Data – Mrs. Kelly Love

Our Primary Documents and the Digital Age

How do we keep our history when others control it?

Around my house, stored in nooks, boxes, caches, and crannies, sit decades of dragon-like mounds of paper: photographs, old love letters, mementos, the ephemera of a lifetime. I don’t lose things, either, by and large: we’re still searching for the Pokemon card binder, and an autographed Superman doll (signed by astronomer David H. Levy) Oh, and my great-grandmother’s pearl necklace I borrowed, but that is long gone. Okay, so maybe I do lose some important artifacts. But one lie I’ve been sold as a digital explorer from its early days is that the ‘internet is forever.’

Nothing is forever.

A billionaire “bought” a digital space that I’ve been on since 2009. I never garnered more than 5K followers and plateaued at around 4,700. And when I say “bought,” I mean I sense it’s all Monopoly money — fake, just numbers on a screen somewhere, financed by other billionaires and shady nations to decimate and destroy a democratized platform. We, those of us who are not billionaires, are the ones who made them the billionaires and gave away our power, our histories, to their control and whims.

And our human brains–why do we focus on the negative? Oh, I know why, but also — why? Or rather, how do we rewire our stories, our narratives, to gather the good and wholesome? Some of my happiest, chock-full-of-goodness moments occurred when some of my favorites followed me back. I felt included, invited, and smart.

Some of my worst moments happened when I was invited, and then disinvited. Sharply. Rebuked. Ghosted.

But that is life. And our lives we shared in that space– we met one another, shared heartbreak, grief, joy, victories, a whole manner of digital thoughts, and ideas, and gave space. But none of that can go in a box, or pulled out in an album when one megalomaniac uses his vast fortune to burn down our words, our lives.

Chaos agents are burning it down.

It’s not our personal stories. It’s our global story.

https://twitter.com/PortiaMcGonagal/status/1594003502170222592?s=20&t=8nxWXMrk-5Tj9kj5kUWFpg

And maybe I’m taking the bird’s eye view (cliche intended) –our little primary documents, our archives of our lives, are small and precious only to us. Those in power, historically, seem only capable of manipulating historical narratives to their advantage and narcissism. Control of information is control of the world, or so they imagine. How do we fight back?

Keep sharing your stories. Keep writing your stories. We are the storytellers, and we are the gifts to one another, and the history keepers.

Now, off to go do something else and try to keep my stories safe. I can wrap them in tissue packing boxes. And keep matches of billionaires away from them.

Photograph of dog ornament on a yuletide tree with red beads

And damn, where is that charm bracelet?

Featured Image: Edith Rimmington ~ The Oneiroscopist, 1947

https://pcjow.com/the-possible-collapse-of-twitter-will-erase-16-years-of-human-history-overnight/

little ray of sunshine

We’ve been in the building full time since May of last year, and now this year. School began on September 8th for students, so today is Day 12.

And each day I think, “Whew, one more day I don’t have COVID, or at least a breakthrough case that I know of.”

And that is our educational/teaching lives now. If we don’t have the means to take a sabbatical, retire, or tap into our heiress funds, we go back to work. I do need to take some time and journalistically chronicle the events of the past few weeks, but today I’m going to share a little bit of good news.

This is the third year I’ve been in my building, hired as a full-time EL/ML teacher, and concurrently, I started at the district with a newly minted EL endorsement, but thirteen years of other ELA, etc. experience. First year, great. Worked with teachers, was told the building was lucky I was there, all good things. Second year, during the quarantine: not so much. But undeterred, I kept contacting students through weekly letters, I did home visits, and my colleague who’s the family liaison and I kept working closely together. She is an incredible young woman. Had many students walk on graduation.

Yesterday, we had a staff meeting and the superintendent was there, and our on-time graduation rates have skyrocketed, and mostly with Pacific Islander/Hispanic populations. We have mostly Hispanic/Latinx and Marshallese students. And I looked at my colleague and said, this is because of the hard work we did last year– yes, it takes a team, yes, many teachers worked their asses off, but for once, she and I took a victory lap because it was her and my work, and the support of admin. I thanked the superintendent for hiring me so we could put these resources towards these groups of students, and he completely acknowledged and validated our work.

And now I’m motivated because I know that what I do matters for my students. I see the data. The entire school saw the data. If folks want to collaborate with me and our other colleague I mentioned, great. The door is open.

“The Authority of Inscrutable…”

One constant, unrelenting message we educators hear is data are life. All are data. Data are all.*

And yet, I sense our fumblings and amateurish attempts to understand and analyze data fail us, and moreover, our students.

We are often told to ignore qualitative factors that any scientist worth her salt would question, annotate, and contextualize. In school, those reasonable questions might include what students are in honors classes, or block schedules, or are they suffering from depression, trauma, or discomfort of food or housing insecurities? Does the staff work in congruent cross-content, grade level teams with a cohort of students to care for, or is the staff independent silos that operate in a vacuum?

Recently we received our discipline data from our administration. There was an anonymous rank order of highest to lowest number of discipline referrals, and then in content-area PLCs, we were given envelopes with our own data number. The data was not segregated by type of discipline such as “repeated defiance or FYI’s” — just a number. For example, a teacher who might use the FYI as a way to track noticings about a student would receive the same number of a teacher who calls to have a student removed. The discussion was led with how to create relationships with our students, with the construct that the better the relationship the fewer referrals one has.

