synapse collapse

(via inboxzero)

Not many. I do, however, have an entire department, replicated 32 times across the enterprise for whom I work, that believe that if they run a report, and that data is not exact as of that second, it is not informative, accurate, or useful. We’re talking about reports showing grade/class performance across a student population of around 350,000 across the system. Reader, meet the institutional research department.

Oh, then there’s the other department, replicated 32 times across the enterprise, who also need up to the second reporting, but this time their numbers are thousands to millions. Reader, meet the Finance department.

Lets not even talk about the two-year old, still not quite grok-able Action Analytics project, which will measure the bejeezus out of whatever the project measures. But don’t ask what they’ll measure. Unless “measuring student success” means something to you. And don’t ask them why they’re measuring what they’re going to measure. Unless “improving student success” means something. This one has hope — they’ll get there eventually, but the cart is about a quarter-mile ahead of the horse who’s still trying to wake up for the day.