%的辍学生发出了预警信息，如果当初就有这个系统，也许我们就能及早介入，把他们带回正轨了。
So she identified tipping points from third through sixth grade.There were different tipping points for middle school and different tippingpoints for high school. What we've done slightly different than most schooldistricts is now we took that research and we turned it into a dashboardthrough Tableau.
因此，我们现在已经实际部署，用它来识别从三年级到六年级的预警信号，而且初中和高中的信号都是不同的。别的校区可能只是做做研究，而我们把这种研究落实到了Tableau的数据仪表盘上。
Tableau:Do you have a lot of data on these students?
Tableau：你们手上的学生数据很多吗？
Steven:In education, we're drowning in data; we get massive amounts ofdata. As a high school principal, I'd get volumes of reports that weregenerated downtown and sent to us— just piles of paper that we were somehowsupposed to make sense of.
Steven：在教育领域的数据多如洪水，我们早就被淹没了。作为一个高中校长，市里总会发出大量的纸质报告给我们，并希望我们能看完这一叠叠纸来管好学校。
Tableau:So the dashboard helps you manage and analyze all that data?
Tableau：那数据仪表盘可以帮你管理和分析这些数据吧？
Steven:Yes, but also we were able to customize it with Tableau.Anything else off the shelf would never have had the flexibility to do whatwe're trying to do with our schools. The goal is to act early. If you see a kidexhibiting warning signs, get to them early, and support them and keep them inschool. If we can do that, we really believe we can get to our goal of havingsingle digit dropout rates
Steven：是的，Tableau的数据处理非常灵活，这是书架上的纸质文件所不能比的。我们的目标是尽早响应，只要在一个孩子身上看到预警信号，就能尽快帮助他，把他留在学校。只要做到这一点，我们肯定能达成辍学率降到个位数的目标。
Tableau:What kind of insights did you find with the Early WarningSystem?
Tableau：你们从早期预警系统中分析出什么新情况吗？
Steven:We learned that transitions are critical for kids. And we'vealways known that, but now we're seeing the transitions and when kids areexhibiting the tipping points. For example, when kids transition up to themiddle school, it can be a really difficult transition, and about 20 percent ofour dropouts start showing warning signs in middle school. They start havingbehavior problems or start having discipline problems or their test scoresstart dropping. At the transition to high school, about 40 percent of our kidsstart exhibiting some warning signs that we'd never seen before. Some of ourvisualizations are helping catch kids fast and intervene.
Steven：我们发现升学期间对孩子们很关键，当然这本来就是常识，但现在我们还能够识别出这个关键阶段哪些孩子显示出危险信号。比如说，小升初阶段对孩子们是比较难的，在我们的初中就有20%学生在数据分析中发出警告信号，他们或者有些行为问题，或者有些纪律问题，或者测试成绩开始下滑。在初中升高中阶段，40%左右的学生又显示出新的警告信号，而且是我们以前没有发现的。所以数据可视化能帮我们尽早帮助有需要的孩子。
Tableau:Where do you store your data?
Tableau：你们的数据储存在哪里呢？
Steven:We have large amounts of data and it's all over the place. Wehave student management systems; people have Excel spreadsheets. We get SATdata, state test data, student attendance data, teacher attendance data,everything. We have volumes of data in databases, warehouses, studentmanagement systems, and business systems. We integrated our data via SQL Serverinto a data warehouse and then use Tableau to visualize our data.
Steven：我们的数据很多，且散落在不同的地方。我们有学生管理系统，里面有Excel表格。我们有SAT成绩、州测试成绩、学生考勤数据、教师考勤数据等等。我们的大量数据分布在不同的数据库、数据仓库、学生管理系统以及业务系统里。我们把这些数据通过SQL Server融合到统一的数据仓库中，再用Tableau来做这些数据的可视化。
Tableau:How do you distribute the data to users?
Tableau：你们怎么把这些数据发送给使用者呢？
Steven:We put it in a web-based tool, and then people could get to it.We've launched this to every administrator and every teacher in our schooldistrict; we have user authentication for everybody. They log on and areallowed to see the data for students that they actually work with. Once theycan get there and see that cool visualization, then they really get excited andthey can alter it and do things with Tableau that they couldn't do in any otherproduct.
Steven：我们把数据放在网上，大家都可以接入使用。学区里的每个管理者和教师都有自己的账号，登录后可以看到自己管理的学生们的数据。他们在看到这些可视化数据时，都挺兴奋的，
Tableau:How has Tableau changed day-to-day work?
