Teachers empower data

As a self-described data geek, I never quite understood teachers who resisted using data to drive improvement in student achievement. As a teacher, I couldn’t wait to get standardized test results back — to grab my highlighter, to see who made it over the benchmark target, and to calculate improvement. However, not everyone shared my love for data. Not only did some not like data, but they would get angry about data. Tears were shed over data.

So guess what I did to better use data to improve teaching and learning? I collected data! I interviewed teams of teachers; I had to understand both sides of the passionate debate — my love and their hate.

Thirteen primary grade teachers from four teams in three different states shared their voices for my study. All of the teachers participated in some kind of formal data-driven, decision-making process: data teams, professional learning communities, or RTI problem solving.