Most leaders are former teachers. And to be honest, most teachers didn't start in the field of education because they loved data. They loved children, their content area, or wanted to make a difference. Chances are that most of us grew through our outcomes to love and get really nerdy with data. Since many teachers get into the field due to a passion for helping children succeed, it is the job of leadership to help teachers understand data.
There are two extremes to data. One extreme is the ultra-focused data-obsessed culture where there is an absence of viewing students as people. Each move by teachers and students feels scrutinized. This often happens when schools feel pressured or have not embraced other aspects of their students that can't be quantified through data. This environment often has not identified which data points are actually the most important to focus on. This extreme leaves teachers and students stressed because they never feel they can do anything in the spirit of just learning. The second extreme is avoiding data until it's too late. The passive approach "assumes" students are learning but doesn't assess what has been learned. This extreme seems vague about the measurable outcomes so teachers don't know how students perform until a major assessment. Both extremes do a disservice to students.
Data doesn't have to be scary or even resolved in the moment. Identifying how students are answering comprehension questions is data! An exit ticket % is data! The % of students who can write strong claims for essays is data! The point is people often fear data because it sounds so formal and performative. Questions of "what if the data isn't right?" come up. Not all data has equal weight. Not all data will even need to be formally recorded. Data is our friend, not our enemy. It's our friend because despite our fears as leaders and teachers, the data is sometimes positive.
Three tips to use data authentically:
1. Leverage technology. The easiest way to collect easy data in a way that is authentic to the lesson is through virtual exit tickets. Technology helps teachers and leaders speak the same language. "They did well" means the same thing when both people can see the % or category. By helping a teacher transfer over from majority paper assignments, I had a better understanding of how individual cohorts performed on multiple choice assignments and could create goals we bot agreed upon.
2. Divide student work into piles for an easy look at data. If teachers get into this practice, it becomes easy to identify student trends overtime. Lessons can be tailored to work on priority skills or the teacher knows what feedback and support to give subsets of students.
3. Share data with students!
They do math pie charts in class, so why can't they see the breakdown of performance on quizzes and tests? For older students, they can even maintain a tracker of their assessment scores to foster more ownership. If we expect students to perform a certain way, we should be forthcoming about performance in a way that celebrates high-achievement but also protects the privacy of those underperforming.
We know children are not testing machine robots. However, we also know that measuring skills helps us see how students are performing which gives us a window into their future. Through a normed understanding of what data should be used, how data should be analyzed, and how to use it to drive instruction, schools can create an even stronger collaborative culture among teachers.
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