I can't believe this particular topic has caused me to begin writing!! I can't believe that this would be my first post, but it is....my take on the data dilemma!!
What is it about data that gets everyone's blood boiling? To me, data has been something I've always thought of as one part of a sometimes complicated student profile. To me, data can give me a clearer picture of a student who may not be performing. To me, data helps me make instructional decisions about individuals and groups of students. I have never seen data as the enemy, but I am finding out that many classroom teachers cringe, cry, and feel outrage when the "d" word is spoken. I have used student data even before it was popular to use it. Back in the day I looked at the results of the CAT, MAT, and Gates-McGinitie reading tests to help me make decisions about the students in my classroom. Today, 25 years later, we have data coming out of our ears and I think it is our responsibliity to harness that number overload to make it usable and comprehensible for everyone: parents, students, teachers, and people like me......literacy coaches. Unfortunately, that is a difficult task when teachers have the notion that some of us only care about numbers and that we've lost the "human factor." Not true.
What do we do with data? Well, we use it during Progress Monitoring meetings to check on students who are receiving extra help in math and reading. Once each marking period we meet with teachers to get a snapshot of student progress in programs like Read Naturally, Read 180, LANGUAGE! and ALEKS. This helps us know if students are "making progress."
