School Districts and Open Data: CPS Apples2Apples

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In my previous blog posting I discussed some of the problems with accountability data schools generate and the accessibility of that data by parents, business people and tax payers. The accountability portals and school websites do not speak to the issues that these groups of citizens are seeking. Parents in particular are looking for ways to engage with the district and that want that engagement to be data driven. That is, decisions by school administrators, parents, voters on referendums should be based on data rather than Colbert's brilliant fake word "Truthiness".

Apples2Apples: The Good Stuff
What could a data driven school portal look like? It could be a Socrata or CKAN instance run by the district or parents. One does not have to imagine what a school open data portal would like. +Jeanne Marie Olson pointed me to CPS Apples2Apples. This is an excellent example of open data using open source tools and crowd-sourcing the effort to create an engaging data experience.
Fusion Table from the Apples2Apples website. White circles with stars are new charter schools. Red circles with stars are closed schools within the CPS system. I would like to see a demographic layer added to this data set showing income distribution along with crime to tell the real story.

Caveats:

Not all of the data fits the technical definition of open data
Some of the arguments made in my last post concerning the re-usability of PDFs, photos and the like also hold true for Apples2Apples
The proposed principle I have stated concerning authority is lacking. Note that I will be writing a blog post in the near future regarding the "authority principle" and why it is so important in open data initiatives.
I do not see a sustainability plan, policy, governance model or a clear way groups of parents can collaborate.
All of that being said, the use of Fusion Tables in Google, the FAQ, the About page and the appearance of some machine readable data is certainly exciting.

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