Data and the District

The website 3D2Know offers a quiz entitled “Data-Driven Decision Making” which allows educators “to determine their readiness to use data-driven decision making both accountability and continuous school improvement. Upon taking the test, I confirmed what I had already assumed- the Kent School District does not provide individual teachers with timely data on their students. The level definition I scored at was “Early” which was defined as “Aware of the area. The district has begun actively working toward achieving its goals for this area.”

The data I receive from the district are WASL scores from elementary and middle school testing along with one or two other assessments which I am not familiar with. The data is linked to the individual student in an online database and it isn’t sorted according to my individual classes. If I wanted to get a snapshot of my entire class, it would take a considerable amount of work. The district also grades a required end of course assessment but I don’t see those results until the end of the following year and even then, they aren’t presented in a useful format. The district could do much more to enable teachers to make data-driven decisions in their instruction.

On a more positive note, the district does seem to be compiling or at least sharing more school-wide data about our student populations. We identified certain areas for needed improvement using data collected from the WASL, GPAs and SAT scores. For now, this data is only available school-wide but I am hopeful that it will eventually be offered at the department or individual teacher level.

For now, I am satisfied to collect and analyze data on my own. Using scantron forms makes the process easy but I don’t like to give too many multiple choice tests. While data collection is a long and tiresome process, it greatly improves my ability to see where problems and gaps lie in my instruction and improve it.