The pandemic has raised several issues with education at all levels. One of the most interesting to me has been the seeming disconnect between being “data-driven” and decisions related to keeping schools open. Clearly the decision to keep a school open for in-person instruction rather than relying on remote instruction is complicated. There are many Read More
Category: Leadership
Technology
Accounting is a technology that accompanied the creation of writing, and counting changed when “we” decided accurate records we needed. Whereas many cultures with primary orality do not differentiate numbers (many unwritten languages quantify using words for “one,” “two,” and “many”). Accounting necessitated accurate calculation of numbers including decimal places. The familiar base 10 and Read More
A Response to Standard Education
Education has broad and diverse goals in our society: free and appropriate education for all. Despite the connotation of “standard” education, most recognize that “one size fits all” education is not what most students need. That suggests we recognize contingencies in education, just as scientists recognize contingencies. Science has centuries of managing contingencies, so we Read More
Education… Science
For a generation, educators have claimed to be “data-driven.” Ostensibly, they seek to ground their decisions and policies in measurable observation, but their constructs are dubious, their measures invalid and unreliable, and their analysis sloppy. Data are selected to If the debate surrounding the Common Core is so dissimilar to science, the reasonable question becomes, Read More
Let’s Loose the Physics Envy… We Might Be Better Users of Data if We Do
My undergraduate studies included many science courses, that’s what happens when one is studying to be a science teacher. As a graduate student in education, my mentors introduced me to qualitative research methods. For 20 years, I have been attending educational research conferences (and occasionally presenting at them). I’m certainly no expert, but I am Read More
Educational Design Research as a Source of Data
Scholars and practitioners in many fields have developed use-inspired research methods specific to the problems they solve and the interventions they design. Educational design research (McKenny & Reeves, 2012). McKenny & Reeves (2014) captured the dual nature of educational design as a method for designing interventions and a method for generating theory, as they noted Read More
Let’s Understand Tests
In the “data-driven” world today, school leaders are always in search of data that will support their decisions. In many cases… no… in all cases (at least I have yet to find any instances in which it isn’t), the “data” comes from a test. I’m not going to consider the potential problems with tests (including Read More
Another View of Appropriate, Proper, and Reasonable
In this blog, I have reasoned educational technology must be appropriate, proper, and reasonable. As I think about this more, it seems there are three separate and related, but largely independent groups that must give input into the management of information technology in school organizations. Steering Committees are diverse groups comprising representatives from across the Read More
Wickedness and Planning
I found this conclusion to a piece I wrote about 2 years ago… seems timely now: School leaders are encouraged to develop plans for continuous improvement (Cohen-Vogel, Cannata, Rutledge, & Socol, 2016) and they are also encouraged to use data to inform their decisions (Saltman & Means, 2017). Many of the problems school leaders seek Read More
“Why are we doing this?”
Educators are very familiar with the question that gives the title of the post. We hear students ask it… frequently. We speculate at their motivation: “Are they trying to distract me?” “Are they trying to get out of doing work?” “Are they challenging my authority?” are all reasonable interpretations of the question. Leaders are familiar Read More