Is Moneyball the next big thing in education?

Abstract

Predictive analytics in education can offer a benefit as long as educators heed the differences between how the tools are used in industry and how they should be used differently in schooling. Perhaps most important, teachers already know a great deal about their students — far more than an investor knows about a stock or a baseball scout about an up-and-coming pitcher. In fact, teachers are a veritable treasure trove of data on student behaviors, attitudes, and aspirations, information not typically included in a statistical model. Teachers also have far more power to shape what happens to students, an influence driven in part by their opinions of each child. Using predictive analytics in education while ignoring these differences may lead not only to misidentifying students at risk of dropping out but also negatively influence how teachers view those students.