A short story
John is an elementary school classroom teacher. He is responsible for teaching the core subjects of reading, writing, math, science, and social studies. In addition to this, he needs to keep track of a variety of student and family information. Some of his students are ELL students, others are receiving learning support. He also has a few students who are working above grade level in some areas. He is faced with a lot of data coming from many different places that need to be collected and stored in a variety of ways. Some of these include formative & summative data, anecdotal notes, checklists, and scores from rubrics. He is told to use this data to inform his instruction, but he doesn’t really understand the power of spreadsheets and isn’t sure how to use them effectively. So, instead, he uses it as a glorified table in a word processing document. Although he knows spreadsheets can help to make charts and graphs, which are easier to interpret, he doesn’t know how to do this. He doesn’t know the basic functions or why they would be helpful to teachers. All of this information is intimidating and leads to frustration around using and collecting data.
As a classroom teacher, he is expected to assess his students in multiple subject areas and at various times throughout the year. John is asked to collect data in these areas and to put the scores in a spreadsheet provided by the administration. Once he entered the data, he wasn’t really sure how to use it to help him in the classroom. He ended up taking notes in a system that he created that worked for him. He wanted to be able to see how the students were doing over time in certain areas. He also wanted to be able to quickly group students to provide individual instruction. The spreadsheets were hard to read and to make sense of. He now was entering data in the spreadsheet for administration but using his own system to make decisions. He didn’t have the time to try and figure out what the numbers in the spreadsheet were telling him. What if there was a way to take the data and turn it into something that can be easily understood and interpreted? Something that could help guide instruction and also increase efficiency, especially for teachers like John that are stuck to strict time constraints and often don’t have long sustained blocks of uninterrupted time to process information.
Personal Experience
Before moving into my current role as Data & Innovation Specialist, the above story was very much what my life was like as a teacher. As a classroom teacher, I had been collecting data on my students in a variety of ways. With my passion for spreadsheets and making my job automated, I learned more each year. When I moved into the role of headteacher for the grade level, other teachers began to notice some of the systems I had created. They asked to use them. Cool. When delivering a SMART Goal presentation for the end of the school year, the curriculum development office was pleasantly surprised by the way the data was presented for our grade level. They asked me to share with others on how to organize and present this. Over time, I was asked to do more and more.
When I moved into my role of technology and innovation specialist, teachers wanted to have information about their students coming up. I used the data I could find to prepare a grade level demographics overview. Teachers and admin loved it. They asked for more.
At around the same time, the school was in the point of hiring new staff. Our former data specialist had moved on and the position was vacant. We ended up hiring two data scientists. This was great. However, they had no background in education or how to work with teachers and present information visually for others. Because of the work, I had already been doing and my background of being in the classroom for 17 years, I was asked to join a newly forming data team in the school. I would be the bridge between the data scientists and the teachers. My job was to train the data scientists and get them up to speed on what we needed for academics.
Why is it important?
Every school uses data in some way. and collects data in some way. Mainly through academics and assessments. However, we also have other data, demographic, medical, behavioral, social/emotional, etc. More and more, teachers and schools are expected to collect data on students. There is plenty of information about what data to collect, how to collect data and what should be done with the data. Unfortunately, there is very little information on how to turn the data into information.
We have instructional coaches that help teachers with curriculum and instruction.
We have counselors and psychologists that help teachers with social-emotional learning and behavior needs
We have learning support specialists that help teachers with our struggling learners.
We have technology coaches that support the use of tech integration and STEM.
We DON’T have anyone, standard issue, that helps teachers decipher, navigate and understand data clearly to help inform instruction and make efficient decisions. Because of this, we need to provide a system to allow teachers to obtain the skill set to make data work for them. The step of increasing data literacy skills with our teachers is the missing link. Schools are not leveraging and using educators that might have an expertise in data analysis and data visualization. We need to teach people working in schools how to interpret and analyze data in a way that provides insights and information. This is hard. Having experts in this field, that also have a background in education, are important bridges in the conversation of actually using data for instruction. Training and resources for these types of individuals is the next step. Once this door is unlocked, the real benefits of data collection can shine through.
What I am doing in my school
As part of the Data Team at my school, my responsibility is to work with the teachers and administration on organizing and interpreting academic and social-emotional learning data. I am also the bridge between the data scientist and data warehouse personnel in the school. Together, we meet every other week to discuss data collection in the school and to move our work forward while making sure the team is aware of what is happening.
I also work closely with grade-level PLC teams during Data Day sessions. These are two to three-hour sessions where small groups of teachers gather to discuss the academic progress of students in various subject areas. They use the dashboards provided for exploring the data to help plan for interventions and extensions. My role is to assist them in data literacy and data coaching.
I also work with small PLC teams during Kid Chat sessions. These are sessions where teachers come together to discuss social emotional learning behaviors for concerned students. The session is mainly led by the grade level counselor and principal. I am available for technical support and to gather feedback on the KidChat dashboard.
How I am helping outside of my school
I am very thankful for the networks I have been able to create and become a part of through Twitter, LinkedIn, and Instagram. Through these platforms, I have learned from others and have also helped to build capacity for educators around the use of data literacy and data visualization. This website (visualizeyourlearning.com), in collaboration with other data specialists in the region, provides tools and strategies for the use of data in education. We will also be launching a series of lessons and tutorials based on both theory and how-to’s, in addition to more detailed tutorials on issues related to privacy and data protection. Please continue to check out the website with new content coming out each month.