- You’ll be happy to know, it’s not about numbers. It’s about improving instruction.
- Data analysis is most effective when it’s performed with other teachers who share the same standards and assessments, who can discuss concretely and specifically, based on student results, what is working and what is not working.
- Teacher teams need to be able to meet in “data dialogues” during the school day for 45 minutes to an hour at least once every two weeks, and more often, if possible. This time must be held sacred for data dialogues and not used for other purposes.
- The most productive data-driven teams engage in collaborative dialogues, identifying class-wide patterns of strengths and weaknesses for possible re-teaching, students ready for enrichment and those needing interventions and what the focus of those interventions should be, and plans for improving instruction in the next unit.
- The most important questions in data analyses are not, “What did the students score?” and “How many passed?” The most important questions are: “What do the students know?” “What do they not know?” and “What are we going to do about it?”
-Taken from Ronald Thomas’ “The Nine Truths of Data Analysis”
The Curriculum Corner 