Tableau：那么Tableau是怎么帮你们改变日常工作方式呢？
Steven:Counselors and administrators have been really excited becauseit's brought a whole bunch of data sources together that they've never beenable to see together. In the old system, it was like I would see your name, I'dclick on you, I'd open it up, I'd see your data, I'd shut that down, I'd go tothe next person. Teachers had to go like 30 times into 30 different kids, or ifyou're a secondary teacher, 150 kids. It just kind of overwhelmed you if youwanted to see particular data. So to have it all there in one location, that'sbeen really helpful to teachers.
We don't want them spending hours and hours creating Excelspreadsheets; we want them acting on the data. Our goal is to get it into theirhands quickly so that they can manipulate and alter the data really fast and godo their work.
Steven：学校管理层很喜欢它展示出来的整体数据图形。以前的旧系统中，你只能看到一个名字，点击进去，看到这个学生的个人数据，然后还得关闭窗口去看另一个学生，繁琐得很。老师要打开30次窗口来看30个学生的数据。如果是中学老师，那就是150个学生。这样统计数据令人精疲力尽，所以Tableau把这些数据统一展现出来，自然对老师很有帮助。
作为管理者，我们可不希望教师的精力都被浪费在处理Excel表格上，而是希望他们利用现成的数据去改进教学。我们应该把这些处理好的数据快速交付到老师们手中，他们可以自由修改，并应用于自己的教学工作中。
Tableau:How has analytics changed the education systems?
Tableau：那么数据分析又是怎么改变教育体系的呢？
Steven:We're asking principals and teachers to use data unlike everbefore. We're asking folks to make changes in students' test scores, instudents' trajectories, get students to college. We're asking more of ourschool system than we've ever asked before. So it's critical that they have thedata to act on, and they know exactly how they're doing and what they're ableto do.
Steven：我们现在对校长和老师们的教学要求比以前更高了，他们必须提高学生成绩和升学率，还要纠正学习习惯，这样一来，他们肯定需要相应的数据支撑，也需要了解怎么使用这些数据。
Tableau has increased the efficiency of what we're able todeliver data. It’s so much smarter, more effective and targeted; it allowseveryone to act quicker. They used to send their data downtown. A month later,they’d get this Excel spreadsheet and it was too late. They'd say, "I'malready moved on, I needed it that week." Now with Tableau, we can deliverit within 24 or 48 hours.
I've been able to give them tools to help them be more effectiveprincipals and teachers to get more kids to graduate, more kids topost-secondary, more kids to college.
Tableau显著提高了我们处理分发数据的效率，更快，更智能化，更精准。以前校长和老师们把相关数据送到市里，一个月后才能拿到处理完的Excel表格，太慢了。他们说：“我等不及数据到手，都已经先开始工作了。我需要的是下周就拿到数据。”现在呢，只需要24到48小时，就可以把数据给他们，从而帮助更多的学生顺利毕业和升学。
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Hattiesburg Public School: A lens to see who the student reallyis
哈蒂斯堡市的公立中学：一枚反映学生真实情况的透镜
原文链接：https://www.tableau.com/solutions/customer/tableau-gave-us-lens-see-who-student-really
Schools involve complex data that’s not easily understood: thatdata is vitally important during the formative years of middle school. In thisvideo, N.R. Burger Middle School Principal Dr. Robert Williams shares howTableau helps him make the “move from notebooks and numbers to actual data anddecisions."
学校管理涉及五花八门的数据，难以一眼看透，可是这些数据对正处于性格成长阶段的学生们是至关重要的。本案例中，哈蒂斯堡市的N.R.Burger中学校长Robert Williams与我们分享了“如何从简单的文字与数字档案进化到真正的数据与决策”的经验。
Tableau:How does data analysis make a difference for students?
Tableau：数据分析对学生们有什么帮助吗？
Dr. Robert Williams, Principal N.R. Burger Middle School:One of the keythings as a middle school or being a middle school principal, you often havefeeder schools that feed into your school. And at N.R. Burger Middle School, wehave six elementary schools that feed into N.R. Burger Middle School. At thebeginning of the school year, it is very rare that a principal would know orhave knowledge of any of the new students.
Robert：每个中学都有一些生源小学，比如在我们N.R.Burger中学，就有6所小学向我们输送新生。作为校长，开学时对这些稚嫩的新面孔总是一无所知的。
I had opportunity this year to encounter a student twice on thefirst two days of school. And both of their experiences tended to not be on thepositive side.
In the past, I would have gotten onto the child, question him,or would have proceeded to do some type of disciplinary action. Through use ofTableau, I was able to pull up the Tableau dashboard online and look at astudent profile sheet. And from the student profile sheet, I was able to gathersome information. That information did not match the behavior that I wasobserving from the student. I actually contacted the parent and she said, "Well,Dr. Williams, the student this summer had someone put a gun up to his head. Sohe's been real disconnected."
