Using Data to Teach Effectively

One of the things that Dr. Conway has brought to the job of Superintendent in Vernon is a love of data. As a Board member in the last year of the previous interim Superintendent, I can say it was often frustrating to ask for data and be told it just wasn’t available.  We were all impressed in the interview process with her commitment to reasoned approaches based on the data she was able to get from the schools, just as I’m sure she was a little dismayed at how much data she would have liked that we did not have available. I’m happy to say that has changed, and for the better.

This week Dr. Conway, the Board, and many members of the staff and administration participated in the first annual Vernon CMT Data workshop. It was a very interesting experience. We went over not just the results from this year but the trends that could be seen from year to year with the same cohort of students. It is hard sometimes to remember the successes being made when all you are looking at is a single year’s results. We tend to focus year to year and not where it really matters, the trend as a whole. With the right data we can help change that mindset.

I don’t want to make it seem like data is the answer. What data is is a clue to what we are doing right and what we need to do better. Why for instance do we see a steady step increase in one subject over the years but little movement in others? Why are certain subgroups always testing at significantly lower levels than their peers? And on the flip side, what do we do to provide differentiated instruction for the students who demonstrate advanced mastery of one or more subjects? We need to keep them engaged and enjoying school. Without the data to show what questions to ask we were often shooting in the dark.

The CMTs are over. We can’t change last year’s results. What we can do is take what we now know and use it to instruct our students in ways that will target the exposed weaknesses. I don’t like having to teach to a test. I think ultimately it is a poor goal, and doesn’t serve to help our students to become life-long learners. That’s the hand we are dealt though, and unless it changes soon the required passing rate actually raises to 100%. We need to do everything we can to help our students achieve mastery in the various subjects.

Required or not, the CMTs are only one barometer of our student’s progress. And by using the data we gather from them as well as data measures developed by our own school administration, we can make sure that we are teaching in ways that help our students be the best learners they can be.  And that, ultimately, is what we are all here for.

The opinions expressed here are strictly my own and do not necessarily represent the opinion of the Board of Education.