Picture this—it’s 8 a.m. and a student heads to school excited about the progress she’s making toward her learning goals.
At school, a teacher tailors his lesson based on his class assessment results and meets with students to review their progress, provide support, and celebrate their success.
After school, parents discuss their child’s progress with a teacher and feel confident they know how to ensure their child is getting all the support she needs to succeed in school.
All of this is possible and happening right now thanks to data.
These are all real stories shared by folks across the field of education as part of CenterPoint Education’s Data Month. Since the new year began, CenterPoint has highlighted examples and sparked conversations about the power of secure, effective data use to improve outcomes for students. On their blog they’ve featured stories from teachers and other education leaders, all sharing how data has empowered them to serve students more effectively. CenterPoint also hosted a twitter chat to create a space for educators to ask and answer questions about making education data work for students. The Data Quality Campaign (DQC) even got a chance to contribute our own blog post about the role of policymakers in giving those closest to students access to the data they need.
These stories are evidence of what we at DQC know to be true, that when students, parents, educators, and policymakers have the right information to make decisions, students excel. More and more people throughout education are realizing how useful data can be and sharing their stories to help others embrace the value of data in their own work to support students.
Here are a few of my favorite stories from this month:
- Ed Tech Taught Me to Love Data: A Rhode Island educator shares how her experience with ed tech helped her get past her fears and embrace data-driven instruction.
- Data Engagement with Parents: A Teacher’s Perspective: A Hope Street Group teacher fellow urges more teachers to see the value in engaging parents in the data discussion.
- Using Tests Results to Paint a Data Picture of Your Child: An education leader encourages more parents to engage with data and shares how digging into her own daughter’s assessment data helped her become a better advocate for her child’s learning.
- Supporting Student Achievement: Data-Driven Actions for Charter Board Members: A school board member gives her take on how data can drive improvements when making decisions for schools and students.
For more, check out all the stories shared on CenterPoint’s blog, The Point, and catch up on the #EdDataWorks twitter chat to see for yourself how data is helping to improve outcomes for students.
