“Studying student data seems to not at all improve student outcomes in most of the evaluations I’ve seen,” said Heather Hill, a professor at the Harvard Graduate School of Education , at a February 2022 presentation of the Research Partnership for Professional Learning, a new nonprofit organization that seeks to improve teaching.
As I read this study, I’m not surprised. For me, the data that improves student learning is formative data where I receive feedback as I’m teaching. I see what students know and if they are learning and then I adjust. It seems that much data is too far distant from the teaching process and that all of this data collection that has happened has basically done one thing — improve the bottom line of the data collection industry.
As the subtitle says “problems pinpointed but not solutions for teachers.”
There are solutions. Easy to use formative feedback. Tools that are integrated with one another where knowledge and data flows from one app to another. (Something I recently wrote about in USA Today.) Easy to use tools that give quick results to teachers that don’t require teachers to do the heavy lifting. As well as collapsing the float of data and ensuring that accurate data on what is currently being taught flows to teachers as they are teaching. These are just a few suggestions I have as a classroom teacher.
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4 comments
Remove last part of link to make the report link work. Thank you for sharing! https://www.coolcatteacher.com/eye-opening-harvard-researchers-say-data-isnt-improving-student-outcomes/_wp_link_placeholder. <– remove "_wp_link_placeholder
Thanks, done!
Link to report — https://hechingerreport.org/proof-points-researchers-blast-data-analysis-for-teachers-to-help-students/
Thanks Jason. I’m tinkering with a new tool and messed it up. I’ve fixed it. Thanks for the comment and suggestion.