The Power of Data

In any field, data is important.  It tells the company or organization about their areas of strength, areas of improvement and if they are on target to reaching their goal.  It is a universal conclusion both in the business world and is being more recognized in the field of education.

So why is data so important? Wouldn't a school or organization function decently without it?


Arthur Conan Doyle states is beautifully "It is a capital mistake to theorize before one has data"


I once worked at a school where no data was collected.  There was nothing, nada, zilch. 
The result, utter confusion, high stress levels and under performing students.

None of the teachers collected any kind solid data.  The only data that was collected was a few completed workbooks and some scattered informal assessments.   Everything else was based solely on teacher's opinions on the student's progress.

This made it impossible for me to do my job properly.  I only had each student for about 25 minutes a day, clearly not enough time to do any kind of proper assessments.  I had to rely on other homeroom teachers for student levels and improvements.  All of their knowledge however, was based solely on their opinions on their students.  So as you can imagine, nothing was accurate.  There were many activities in which my students were unable to complete because I was misinformed about their abilities.  This led to frustrated students and me feeling horrible for failing them. 

The students overall began to under perform.  Their comprehension and skill levels were low and all students are viewed to be on similar levels.  I visited this school a few weeks ago to pick up some paperwork and was saddened by what I saw.  There was no improvement in the students, in fact some of them seemed to be even lower then before.  Neither the director or the teachers had any improvement action plans in mind.

It was here that I clearly saw how the lack of data is failing our students.