It would be reasonable to assume, from reading my first few blog posts that I reject the use of assessment data for instructional purposes. That’s not entirely true. I believe that some test data are valid tools to inform teaching and strategic decision making at the school and district levels. On the other hand, I’m an experienced enough educator to know that data do not always tell the entire story. There are qualitative reasons that a student might not have performed well on an assessment that have little to do with their ability or content knowledge. Similarly, I have seen statistical evidence used to inflate the appearance of student or school achievement (School B’s test results improved 50 percent this year – by moving from the 5th to the 7.5th percentile). And to bash schools that are already performing well (School C’s math scores improved only .1 percent, what’s wrong? Nothing at all, they were already in the 90th percentile and didn’t have much room on the upside to move). My bottom line is that we need to be thoughtful with the use of test data and what conclusions we may reach when we interpret them. They rarely tell the entire story.