We’ve Seen Many Different Ed Data Practices. Here’s What We’ve Learned.

Over the past few years, the education technology craze has meant the introduction of an unprecedented number of platforms for collecting, managing and communicating invaluable educational data. The COVID-19 pandemic and subsequent shift to online learning around the world has only added fuel to the already raging fire. 

One of the gifts of the recent edtech boom is that, nowadays, it is possible to get a working dashboard set up and ready to go for pretty much any data point. Looking for detailed attendance data? No problem. Want formative and summative data in a single view, side-by-side? Sure, can do. Education from Pre-K to college has been, in a word, datafied. As two people who have been on the frontlines of this sea change, we wanted to share the three biggest trends we have seen in education data management over the course of the last year.

Trend #1: From Data Literacy to Data Action (For and By Teachers)

Tons of data is great - unless you end up drowning in it. We’ve seen this flood of data pose a few problems. The first is that the level of data literacy among most educators has not kept up with the quantity and complexity of data those educators are encountering: teachers and administrators are often given too much data with too little training to identify the most meaningful data points. What’s more, the algorithms that drive data platforms are themselves subject to troubling biases, meaning that it becomes all the more critical for administrators to have the skills to detect and work around skewed data as they make important decisions about policy and instruction.

The second challenge is that most school systems do not have the capacity to manage the sheer quantity of data at their disposal. Too often, educators get stuck trying to digest all of their data, never getting to the stage where they transform their insight into concrete action. Fortunately, we have witnessed a real effort from both educators and edtech companies to focus on building transparent data practices that empower teachers. Typically, these involve thinking carefully about which data needs to be reviewed, how it needs to be presented and when it needs to be communicated so that time spent on data analysis has an actual impact on educational achievement.

Trend #2: Looking for Equitable Data Trends

Another promising shift is the use of data in ways that promote educational equity. In the past, using data to drive instruction typically meant looking solely at assessment data. In the last five years, however, we’ve watched magic happen when educators have moved beyond conventional approaches to data analysis. For example, rather than simply looking at data by grade level, educators are beginning to look at data by student categories such as race, IEP and FRL status. We’ve seen powerful, actionable insights emerge when educators look at cross sections of these categories and other characteristics, such as a student’s travel time to school.

This also happens when educators bring a critical eye to data points other than major assessments. Nowadays, more and more schools are looking at how valuable information, such as attendance, parent and teacher surveys and homework submission reports can be utilized. What is so heartening about this much-needed approach is that it makes it easier for critical concerns about social justice and equity to inform everyday conversations about student well-being and performance. In other words, it has the potential to make schools more empathetic.

Trend #3: Data Working For All

Hand in hand with this growing awareness of the important role that schools must play in fostering equity is the recognition that schools need to work for teachers, students, and their families. The key word here is transparency: just as edtech platforms need to be tailored to the needs of teachers, school-level data practices also need to change so that the voices of other important stakeholders are included. A big part of this incorporation involves ensuring that everyone understands the data collection process and can answer questions about where data comes from and why and how it might be used.

We are big fans of Dr. Jamila Dugan and Shane Safir’s “street data” approach, which encourages educators to look beyond big data points such as state tests or SAT scores. Instead, Dugan and Safir invite us to take the information that daily interactions with students and their families reveal as data, even if it might not seem like data at first. Our experiences have taught us that, for this to happen, schools need to start with the attitude that data matters for everyone, not just those making big administrative decisions.

Looking Ahead

There is a lot of work to be done in the world of effective education data management, made harder by the wave of challenges hitting educators in the wake of COVID-19. But as this last year has shown us, exciting changes have been taking place. There are many reasons to remain optimistic: not just about data in education but about the future of education. Progress in the upcoming academic year will be about bringing even more empathy into the world of education data. We expect - and cannot wait - to encounter more data practices that treat the child as a full person, integrate social and emotional data into analysis, and recognize students, teachers and administrators as far more than numbers.