Data Stories, Possibilities, and Lore: The Use of Performance Data at an English Girls' School

• In Event: Enactment of Performance-Based Accountability in Education: Implications for Stakeholders

Abstract

1. Objectives

This paper explores how performance data set the agenda for schools, but also how data produce various character types, story arcs and expositions within one English girls school.

4. Perspectives

For this paper, we drew across media studies and policy sociology to problematise performance data as a form of narrative device within schools.


3. Methods and Data Sources

Drawing on (1) interviews with teachers and principals (N=6), and (2) policy documents, we explored how data stories explain, predict and resolve the ongoing affairs at Parker Girls School (PGS; pseudonym), an Ofsted ‘Outstanding’ school located outside of London. Rather than focusing on how stories are told in reaction to data, we looked at how data stories are used in predictive ways to narrate future possibilities, as well as in mythologised ways to create character types, tension and triumphant conclusions.

4. Findings

Performance targets as storyline. The performance targets are what set the story in motion. This is what frames the data story - it says where the teachers and students are going, where they are supposed to end, and it dictates how they should get there (e.g., where to intervene). Example:
The [data spreadsheet] gives you a very clear idea of how you are performing. It helps to decide things like who your priorities are going to be, where your intervention needs to go; even down to things like, "Which students you are able to model the work of".
Manipulating the storyline. There are times when the story is set in a way that enables a happy ending. For example, teachers might move the target so students are more likely to achieve it. Example:
‘If I have a child that's targeted 4 and I think, "Well, they could get a 4 at the end but I'm not 100% sure will be a high 4," I will put them at a low 4 to start.
Data lore. Data lore are the enduring stories about how performance data should be interpreted. These are used to contextualise the data based on popular, enduring assumptions about different student groups. Example:
Sometimes a school in challenging circumstances ‑ like the housing of their families, the employment, possibilities - the children come to school bringing with them some of what they hear in their community, like low aspirations, low motivation, a sense of hopelessness/despair. And it is unlikely that that child is going to sort of get down to work with great zeal and do brilliantly.

5. Significance

Even though teachers and principals are often encouraged to interpret data in relation to other forms of knowledge they may attain, there is a growing trend that performance data are ultimately prioritised when it comes to practice (e.g., Bradbury & Roberts-Holmes, 2017; Garver 2020; Hardy, 2018; Wescott, 2021). In this paper, we show how performance data not only serve to govern the actions and decision-making processes at PGS, but also how data stories work to oversimplify complex ideas and perpetuate data myths that circulate in popular culture.

Authors

• Jessica Holloway, Australian Catholic University

• Tanjin Ashraf