ABSTRACT

Many school districts now have excellent Information Technology (IT) staffs that tell their administrators that they can build a data warehouse in-house for less than they can purchase a warehouse from a vendor. There is no doubt that wonderful IT staffs can do the work. The challenge is the amount of time it takes for them to develop the warehouse, produce meaningful reports, and then keep the warehouse working. Additionally, we have to consider what happens with the work the IT staffs were originally hired to do while they are building this major tool and the work that we need them to do to prepare the data for any warehouse, whether the district builds it or buys it. The homegrown data warehouse often takes years to develop, years that could be spent preparing and analyzing the data and making improvements to teaching and learning based on the data. Furthermore, a homegrown data warehouse may not be cheaper than a purchased one, especially when you figure in the salary and benefits of additional staff the district would have to secure to do the work the IT staff members would be doing if they were not creating a warehouse. To add to this, unless the district has security/network administrators, web developers, and database administrators, it is almost impossible to create a system as robust as what is available for purchase.

The homegrown data warehouse often takes years to develop, years that could be spent preparing and analyzing the data and making improvements to teaching and learning based on the data.