Critically Examining the Allure of Data and Its Role in Teaching and Learning Contexts

• In Event: 41.055 - Data-Driven Decision Making and the Classroom Context

Abstract

There is a need to critically examine how educational “data culture” works so that teachers, administrators, and other educational stakeholders can be better supported in their critical and responsible use of data to make instructional decisions. Using in-depth interviewing techniques and qualitative analyses, we identified patterns in how data are collected, circulated, analyzed, and used to buttress inferences about teaching and learning in a diverse set of educational contexts. Two questions were examined: What are the features of the data cultures described by participants; and What might these features reveal about the way data, assessment, and tracking of educational progress are conceptualized in learning/teaching contexts?

Authors

• Dennis S. Davis, North Carolina State University

• Reanna S. Roby, Michigan State University

• Julie Koepke, Institute for Public School Initiatives

• Raquel Cataldo, The University of Texas - San Antonio

• Stephanie Curtis, The University of Texas at San Antonio

• Vicki J Lynton, The University of Texas at San Antonio

• Rebecca Anna Palomo, The University of Texas at San Antonio

• Ruben C. Rodriguez, The University of Texas - San Antonio