An article in Educational Leadership is a year-old, but it’s new to me and certainly worth sharing. It’s called The New Stupid, and has the subtitle “Educators have made great strides in using data. But danger lies ahead for those who misunderstand what data can and can’t do.” It’s written by Frederick M. Hess.
It’s an article worth reading (though I do have concerns about some of its points), and relates to what I’ve written about being “Data-Driven” Versus “Data-Informed.”
Here are a couple of excerpts:
…the key is not to retreat from data but to truly embrace the data by asking hard questions, considering organizational realities, and contemplating unintended consequences. Absent sensible restraint, it is not difficult to envision a raft of poor judgments governing staffing, operations, and instruction—all in the name of “data-driven decision making.”
and…
First, educators should be wary of allowing data or research to substitute for good judgment. When presented with persuasive findings or promising new programs, it is still vital to ask the simple questions: What are the presumed benefits of adopting this program or reform? What are the costs? How confident are we that the promised results are replicable? What contextual factors might complicate projections? Data-driven decision making does not simply require good data; it also requires good decisions.
I’d love to hear the perspectives of others…
Just as social scientists are constantly posing as genuine scientists, we have a litany of educational bureaucrats attempting to impose one-size fits all teaching practices. It’s a shame.
Perhaps we should just accept that teaching is as much an art form as a precise technical skill.
The problem with nearly all data that is collected in the field of education is that it is not scientific in nature. There are too many variables in education to treat the research as if it is a carefully controlled experiment.
There is too much pressure to conform to expectations and the tendency to engage in confirmation bias is all to prevalent. Students are not lab animals and they are much more complicated than many believe.
I do agree with the above post and this opinion gets lost on most of the public cheerleaders of educational reform.