Article Reflection
Anchoring Down the Data
Greg Hawley
EDUC 621

What a great line from the first article, which so aptly defines the dilemma faced by administrators across the country now; “Data, data, everywhere. Too much to let us think!”

This collection of short articles and position papers, more the most part, did an excellent job of illustrating and creating panic in the minds of teachers and administrators who are not only dealing (or not dealing) with the mountains of assessment data piling up around them during the past three-five years. Over-testing, poor data collection, management, and correlation is an obvious problem for schools across the nation. It never helps when third party service providers see a niche market allowing them to tap into grant money being managed and spent by ill prepared administrators working under unrealistic timelines and seeking instant solutions through the use of pre-packaged “miracle test and analysis” programs that are the 21st century equivalent of electronic snake oil.

I am in agreement with most of the authors and their ideas regarding solutions and approaches to solve the problem of too much data and not enough time and experience in data analysis. I do have a problem with Jane David’s suggestions regarding data analysis through collaborative assessment teams. Data analysis can be performed by teams, but data analysis with focus groups is not only time consuming, but has proven through research to be the least effective method of information analysis for process improvement, as consistently tested in research for more than twelve years. Jane David needs to take a break from her steam yoga and organic wheatgrass therapy long enough to read the research taking place just thirty miles north of her office in Palo Alto. The folks at Berkley have spent more than ten years studying information management based data analysis in focus groups and in leader-guided work groups. The results suggest focus groups work for data analysis, provided a skilled facilitator trained in both information technology and group dynamics serves as the facilitator for the groups. I was bummed out to see her article in this set of documents.

My favorite article, and approach from this collection of pieces was Learning About – and From – Data. Amy Azzan’s Article clearly outlined how to use data for informed decision making in a school. Her suggestions were simple, clear and based on research that was clearly relevant to the areas her recommendations addressed. I’m going to research other articles Assan has written. Her ability to reduce the complex into simple statements and sentences is a gift that makes reading more than four of these articles a bit less mundane.