今年我恰巧遇到了一个问题新生，他在开学的头两天都表现很差。放在过去，我会找这个学生面谈，并可能会简单处罚一下。现在我通过Tableau去在线查看他的档案数据，发现他以前表现良好，不是个坏学生。为此我联系了他的家长，才知道这次暑假期间，这个孩子被坏人拿枪指着头威胁过，心理受到了刺激，有离群的倾向。
So immediately, I was able to connect this student with someservices and now that student is our student of the month. We're able to gethim connected to the classroom again. So Tableau was very pivotal in thatinformation because it provided us with a data profile of the student and hisprevious five years in our school district—and it gave me a lens into what Iwas observing and how it is not actually the student that he is.
于是我立即为这个学生做了特殊安排，专门帮助他。现在他入学一个月了，已经成功融入了班集体。这就是Tableau的作用，通过数据分析我能了解到这个学生5年来的相关信息，就像一枚透镜，从表现中看到他的本质。
Tableau:How has data been handled in education in the past?
Tableau：在以前，我们是如何使用学生数据的呢？
Robert:Often in education, we keep student information in folders,notebooks, that are often located in your office. However, we do not operateschools from our offices. Learning takes place in the classrooms.
Through the use of Tableau, we're able to bring multiple datasets and live data into the classroom from the administrator's standpoint ofstudents.
With Tableau, you're able to carry that information within asecure setting, which is located on the mobile device or the PC or the Mac. Andit is user name and password protected. Once we're through with theinformation, you just simply log off.
Robert：以前啊，我们都是记录在本子上、放在抽屉中、锁在你的办公室里。可是我们管理学校又不能只坐在办公室里，教室才是真正的管理现场。
通过Tableau，我们能够带着全校学生的多维实时数据进入班级，可以在智能手机上查看，也可以在电脑上。考虑到信息安全，还有相应的账号分层结构，需要的时候登录一下，不需要的时候登出就可以了。
Tableau:Why is this important?
Tableau：为什么你们会重视这些数据的分析？
Robert:The mission of N.R. Burger Middle School is to educate allstudents to become academically proficient and socially responsible.
We're using Tableau to make sure that we are actually fulfillingour mission on the day-to-day basis, making sure we're checking and trackingacademic proficiency and the responsibility by students as it relates toattendance as well as academics.
Robert：N.R. Burger中学的宗旨是培养学业好、社会责任感强的双优学生。通过分析数据，我们才能跟踪学生们在成绩与社会实践上的实际进展，对我们的录取标准来说，两者是一样重要的。
Tableau:Does anyone use the data besides teachers?
Tableau：除了老师以外，还有其它人使用这些数据吗？
Robert:We do share the information I shared with our guidancedepartment so that they can create and design and focus their work on meetingthe needs of students. We share our attendance data, attendance trends, withour attendance clerk as well as our attendance officers to make sure that weare working with our students as it relates to attendance.
But also we share the information with parents so that parentscan have a linear message with their students and their child—so that we canall come together and work and make sound decisions for students.
Robert：学生指导部有使用校长级的数据，以便优化他们工作来满足学生需求。考勤管理部门也会使用学生的签到记录与趋势数据，帮助改善学风。同时，我们也把学生的信息分享给他的家长，推动家校互通来更好地培养孩子。
Tableau:How do you feel overall about doing data analysis with Tableau?
Tableau：总体来说，使用Tableau处理数据的感觉如何？
Robert:I am just very excited about the opportunities that Tableaubrings not only our school, our school district, but also to our staff and ourstudents. It enables us to make timely, effective decisions to truly move fromnotebooks and numbers to actual data and decisions.
Robert：蛮激动人心的。Tableau不仅仅对我这个校长有帮助，它还能帮助学校的教职人员与学生。它使我们能够超越一叠叠记着数字的本子，用真正的数据来做出实时高效的决策。
Tableau:What devices do you use to access Tableau?
Tableau：你们一般用什么设备来接入Tableau？
Robert:We use PC, Macs, and we are able to pull it up on my iPad. Sothose are three of the key devices that I use.
The mobile apps were very interesting to me. Being able tomanipulate the data sets from the mobile device and improving the userfriendliness of the mobile applications. Oftentimes, if you're focusing onintensive work with multiple data sets, you tend to have a lot of paper, a lotof binders, a lot of notebooks that are just in the conference room that youhave multiple eyes upon.
Robert：PC电脑、Mac电脑、iPad，主要就这三种。另外我觉得手机APP也不错，以前处理大量数据的时候，总是要在会议室里展开大堆的纸质表单、文件夹、笔记本，一双双眼睛盯得发麻，现在可以直接在手机上操作和查看数据了，用户体验还不错。
本文来自投稿，作者许贤彬，欢迎通过微信（微信号：rex_xu）与作者交流。
