Why Do We Act Like Data Is Magical?

Data can be really useful if you need to answer a specific question to make a specific decision.

For example, as a teacher, if you're looking to make pacing decisions, you know, do I keep teaching this?

Do I reteach?

Do I explain it a different way?

Do we do some more practice or do we move on?

Classroom data, formative assessment data is really important for answering that type of question.

But I'm really puzzled at the increased use and almost worship of interim benchmark assessment data and other kinds of data that aren't really designed to help you make those moment by moment decisions.

And I think one of the biggest culprits that I see in so many schools is using those interim benchmark assessments like MAP from NWEA as an assessment I used as a principal.

It's an assessment my kids have taken since they've been in school.

I think it's a great assessment, but what it's not is curriculum based.

It is not designed to say, well, you just did this unit.

Now here, we're going to ask your students some questions about what they learned in that unit.

It's not like that.

So when you get your data back, you see, okay, your kids did poorly on all the things that you haven't taught yet.

Big surprise, right?

Well, if we take this so seriously, and put so much stock in this data that we mess up our curriculum map say oh we got low scores and you know fractions and we haven't taught fractions yet well don't teach fractions at a time when you don't need to teach fractions just to make the test happy like teach them when your curriculum map says to when your scope and sequence says to and when it makes sense the way your curriculum is designed because what i see a lot of schools doing is they'll take their data they will go through this almost religious ritual of looking at their data and looking at the item analysis and what their students missed and what they've been teaching.

And they'll like mess up their curriculum and move everything around so that they can try to hit on everything that shows up as a weak area in their interim benchmark assessment.

And it's like, that's not what that assessment is for.

If the curriculum map needs to change, I think, you know, there's a valid discussion.

If that's the kind of question you're looking to answer, then certainly that is a good reason to look at data.

But when the curriculum map is not being touched and individual teacher teams are told to look at this data and then make some instructional decisions about it, if it's not curriculum-based data and these, you know, these commercially published or, you know, computer-based, you know, benchmark assessments are not curriculum aligned, right?

They're designed to be standardized and to show growth and things like that.

Like, if we're moving things around willy-nilly just to make the test happy, teaching is going to get worse.

So I think my general takeaway here is we don't need to think of data as having this kind of magical power, and we don't need to go through this ritual of looking at data with this unjustified belief that it's going to just automatically make things better, right?

Like, look at data if you have a decision to make.

Look at data if you need to...

really decide something.

But if not, you don't really need to look at data.

Look at your classroom data.

Look at your formative assessment data.

Let me know what you are hearing in your school or district.

Is data being worshipped?

Is data being overused?

Is it a waste of time?

Let me know what you think.