Is your kid's school using technology in innovative, exceptional, or surprising ways? I'm not talking only about in-the-classroom use of computers; I'm also referring to technology that's being deployed behind the scenes.

An upcoming InformationWeek feature story is spotlighting technology trends in education, specifically how some U.S. schools are using sophisticated data analysis tools to dig into student, school, and district performance data. By analyzing these trends, these schools are hoping to uncover new insights to help kids achieve.

The U.S. education system (especially public schools) always seems to be on the defensive, needing to explain why kids flunk out, drop out, rank low in math and science skills compared with other nations, and suffer from a host of other embarrassing troubles.

Surely, there's a range of many issues at work and technology isn't going to solve all those problems. But technology could help shed new light on what's going on below the surface.

If technology is helping (or hoping) to turn things around at your local schools (or helping your schools continue on a trajectory of greatness,) tell me about it.

And while you're at it, if there's a phenomenal education sector CIO you'd like to nominate for InformationWeek's 2008 chief of the year, let me know about that, too.

Let's get a discussion going. Maybe we can all learn something new.