Defense/Coping Mechanism
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Using data to make decisions is commonplace in education. Types of data collected include demographic information, student achievement, and data related to the instructional process. Unfortunately, data often goes unused or underused in schools while other potentially useful forms of data are not collected at all. Reasons for this include existing data being inaccessible, a lack of training in how to use data, a fear that data will be used in a punitive manner, or the belief that data has little value. When strategically collected, data can be used for a variety of reasons such as research on accountability and the improvement of services. Additionally, access to data can help make a difficult or unpopular decision easier to make, can potentially guard funds, and may challenge assumptions or beliefs. Regardless of the type of data that is collected, within the education literature a number of suggestions are made for effective data use to occur in schools. First, a data-friendly environment must exist. Teachers and administrators need to feel supported in their data collection efforts and secure that the data will not be used in a punitive manner. Second, staff must be trained in data collection as well as its use. Third, the data that is collected should be tied directly to stated goals at the individual, classroom, school, or district level. Data can be reviewed to understand and measure the progress being made toward stated goals. Fourth, teachers must receive timely and continuous feedback of data for it to be incorporated into their instructional decisions. If data is collected and analyzed but results are not sent back to teachers in a timely fashion, the data will hold little to no value for them and will likely be viewed as a burden rather than a benefit. The effective use of data has become a pressing topic in education, especially data collection and use for accountability. This particular application of data use has increased greatly since the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act of 2001. NCLB pushes states to show annual progress to increase the number of students who are proficient in reading and math and to reduce the gap among students from different socioeconomic backgrounds. In an effort to demonstrate the required
progress, many states have implemented large-scale testing. This type of testing may be classified as low-stakes or high-stakes testing. Low-stakes testing is used to compare students to the national average and can influence changes in curriculum. In contrast, high-stakes testing has rewards and/or sanctions attached to the results. The types of tests used, grades targeted with testing, rewards or sanctions, and who is held responsible vary by state and sometimes by district. Some of the rewards and sanctions used include: public dissemination of testing results by school, offering vouchers to students in perpetually low-performing schools, students being required to pass a test to graduate or pass to the next grade, and more recently, tying teacher pay to student performance, and basing te
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