Quality data allows teachers to know more about their students' learning levels than they did before, which helps them individualize instruction for each student. And it also helps school districts know when their programs work, whether instruction is effective and how much progress students are making.
For example, a student may have failed a math strand on the state test because, as the data reveals, he didn't understand fractions. He did, however, show strength in other math areas such as data probability. Thanks to the data, instructors know he just needs some assistance with fractions.
But if educators don't actually use the data they collect to inform instruction, then this student will continue to fail math strands until someone finally gives him personalized attention.
"They're ordering the blood work and not looking at it," said Michael Dzwonar, assistant superintendent of curriculum and assessment in the East Windsor Regional Schools in New Jersey.
This data has to be easy for teachers to access, or they won't use it. In this New Jersey district, data from the student information system and multiple assessment providers flows through Performance Matters software, making it easy for teachers to understand -- and they can see it all at once.
It was nine years ago that East Windsor Regional Schools in Hightstown, N.J., first brought a data system on campus. The district gave students a longitudinal computer assessment every three months to determine their learning levels -- and one second-grade student scored on a seventh-grade level on two different math tests.
At the time, his principal said she didn't need the computer data; she had already decided to let him skip into third grade. But Dzwonar had a different idea.
After talking with the student, he suggested letting him skip fourth, fifth and half of sixth grade too. That's because the student's engineer father worked with him at home on math, and he was so far ahead that he wouldn't be challenged in those grades.
"It's not that we spend 180 days in school," Dzwonar said. "It's how we make each day precious and meaningful to the student, and how can I get teachers to understand that on a large scale? That's where data comes in."
This student is one of thousands who are at different places in their learning. And data can help make school relevant for them by appropriately challenging them at their learning level.
But data alone won't deliver improved learning -- the vision of district leaders who want to improve students' performance with data is what will get results, Dzwonar said. That starts at the top and goes down to the classroom level, where teachers use data to make decisions about student learning and instruction.
