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One of my current professional
passions is
classroom data - not the standardized test variety, but
the many kinds of information a teacher gathers in the
classroom to target instruction, connect with students,
and design effective interventions. In this era of
data-driven instruction, data has been put in the
hands of those in charge of standardized testing, and teachers don't realize
they already work with all kinds of data on a daily basis.
Standardized test results are only one kind of data.
Whether we know it
or not, teachers gather all sorts of data every day, in every interaction
and action, word and scribble - data that is much more
valid and effective in reaching students and designing
for their needs than a once-a-year table of scores.
The real step for us, as teachers, is to recognize the
lens through which we view data, think about how we
process it, and then use it effectively to inform, not drive, our instruction. In this 21st century
teaching environment, it's time we take charge and are
empowered as professionals by data.
I was first inspired by Steve Edwards'
idea of the data notebook, a collection of data a
teacher would gather to help inform her instruction and
interventions over the course of a year. Some of the material
here I
developed in 2006 for the North Carolina Teacher Academy
module, Using Data to Build Classroom Learning Communities,
which has been used with hundreds of teachers across
North Carolina.
During the 2006-07 school year, I facilitated Piedmont Open Middle's year-long
school-wide implementation of data notebooks, and was able to collect some of my
own data about how teachers use and would like to use
data in their work. This school year, while
teaching English II and IV at Mid-Carolina High School,
I have begun to think beyond data notebooks into how
data collections can be published and shared among
stakeholders at the classroom and school levels.
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