Every year my principal would meet with grade level teams to discuss “The Data.”
She’d have a spreadsheet open, ready to review a trimester benchmark test.
She did not have the actual test questions or the answers or student responses available at this meeting.
All our principal really knew was:
- green boxes were “good”
- orange boxes were “bad”
Now, we gave the same test every year. So we always knew what the meeting would be about. We were a gifted magnet school so the boxes were all various shades of green – as you would expect.
Except for this one orange box in the vocabulary section.
And this one box is all the principal wanted to talk about.
We’d explain, “The test only has three questions that apply to that box. So if students miss one question, they’re already at 66% – which turns the box orange. It’s just not enough information.”
This did not satisfy. The box was still, after all, orange. And we want green.
So we’d explain further, “One of those three questions is awful. Basically every student misses it every year because it’s written so poorly. We even had the other teachers try it and they all got it wrong, too.”
I can still remember the exact question:
Which word is most like “flair”
- torch
- talent
- a piece of clothing
So the question is just bad. There is no context for the word. We did not teach the word “flair.” It’s a completely arbitrary “do you know this random word” question.
“Torch” is obviously an attempt to confuse students with “flare.” No one fell for that. Instead everyone picked “talent.” As in “a flair for design.”
But the correct answer was “a piece of clothing.”
Uhhh. What?
It’s no wonder everyone missed it. The question was awful.
But our principal never relented! She really wanted that orange box to be green.
There is a growing danger that educational leaders want to stay in their offices looking at spreadsheets all day rather than watching teachers teach.
Data hides the real problems. Get your hands dirty. Talk to students. Watch classrooms. Engage with your school!