The greatest strength of a data warehouse is providing its users ability to retrieve data themselves rather than having to contact someone from the Department of Education, for example. Now when a student has mastered first grade reading, he doesn't spend the next two to three months wasting time. He moves on to second grade reading. Not only will Beaufort Public Schools be using their warehouse to facilitate continuous progress, they will be able to explain how each and every dollar is being spent within each of their schools. Without data warehousing, someone would have to go to each individual school to find out how much, where and why they are spending their money the way they are.
Taxpayers demand such fiscal information.
Depending upon access provided, the taxpayer may log onto the Web and get the information herself. Data mining is the process through which high-value information is extracted from large volumes of data through the development of various statistical models. Data mining technologies allows for sifting through of enormous amounts of data for unusual patterns, surprising trends and interesting outcomes. A district can then move beyond simply answering questions posed by educators and researchers and begin to uncover key questions previously not even considered. He has a vision for the power of data warehousing and in particular, data mining.