Can number munchers keep at-risk students from dropping out?

Higher Education, meet Moneyball.

Moneyball, this is Higher Education.

In the movie, Oakland A's General Manager Billy Beane reinvents his struggling baseball team by analyzing statistics in new ways to predict player success. In education, college managers are doing something similar to forecast student success — in admissions, advising, teaching, and more.

That's according to Marc Parry's recent article in the Chronicle of Higher Education, which notes that, in one Harvard calculus class, even who you pair up with for group discussion is determined by a computer — one that tracks how well students are doing on the material.

OK, we agree that it's a little scary.

But if it's working to keep Harvard students in school, we'd like to see some pilot projects implemented at the high school level for keeping at-risk students in school.

Come on, data crunchers and number munchers. Who's on first?