As teachers strive to increase the quality of instruction, more evidence-based practices have been implemented in classrooms. A recent trend challenges teachers to evaluate data to make decisions that will inform their instruction. My current district strives to collect student data information, but I think they still struggle with what to do with this information. We can collect it, but do we do anything with it?

In my leadership role, I have done my due diligence with my department to really think about data in meaningful ways. After all, as scientists and science teachers, we strive to use natural empirical evidence with our students to draw meaningful conclusions. Should we do the same for ourselves as we measure achievement data? As a “pocket” in the faculty community of our district, I think we are taking great steps to use assessment as a meaningful tool to help students learn.
I am writing about this, because over the past week I’ve watched an irony in all of this. Fortunately this irony does not apply to the teachers in my department. You see, the past week has been midterm exams. Many evaluate students using multiple choice questions. I feel strongly that multiple choice questions, if well written, conceptually-based, can be very effective assessment instruments. (I’ve written about this before.) Many teachers use machine grade sheets to efficiently correct the papers.  I have no issue with this.  In fact, I provided a machine (a very affordable product from Apperson), connected to a laptop which had data analysis software installed.

A teacher could log on to the laptop, start the data analysis software, scan his or her students’ exams, correct them, and have a full analysis of the questions in a matter of minutes.  This is effective use of teachers’ time.  They gather necessary information and learn about trends of student understanding.  Who could ask for more?

The irony?  No one, except my department members and two other teachers have logged onto the laptop. Teachers are correcting their exams without a care for the analysis of the data.  The machine grades, puts a score on their students’ papers, and they  walk away.   They are not collecting what could be the most valuable information of all:  the item analysis.  I’m sure there are lots of reasons why.  I’m also sure that none of them are any good.  Anyone who has ever collected item analysis data knows how valuable it is.

In a time when we say that data is so important, I wonder how many actually, truly, and really believe it?