Education Data. What is it good for?
Another day, another push to limit the number of tests students receive. The Fordham Institute’s Andy Smarick offers eight benefits of annual testing of all kids. But as he points out, it’s only a benefit if it’s used and … useful.
We wouldn’t think of cutting back on data in medicine, because it is endlessly useful. Just as electronic health records provide doctors with access to a patient’s full medical history and reminders about treatment needs, education data should also provide teachers and other education decision makers with actionable information.
But according to a new Vanderbilt study, only a fraction of the teacher effectiveness data collected are actually used by principals to inform their hiring, placement, evaluation, support and teacher leadership decisions.
It’s time to apply a “usefulness” standard to make sure we’re collecting information that actually can be drawn upon to change schools for the better.
Jay J. Pfeiffer, a consultant on statewide longitudinal-data systems and I wrote a piece published in Education Week offering guidelines for making education data useful. I’ve updated them here.
1. Engage teachers and decision makers in the design of the tools used to collect data. According to a Governing survey “40 states offer feedback or growth reports to teachers based on student-performance data.” But, are the data included what teachers want and need? Asking those who perform the work to provide input in the design of the data-collection and -reporting tools they will use makes abundant sense.
2. Create regular opportunities to huddle around the data. In addition to setting aside time for training, statewide longitudinal-data systems should create regularly scheduled opportunities for teachers to gather and strategize about particular students who are struggling. This effort would be improved by more detailed and timely student-performance information. Currently, the data that school systems collect and report to states is too often limited to only what is required under the federal No Child Left Behind Act: standardized-test results for reading and math in grades 3–8; science- and writing-test scores in at least one grade at the elementary, middle, and high school levels; and graduation rates. While valuable, this information will be vastly improved with data that teachers can use to tailor lessons to students, such as which courses students took in prior years and the grades they received, and the students’ writing samples, diagnostic test results, and participation in tutoring programs.
3. Tailor reports to your audience. “Useful” means many things and has many audiences. There are so many stakeholders interested in how schools are performing, but they often want different things at different points in time. While teachers focus on their classes or specific students, superintendents may examine the impact of a new curriculum or teachers hired from a specific college. At the same time, parents are more likely to look at school and teacher-level performance. Some districts have learned the hard way the limitations of what data can and cannot show. That doesn’t mean the underlying data was useless; it just wasn’t the right tool for the job (akin to measuring air temperature with a stethoscope).
4. Continuously hone validity and accuracy. The exclusive focus on summative tests and “accountability” often viewed as punitive and unfair risks a serious crisis of confidence in the power of education data. As some school districts have shown, student test scores alone are not valid measures of teacher performance. Instead of tunnel vision focused on narrow test results, statewide longitudinal-data systems have the opportunity to become highly developed instrument panels that guide teaching with a host of information about students, not just test scores. Further, using data not only improves teaching effectiveness, but also improves the data. The more educators study it, the more they understand and can perfect what is being measured.
Just as electronic health records and disease registries are fueling greater discoveries and personalized patient care, education data must become a necessity of teaching. What are some other ways to make education data more useful?
Visit our web site to learn more about IEBC’s work to make data useful: www.iebcnow.org
