Data...its the new F word

            When you think about teaching, does the word data ever come into play? If I was teaching math, of course, but as  far as teaching in general? Data and teaching seemed like oil and water, there would never be a chance in God’s green earth they would work together.  Come 2010…that statement proved wrong and we have now become a data driven profession (Boudett, et. al, 2014). 

            But, for some, teaching has become too data driven. If we stop to thinl for a minute though, what is data in teaching? Data can simply be looking at grades from a recent test.  Yes, it can be as simple as that. Shocking right? It was common knowledge that the former ways of education made it seem like test data was more for the student not necessarily for the teacher. If students failed a test, they had to make sure they did better the next time.  Now, its not as simple.  This idea of reteaching comes directly from this idea of that we use data to inform our instruction.  I don’t recall many of my teachers using reteaching, as most of the things we learned seemed cyclical in nature. The idea of reteaching didn’t seem to come into conversation.  However, as standards change and new assessments ask students to do more, maybe it’s a good idea to try and reteach?

            The problem comes back to time. We never have time to really sit down and analyze the data. We have to back up for a second and look at what is our data. For me, its always about writing.  Whether we have expository or argumentative essays, it comes back to the idea of analyzing what kind of output students are creating and if they are mastering the concepts. As Boudett, et. al (2014) show, it is about “Helping teachers see the big picture also means managing expectations around the question of how soon it is reasonable to expect to see improvements in scores on tests used for accountability purposes” (p. 183).  For many instructors, the goals of mastering a concept may differ as far as time goes, but I do feel we have to be realistic. When it comes to teacher made assessments, students can be required to reach that 100 percent mark. We control what goes on in our classroom, we control what the environment looks like.  In a state testing situation, we have no impact on what the room looks like or feels like.  Based on my reading, it doesn’t seem unreasonable to have realistic expectations when it comes to a state assessment (Boudett, et. al, 2014).

References

Boudett, K. P., City, E.A., Murnane, R.J. (2014). Data wise: A step-by-step guide to using assessment        results to improve teaching and learning. Cambridge, MA: Harvard Education Press.