Opening or Closing Doors for Students? Equity and Data-Informed Instruction

• In Event: 14.032 - Data Use for Improving Teaching and Expanding Opportunities to Learn: Implications for Policy and Practice

Abstract

Purpose
Ensuring equitable opportunities for all students is a top priority of educators and policymakers. Data use can be an important lever for achieving equity, but how this may occur is not well understood. Drawing on an in-depth qualitative study, this paper explores the conditions under which teachers’ use of data opens or closes doors for students.

Perspective
Data use can be a powerful tool to push teachers to challenge existing assumptions about student learning and to reflect critically on instructional practices (Lachat & Smith, 2005). However, data can also be used to validate existing beliefs about student learning (Olah, Lawrence, & Riggan, 2010) or to focus improvement efforts on a narrow band of students (Booher-Jennings, 2005). When educators use student characteristics as explanations for results, they can reinforce a culture of low expectations (Bertrand & Marsh, 2015). Though we have some sense of general trends with respect to data use and equity, there is a paucity of research in this area. This paper fills gaps in the literature by addressing the question: how does data use affect equity? This study is grounded in social constructivism, and teachers’ perceptions of student ability are conceptualized as being produced in the course of interactions with other teachers, principals, parents, and students.

Methods
This paper draws upon data gathered in a 2-year qualitative case study of 4th and 5th grade teacher teams in four US elementary schools where teachers were expected to use data differentiate instruction. The schools served students of varied ethnicities and income backgrounds. Data collection activities included 80+ interviews with teachers and administrators, 160+ hours of teacher team meeting observations, and approximately 100 hours of classroom observations. Data were analyzed using MAXQDA qualitative coding software.

Results
Findings indicate that thoughtful use of data led to flexible grouping and individualized learning plans that promote student achievement, whereas misinformed use of data led to practices that widened achievement gaps between students. Equity was promoted when teachers drew on a wide range of data to inform instructional planning and had a sense of shared responsibility for all students. Closely examining data also led some teachers to move beyond generalized categorizations of student ability to focusing on targeting students’ skills in particular areas. Conversely, when districts mandated a single assessment for the purpose of placing students into tracked classes, the goal of equity was compromised. Assessments arising out of the NCLB era that categorized students into performance bands also influenced the language teachers used to talk about their students, sometimes reinforcing fixed notions of student ability rather than promoting growth.

Significance
Understanding how data use contributes to equity within the broader policy and reform context is critically important. This paper relates to the AERA 2017 annual meeting theme of “Knowledge to Action: Achieving the Promise of Equal Opportunity” as it illuminates how decisions around data can expand or limit opportunities for students.

Authors

• Amanda L. Datnow, University of California - San Diego

• Vicki Park, San José State University