www.twainquotes.com © Barbara Schmidt

For some reason, this quote attributed to Mark Twain always crosses my mind when I think about data.  This past year especially, with the simultaneous implementation of new standards and my district’s push for data teams, data have felt like weapons used on teachers. Data were either something done to teachers or one more thing for teachers to put on our ever-growing to-do list.

My dat-a-ha moment occurred listening to Paul and Justin talk about data literacy when I realized that by seizing the data teachers have the power to gather and interpret our own data. The more I learn about this process, the more excited I became to share this information with other teachers in my school. I want to help teachers to see how data is actually worth our time and energy because it gives them a way to communicate our effectiveness.  And right now in NC, teachers need some positive PR more than ever, and I think data could play a role in this endeavor.

I had a glimpse of the power of data for students this past spring as I was preparing my students for the ACCESS (the state standardized assessment for English proficiency).  I get reports on each student’s performance each year the child takes the test.  With my middle school students this year, I gave them all their reports and showed them how to type the scores into Excel.  Then we turned those data into a line graph.  The students who were most impacted were the ones who would exit from ESL just by raising their writing scores a few tenths of a point. With the help of a simple spreadsheet and a graph, these students could see this for themselves and were motivated – driven even – to put in some extra practice the weeks before the test on their writing practice.

photo credit: giulia.forsythe via photopin cc

I remember thinking why I hadn’t done this activity at the beginning of the year.  But through the data process shared by Seize the Data, I realize that having students look at their own data should happen throughout the year.  I wonder what impact these type of data analysis activities might have on students who are motivated less and less by arbitrary grades on a report card.

Could having students look at their own data help those darling apathetic students who don’t see the point in so much of what they are asked to do in school?  Would data literacy help teachers eliminate those pointless activities in the first place?