Data key to student growth

One of the best administrators I have ever worked with grounded every decision in the essential question: “Is this what’s best for kids?”

To get to the answers, she skillfully used data as a tool for school, teacher and student growth. Whether it was tracking student behaviors, attendance rates or having teachers track classroom growth and proficiency on short cycle assessments and classroom assignments, she helped me to understand that the answers to almost any question or assumption I might make about a student could be discerned by analyzing the data as the key to unlocking deeper understandings. She taught me to be an intentional and thoughtful instructional leader for my students.

After 23 years in the classroom, I still set aside three weeks at the beginning of my summer break to outline and plan instruction for my classroom for the coming year. I use previous years’ plans, student grades, writing samples, districtwide assessment data and any other school or classroom data I can access.

I value this practice because it eliminates any assumptions I might make about a student, as data removes the guesswork from my planning. Data from assessments, grades and even attendance reporting helps me to make informed and meaningful choices for my students by painting a comprehensive “picture” of that student in the school environment. Using this information can help me understand where each student lands on the mastery scale in the content standards which allows me to better plan individualized classroom instruction for each student.

One challenge that I, and every other New Mexico teacher, faces in planning for the coming year is having access to timely and accurate student data from the previous year’s statewide assessment. With last spring’s release of the New Mexico Public Education Department’s NMVistas website, I thought I had a clear path to this information. Yet, the 2022-23 state assessment data was not uploaded until early November. That’s seven months after my students took the test and four months after I needed it for my planning.

What’s more, the data was incomplete, with important information like SAT assessment data and early childhood literacy data missing. Some school data is masked, making it difficult to understand that school’s designation score. Imagine the response I would get from parents, students and my administration if my turn-around time on grading student work was seven months and if it was inaccurate or incomplete?

For data to be relevant and useful, it must be timely. If, as stated on the website, its purpose is to provide our community with a deeper understanding of our students’ proficiency across subjects, then teachers, parents, families, community members and students should be able to easily understand and navigate the information. The site is an important resource for all stakeholders. As such, the Public Education Department should consider adding some basic enhancements to help clarify the information and improve navigability.

For example, our diverse community would benefit from having more diverse data available such as information on early literacy, SAT scores and completion scores of Career and Technical Education certificates for viewers to the site to analyze and interpret. Having such information would help elementary educators plan additional support for our struggling readers, whereas high school teachers like me can be more thoughtful about supporting our students with their post-secondary goals for college and career.

Using simple icons on the landing page for each school that detail basic demographics for each school community with information like the total student population, student enrollment by grade, the student-to-teacher ratio, the population diversity of the school and what type of school it is (traditional vs. charter) will greatly enhance our community’s understanding of the page quickly and efficiently.

In addition, adding bars detailing school, district and statewide data to the current graph on each school’s page would provide for an easy comparison of the performance of the school, thus enhancing a student’s and their family’s understanding of the school and better informing them about school choice options.

Using data to drive my decisions for student learning is the kindest gift I can give my students as it is honest and fair. It is what will allow me to give each of them exactly what they need most to grow and succeed as a learner. Having access to that data early in the summer, rather than November, would allow me to plan and prepare for the coming school year in a way that truly does answer that all-important question in education: “Is this what’s best for kids?” Shouldn’t we all be striving for exactly that and nothing less?

Dawn Bilbrey is the high school English teacher at San Jon High School. She is 2023-2024 Teach Plus New Mexico Alumni Policy Fellow.