This site was established in March 2013, exactly ten years ago. We noticed there were three important developments have happened during that ten-year period.

• Data Science (DS) profession has developed faster than EA. The adoptions of DS by all industry types have begun many years ago, especially by the credit card companies. After the Association was established, DS adoption has accelerated in the fastest pace in part because of the technology advancements, market competition, availability of big data gathered through internet, and the availability of cheaper data storages.
• Majority of higher education institutions in the US are offering Data Science program at all levels, i.e., Certificates, Undergraduate, Masters’ and Ph.D.
• However, the EA adoption, by US Colleges and Universities is lagging. Compared to the non-education industry. That is to say, the growth of EA adoption is not significant enough. The question that one might have is, why?

Harvard University took the lead to encourage higher education institutions in the US to apply or use institutional historical data in decision making process. Traditionally, this role supposed to be promoted through Institutional Research Association. However, past data showed that most institutions stressed two areas (1). Reporting purposes to both federal, state entities such as IPEDS as well as private data gathering organizations such as USNEWS or College Board; and (2). The most that Colleges and Universities did in the past were to have some sort of data visualization, generated mainly using Excel, before adopting either Tableau or Power BI software.

The College of Education at Harvard, through the Center of Education Policy Research launched the so-called the Strategic Data Project (SDP) initiative. Various programs are offered under the SDP project, where recently not only higher education institutions can participate in the initiative, but also PreK-12 institutions well. Harvard has taken the lead to promote data-driven decision making process for higher ed, for it has the abundant resources to accomplish such important roles.

The move that the Center has made shown that the era of making strategic decisions based on institutional historical as well as regional, state and national data has arrived, and left BAU as a history. It is truly an exciting development. However, the work has just begun, and much more need to be done. Exciting future opportunities are awaiting to be grasped.