Data walls? No. craft rooms.

Data can be useful in guiding teaching practice, no doubt.  And I believe we will find a balance to what data we collect and how we use it (for example, I believe test score data should be fluidly offset by a variable based on community involvement in a school—that is to say, strong community involvement should help student test scores trend upwards if the tests are valuable and meaningful so as to influence a school letter grade by at least a half grade, up or down).

The most offensive practice I have seen in the data-drives-education craze is the “Data Wall,” which is usually located in the “Data Room.”  Pearson encourages data walls.  To me they are insults to students when a red square is placed on a wall with a student picture on it.  I’ve seen it in more than one school and it is disgusting and de-humanizing and I can’t believe it is allowed and furthermore it is a violation of student privacy.

But in education we shouldn’t complain unless we have a better idea.  So mine is:  keep data private, allow teachers to see it or anyone guiding instruction for that individual student.  Then, encourage community support of schools and have a planning room for hands-on projects related to any and every subject.  We know students need multiple ways to learn and express learning. . .and we should model that by offering materials to create student learning projects, both teacher-driven and student-driven.   Come up with a metric to evaluate your school’s community support and the hands-on project materials offered in your school as a result.

What a far more beautiful thing to see in a school than a data wall.  And I’ll just bet it would bring about better results in student performance.