From the 'Using Data' Blog: "Data Analysis" vs. Data-Driven Dialogue
July 14, 2010
The following is a blog entry copied from http://usingdata.wordpress.com. Please visit the UD blog for more insights from Project Director Diana Nunnaley, and visit the project website at http://usingdata.terc.edu for up-to-date information on upcoming workshops, webinars, case studies, media mentions, and more.
by Diana Nunnaley
In data analysis, getting to the “build” is what enables data teams to create shared meaning of the data in front of them. If we don’t accomplish this in our data team meetings, we’re just seeing the trailer, not the movie.”
When we have those initial conversations with district and school administrators about the capacity of their schools to analyze their data, we often get responses that—taken at face value— would indicate that their teachers are analyzing data and have a lot of experience using that data to make decisions.
We always follow-up by asking if they are getting the results they want. And the response is typically “no”. We probe more to learn where their achievement gaps are, what areas of curriculum and instruction gaps they are identifying.
Long story short, when we begin to work with their data teams, using our structured process for analyzing data, we see teachers “seeing” the data as if it was for the first time. The level of dialogue, even with what we consider to be a very thin slice of data, is awe-inspiring as teachers’ experience, knowledge, and assumptions come to the surface and are thoughtfully examined in the light of evidence.
Simple fact—giving every teacher a binder filled with data reports consisting of long tables of numbers or colorful graphs and putting up a slide show that highlights what the administrator has seen in the results isn’t real data analysis. It’s a data blur, like seeing a fast-paced trailer of an upcoming movie. You see the biggest crashes or funniest sketches but you don’t see the build? (My apology for that word “build” but I’m not a movie critic, so I don’t know how they would describe the way a story develops and comes together.)
In data analysis, getting to the “build” is what enables data teams to “create shared meaning” of the data in front of them. If we don’t accomplish this in our data team meetings, we’re just seeing the trailer, not the movie.
Using Data is a professional development program to build the capacity of educational leaders to lead a process of collaborative inquiry within school-based data teams and influence the culture of schools into ones in which data is used continuously, collaboratively and effectively to improve teaching and learning.
Developed with a grant from the National Science Foundation and evaluated by independent researchers, the Using Data program has been field-tested in high-poverty, diverse urban and rural school districts across the country. With over two and one half years of implementation, the program has documented gains in student achievement in mathematics, science and other content areas. It has been successful in narrowing achievement gaps between economic and racial groups and increasing collaboration, data use, and instructional improvement. For more about the program, please visit: http://usingdata.terc.edu.
For more, see http://usingdata.terc.edu.
