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Yet Another Discussion of Data

DATA IS GOING TO FIX ALL THE PROBLEMS IN EDUCATION EVER.


Yeah. I agree with the android. [source]
Thus begins (another) Monday morning staff meeting. What do you see? What are the tendencies? Students are numbers - gosh, however will we get those numbers up? We have to show growth. Bigger, stronger, higher, faster, better.

Gross.

And here I was. In the back (as usual) muttering to myself and writing my observations on the spreadsheet. My observation was this:

"What are Ss LOOKING FORWARD to?"
I looked at all those numbers, and the main thing I could see was that students seemed to enjoy coming to school in first grade, second grade, then in third grade it levels out, drops in fourth, and is lowest of all in fifth. My takeaway was not that students were giving up - these numbers didn't show me that kids were finally deciding that they were "bad" at doing school and weren't going to try anymore. They'd have dropped off sharply if that were the case. Nor does it show me that school is really, really hard in the intermediate grades. It shows me that students don't feel engaged. They're not excited about discovering things.

I discussed this with my tablemates: my partner in crime teaching, Peaches, and our Life Skills teacher. We were all in agreement. Enter the principal. Now, I love my principal. Really, I do. But she wants to direct instruction the crap out of "Grit" and "Perseverance" and those other things that are so en vogue right now. (And then we'll put a number on it, track it, make some goals, and fix it! Check! That! Box!) She asked how I explicitly make sure students have joy* in music. How I get them to try when it's hard or scary. How I could help them carry that mindset into the classroom.

I grimaced. 

Still though, I shared when asked. I looked around the room at the faces. Some glared, because what could a specialist possibly know about the reality of teaching? Of course I'd advocate for joy - I teach happy fun time. Others looked ashamed. That's not my goal at all. I'm not shaming you into PBL or hashtaggy-cool-new-thing, or whatever. I just want you to remember that small humans spend a lot of time with you. And you are a cool person. You should get to be yourself between 8 and 4.

This leads to a conversation with Hypothetical Teacher in my head:

ME
Students will persevere if they are invested in what they are doing.

HYPOTHETICAL TEACHER (H.T.)
But I have to teach these standards - I have to be on this page on this day!

ME
Students will look forward to school if they are engaged.

H.T.
No, I mean it about those standards though. They won't be ready for The Test.

ME
Hey. Hush about the standards for a second. You will meet them if you teach how you know is right.

H.T.
But that's not what Teacher Next Door is doing. Or Teacher on Pinterest. Or Teachers Pay Teachers.

ME
You are a different human than them. With different humans in front of you.

H.T.
(long pause)

ME
It's okay.

H.T.
Still nope. I can't do it.

ME
Sigh.


It's nice to be able to quantify that this many students met this objective on this day, but I think teachers and administrators don't get the time to actually dig in and discover what those numbers mean. How many of those students ate breakfast that day? How could you compare student achievement on days they eat versus days they don't? What's the trend where students are taught with curricular fidelity versus teacher best practices? What are the questions inside the numbers? How can these numbers empower you and your students rather than demean you?

I never have answers. Neither should you. The questions should stir you to think and make more questions because wondering is how we improve and really innovate. The innovation that means something. To me, that's the purpose of data. 

That, and being a Lieutenant Commander, of course.





*Note: I could go on and on about joy. For days. It's kind of my Thing. My Edufamous Edubook of Eduawesome would probably be about joy, but I hear joy is becoming the new Big Idea, so I'll leave the authorship to the Important People. I'll write about it here, of course, but I'm pretty sure someone's already got that covered for you in paperback. 


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