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Duke eye center opens new entrance
ONE ONE HUNDRED HUNDRED AND AND EIGHTH NINTHYEAR, YEAR,ISSUE ISSUEXXX 55
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November Dances program flourishes at Duke
by Jen Chen
The ChroniCle
A new temporary entrance to the Duke eye Center will benefit patients while construction is ongoing. Since April 2012, the parking area in front of the main entrance to the eye Center has been blocked by construction of its new building, requiring patients entering the Center to navigate past the construction zone. The main entrance was replaced by a temporary patient entrance Monday. The new entrance, located at the north end of the building, aims to make patients’ travels easier, wrote Michael howard, chief operating officer of the Duke eye Center, in an email Tuesday. “The new entrance opened yesterday allows for convenient patient drop-off and pick-up,” howard wrote. “Patients have commented on how nice the new entrance appears and how much they look forward to coming to the new eye Center.” The creation of a new eye Center building is the result of a $12 million donation from lC industries—the largest employer of visually impaired people in the country, according to a publication from the eye Center. The eye Center’s current home, the Wadsworth building, is almost 40 years old and was intended to accommodate See EYE CENTER, page 4
by Katie Fernelius The ChroniCle
Duke is notable as a basketball legacy, as a premier research institution, as a hallmark liberal-arts education and, most recently, as a victorious underdog in football, but little is said publicly about the blossoming arts culture at Duke, particularly in the Dance Program. The Dance Program at Duke has
been present since the 1930s when it was part of the physical education program, but over the years it has grown into a freestanding program with both a major and a minor. The program has grown substantially in the last six years with the tripling of full-time faculty. its success as a program is impossible to ignore as an intrinsic component of arts culture at Duke.
This weekend, Duke will feature its faculty and student dancers and choreographers in their annual fall showcase, november Dances. The performance will feature pieces choreographed by faculty in ballet, modern and African dance, as well as performances choreographed by Dance Program students. See dANCEs, page 4 DaN SCHeIrer/The ChroniCle File PhoTo
North Carolina rated highly in educational data usage by Gautam Hathi The ChroniCle
north Carolina is among one of the top-performing states regarding educational data usage, according to a recent report by the Data Quality Campaign. The campaign released the results of its ninth survey looking at the use of data in education across 49 states and Washington, D.C. Monday. The report analyzed the steps that states have taken to collect, analyze, use and communicate educational data. Specifically, the report looked at 10 actions states could take to make the best use of data—such as linking data systems and raising awareness of available data—and which states had taken these actions. north Carolina has taken action in eight out of the 10 areas, according to the report.
“We have to focus on what people’s questions are if we truly want to make sure that data is not just data sitting on the shelf, that it is actionable information that meets people’s needs,” said Aimee Guidera, Data Quality Campaign founder and executive director, in a media conference call discussing the report. Some of the action areas in the report included linking K-12 data with college and career data and providing teachers and parents access to data on students, as well as promoting research based on educational data. The Data Quality Campaign claims that states that take these actions are most likely to reap benefits from educational data. “What we’ve really seen this year as one of the biggest changes is focusing
on getting the appropriate access of the right data to the right people at the right time with the end goal of improving student achievement,” Guidera said. According to the report, north Carolina still needs to take further action to provide good support for its data systems and allow broad access to data while protecting privacy. But overall, north Carolina appears to be doing a good job collecting and leveraging educational data. north Carolina has high-quality data resources available to researchers and others interested in improving education said Jacob Vigdor, professor of public policy and economics. “north Carolina has some very good resources,” he said. “We of course have things like standardized test scores, which are tracked over time, but there
are a lot of other resources which are linked.” For example, Vigdor said, researchers can correlate north Carolina educational data with student location data at birth or student career data. Vigdor also pointed out that Duke plays an important role in supporting the state of north Carolina’s educational data resources. “A lot of the data resources are archived right on campus at Duke in the north Carolina education research Data Center,” he said. Kristen Stephens, associate professor of the practice of education, said the way data is used in education is changing from a focus on determining student See EdUCATION, page 10