Five Common Barriers to Using Data
By: Barb Storandt, MS.Ed., MS.
Read Part I
Five years after the federal No Child Left Behind Act (2001) was signed into law, administrators and teachers have a plethora of available data on their students. Demographic information (e.g. gender, ethnicity), attendance patterns and course enrollment data complement the ever-present performance scores gathered from annual assessments recently implemented in most states. In New York State, for example, which implemented annual student assessments for grades 3-8 during the spring of 2006, educators feel increasing pressure to use student performance data to shape instruction and educational programming.
While most practitioners agree that data on student performance can enhance education, implementing data-based educational practices can be difficult. Several barriers may prevent administrators and teachers with the best intentions from using data to its full extent, as Hezel Associates learned through surveys and case studies involving New York State’s administrators and teachers during the spring of 2006.
Barrier 1: Administrators and teachers need more time to work with student performance data. Administrators agree that having designated time to work with student performance data is a more urgent need than having more personnel, knowledge or technology to support this effort. Teachers, who often spend their non-instructional time completing administrative tasks, also need more time in order to better utilize student performance test data in their teaching.
Barrier 2: Whereas administrators have sufficient professional development opportunities to develop their capacity to use student performance data, teachers want and need more opportunities in this area. Administrators were almost twice as likely as teachers to have enrolled in professional development designed specifically to enhance their usage of student performance data. Although nearly every administrator surveyed felt it is important for teachers to participate in professional development that emphasizes data collection, analysis and/or use, teachers and administrators report less than half of the curricular and instructional meetings these administrators lead involve discussions about state testing or assessment data of any kind. Without school-based opportunities to learn about using student performance data, teachers must seek external opportunities to learn about data. Teachers are seeking such opportunities, but less than half of the professional development available to them focuses on data-based instruction.
Barrier 3: Reports of student performance data arrive too late and are difficult to use. Overwhelmingly, educators across New York State are concerned about the delayed reporting of student performance data; a common problem nationwide. By the time reports of student performance arrive, educators have already made the instructional decisions that student performance data might have informed. In addition to timely reports, educators want reports that are easily accessible, user-friendly and link incorrect test questions with various levels of content addressed by states’ learning standards.
Barrier 4: Some teachers are skeptical about the validity and reliability of student performance data. Teachers across New York State are concerned about ‘over-testing’ students and the possibility that educational decision makers will overemphasize the importance of assessment scores. Some teachers believe tests gather inaccurate student performance data, for example because some students are developmentally incapable of taking a written exam or because of undesirable testing conditions. Teachers and administrators do not want to use inaccurate scores to make important instructional decisions that have long term consequences for students who simply may have had a ‘bad testing day’.
Barrier 5: Lack of a data-based local culture. Districts that do not adopt a data-driven culture are characterized by disagreement among administrators and teachers about the urgency and value of using student performance data to inform instructional decisions. Here, administrators and teachers may talk about the importance of using data but fail to dedicate resources (e.g. time, technology, personnel, learning opportunities) to implementing data-based decisions.
Understanding – and learning from - the barriers associated with using data to shape educational programming and instruction represents an initial step toward implementing data-based education. The next article in this series will identify strategies for dismantling the five barriers presented here so that administrators and teachers can anticipate potential challenges before they arise and take a data-based approach to implementing data-based education.