Educational Leadership Data Now What The Learning Leader Lookin 1 of 2 http www ascd org publications educational leadership dec08 vol66 n Countdown to Annual Conference Orlando Fla March 13 16 2009 ASCD HOME ASCD JOIN ASCD MY ASCD Educational Leadership About ASCD MEMBER SIGN IN Join Membership Username or Customer ID Research A Topic Password Publications Blog Books Educational Leadership E Publications Lexicon of Learning Newsletters Past ASCD Publications Professional Development Conferences Initiatives Programs News Media Public Policy ASCD Store MISSION ASCD is a membership organization that develops programs products and services essential to the way educators learn teach and lead December 2008 January 2009 Volume 66 Number 4 Data Now What Pages 89 90 The Learning Leader Looking Deeper Into the Data Forgot your Username or Password JOIN ASCD MEMBER BENEFITS Douglas B Reeves You need to make data driven decisions intoned the workshop leader I doubt that any of the teachers and administrators in the audience intended to make ignorancedriven decisions In fact few school leaders are experiencing December 2008 January 2009 a shortage of data Most are actually drowning in data with a wealth of test scores student demographic information and an increasing load of formative assessment data that may or may not be worthy of the name Popham 2008 The challenge is facing both an overabundance of data and a scarcity of information that educators can readily use to make better decisions Data Everywhere and Nowhere My observations in three recent school visits in the western mid western and eastern United States illustrate the point In the first more than a ream of paper containing test data sat on the principal s desk the paper still shrink wrapped in plastic where it had been since last April unopened by the overwhelmed principal In the second district I conducted a focus group of 15 principals who were promised confidentiality in exchange for candor 14 of them confessed to never having used the multi million dollar data warehouse their district had purchased The third district was loaded to the gills with advanced technology for downloading and analyzing data yet the teachers of an elementary school with more than 800 students were printing every test score grade and demographic characteristic of students on chart paper for their data analysis meetings It s easier this way the principal explained Navigating the Data River We are here to help 1703 North Beauregard St Alexandria VA 22311 1714 Tel 1 800 933 ASCD 2723 Fax 1 703 575 5400 8 00 a m to 6 00 p m EST Monday through Friday Local to the D C area 703 578 9600 press 1 Toll free from U S and Canada 1 800 933 ASCD 2723 press 1 All other countries International Access Code 1 703 578 9600 press 1 Here are four tips for gaining control over the flood of data that threatens to engulf us First commit to data analysis as a continuous process not an event A study by the Bay Area School Reform Collaborative Oberman Symonds 2005 revealed that schools that reviewed data several times each month were far more likely to close achievement gaps than those that reviewed data only a few times a year Second start with a clearly focused question such as What are our greatest areas of strength in literacy for our 8th grade students Which specific math skills are weakest in 4th grade How do the vocabulary scores of our students who receive free and reduced price lunch differ from those of our economically advantaged students How are the scores of students who attend school at least 90 percent of the time different from those of students who attend less than 90 percent What is the relationship between the two previous questions that is are students who are disadvantaged also more likely to be absent from school Having a clearly focused question will avoid the tedious and time wasting exercise of trolling through spreadsheets papers and databases without any direction Third develop a schoolwide culture of hypothesis testing in which teachers consider their assumptions before they look at the data Consider two examples If a topic was on the pacing chart in October and the teacher has covered it then students will have learned it if the topic was not yet covered then the students will not have learned it Although this seems straightforward and even obvious I have challenged teachers in several schools to test the hypothesis with data If the hypothesis were true then students taking a formative assessment in February should ace the material covered in October and fail the material scheduled to be covered in April In fact the reality of student mobility and student inattention may render these assumptions inappropriate Here s another common hypothesis If students performed poorly on a math test then we need to drill them harder on math skills That s possible but it is also possible that the root 1 15 2009 1 09 PM Educational Leadership Data Now What The Learning Leader Lookin 2 of 2 http www ascd org publications educational leadership dec08 vol66 n cause of low math scores is students inability to read the problem or in the case of open response items students inability to express their responses in writing Permissions and Translations Print This Page Send to a Friend Fourth go beyond the numbers to consider causes of student success and failure When the only data available are student demographic characteristics then it is easy to assume that the causes of high or low achievement are related to family income ethnicity gender and primary language Such an analysis avoids a consideration of the powerful influences of teaching practices curriculum and feedback just to name a few variables you won t find in a data warehouse It s easy to create PowerPoint slides and wall charts showing data It s more challenging but more important to have discussions about how the classroom experiences of students differ ASCD recognizes and respects intellectual property rights and adheres to copyright law Learn about our rights and permissions policies More For example one school system examined the time devoted to literacy in 67 elementary schools Although the system leaders believed that there was a consistent districtwide literacy program an examination of time and test scores revealed striking differences with the time devoted to literacy ranging from 45 to 180 minutes When teachers plotted the percentage of students who scored proficient or higher in reading they learned