The advent of smart cities means big things not only for city administrations but also for the educational institutions which function within their parameters. Data collection sensors have proved extremely valuable in projects such as Chicago’s Array of Things. This information could be used to notify educators of everything from student health to icy spots on campuses.

How so? Well, a recent report on the project indicates that wind-pattern data from the project was used to help schools in the area change up their operations in order to decrease the amount of student asthma attacks. This, in turn, helped area schools reduce absences as a whole. 

This is one very acute example of a fantastic trend. Smart city data is helping to solve educational challenges for all schools within their parameters, be them K-12 institutions or universities.

Data Sharing Helps Disadvantaged Schools Be Better

The sad reality about the modern public school district is that a lot of them are struggling to stay afloat from a financial perspective. Schools within these districts aren’t able to fund their own data-collection initiatives because there just isn’t enough money to go around.

This is where working with the community in a smart city and sharing data points can do wonders. For example, Metro Nashville Public Schools have used a data-sharing agreement with the community to powerful effect.

Using community data on the types of after-school programs that have proven the most effective and popular among the student populace in the area, administrators within the district were able to tweak their offerings in such a way that they saw tangible improvements to their student body’s overall reading comprehension.

Sharing Is Caring, And It’s Essential For Schools Too

The Fresno (California) Unified School District is another cash-strapped district has leaned on the help of smart city-data. The best thing about their data-sharing agreement with the City of Fresno is that it helped make them less financially unstable as a whole.

With the help of smart city data, the Fresno Unified School District was able to completely optimize its budget. In doing so, the district was able to allocate resources in such a way that the right programs were funded at the right times to help students where and when they needed it the most.

“The problems out there are enormous and too large for any one entity to tackle on its own,” says David Jansen, FUSD manager of application development. And he’s right.

Increasing Efficiency Across The Board

Cash-hurting school districts have too many problems and too little resources to fix them with efficacy and efficiency. For example, New York City school districts have benefited from data sharing when it comes to the analysis of public transportation data.

Parent complaints about inefficient systems for dropping students off and picking them up have decreased after officials were able to analyze this data and come up with solutions – something they wouldn’t have been able to do on their own accord. 

This is just another acute example of how smart city data isn’t just helping cities themselves, but helping educational institutions manage their problems to better serve the populace.