To say that it was embarrassing and degrading for many teachers is the truth: it also left us with more questions than answers. And human behavior consequence: if a teacher feels that he or she is “going to get in trouble” for a behavior that behavior stops. Teachers will not be as inclined to write up referrals if we believe our sins will be displayed by the whole staff, while some with fewer referrals feel…well, who knows what they’re feeling without all the information? Do we know as a staff which students received the most referrals? Is there a date for a meeting with parents?

I have a power of assessing on the down-low, a quiet way of listening to students’ conversations when they think I’m not there. For a large woman, I can walk up behind students without them noticing. It’s a skill that comes in handy. They talk about the teachers they “hate,” talk to each other, or think they’re hiding behind the many screens when they’re playing Roblox. Those relationships do matter, of course. But oftentimes I wonder if admin confuses ‘relationship’ with the student transforming complete personality reversals, or that it means “friend.”

It does not mean “friend.” I am a parent and a teacher. The last thing students need is friendship from adults: they need boundaries, constructive, transparent care, and the opportunity to come back in and out of grace. Today a student, who does not want to work with others, tried. It didn’t go well. I feel irresponsible for asking him to, but my evaluator wrote that on her observation. Something about making him a part of the “community.” But another teacher and I work with him, contact his father, and allow him time to work in our classrooms when we can. He doesn’t want to be part of a ‘community’ right now. And while I wish my classroom community looked like sunshine hilltops and fluffy bunny laughter, these are middle school kids, and I like the community just fine. I like those individual students can find their introverted niche while kids who like a partner find one. So far no one is left out or doesn’t have a say. Isn’t that what a functional community looks like?

When we are made to feel intimidated by the data, that we don’t understand it or are incapable of analyzing it, then the conversation sputters. I wish there was a follow-up on our most challenging students, so we can truly help. Until then, the numbers lie.

https://www.npr.org/programs/ted-radio-hour/580617765/can-we-trust-the-numbers

*I have a hard time with data being a plural noun.

Adding it up.

https://giphy.com/embed/3o7btPCcdNniyf0ArS

via GIPHY

Since I asked the question not many answers appeared. Time to put on my Cape of Hard Research and Thinking, TO THE INTERNET! AWAY!

Just how do we constructively analyze, evaluate, and make meaning out of student data? The fundamental questions of a PLC frame the discussion: what do we want students to learn, what do we do if they don’t, and what do we do next if they do? From the data on display, it would appear that many students stalled: the more capable ones have nowhere to go next, and the struggling ones didn’t make connections to the routines and scaffolding to the independent steps. Since I am not an ELA teacher this year by title, I could say well, my “name” isn’t associated with students’ scores. But that is the opposite of how I feel and act, and I know many of my colleagues do, too. They want access to the data and understand to their core that we are all teachers of literacy in every shape and kind. That would be my first step: all teachers in the building working together in cross-content teams to share student information, data, and insights. (I wonder where I put that student form from a few years ago we used when we had that team?) Teams are coming back, so that’s positive.

Here are some articles about different ways to look at data. The data carousel, paradoxically, one of the most powerful and weakest: it allows for good comments and discussion, and then never discussed again.

3 Ways Student Data Can Inform Instruction

Get Curious About Contradictions and Take Action: How about that ace student who didn’t do so well on the standardized test? Possibly a nervous test-taker? Or it could simply be low motivation, since many students never hear about their standardized test results from previous years? Prior to a test, a brief pep talk or quick review of strategies for lowering test anxiety could be all they need. Also, there is much information to be gained from having individual conversations with students who have these contradictions between their standardized test scores and their classroom grades and performance.

From The Teaching Channel:

How Data Carousels Help Teachers and Students:

As said, data carousels create a burst of powerful discussions, but are not sustained over time.

This one may be the best: from Larry Ferlazzo,

Response: How To Use Data – & How Not To Use It – In Schools

Below are suggestions to assist collaborative inquiry teams in examining student work.

Begin with anonymous student work samples – perhaps from a colleague’s class in another school (this colleague and the students should remain anonymous). Initially examining work that does not ‘belong’ to anyone in the group will help to build confidence and ease the transition to the more risky activity of sharing their students’ work.
Use protocols for examining student work. Protocols provide structures and guidelines for looking at and talking about student work. They are designed to help team members reflect on their practice as it relates to student learning and development.
Select 3-5 students of interest and monitor their progress over time. There is no need to bring student evidence from an entire class. Teachers might select 3-5 students who are performing at different levels of achievement. Collaborative inquiry teams will find it more manageable (and equally informative) to monitor the progress of a few students.

The anonymity piece: making it safe for teachers to share and discuss takes away the judgmental attitude of ‘bad’ versus ‘good’ teachers. And the “progress over time” — showing growth versus proficiency is the miracle of teaching and learning. That is why we are here and do what we do: Larry Ferlazzo’s tips are doable and smart. When creating norms and structures for PLCs, I am hoping my colleagues see the value of adding these protocols.

Onward.

Hot piles of data.

https://giphy.com/embed/xQrlUXZkcH6y4

via GIPHY

Addendum: I wrote a follow-up four days later: Adding It Up

Well, today we had a data discussion. And it wasn’t pretty. I got a little excited when I saw that the SBA ‘Brief Writes’ had gone up, but that was mostly for 7th grade. And though I shared so much with the 7th-grade team, I tried to sell the 8th-grade team on having students do them, but with no luck, except for one colleague who worked with me the last three weeks before the test. In essence, and in the most passive way possible, an idea came from a coworker for “no excuses” and wanted to see all the data with teachers’ name tied to it. I don’t mind if people see my numbers. Want my data? My age? My shoe size? Sure. But numbers never tell the whole story. Not 0% in one subject, or 8% in another.

But how do you talk about data in a constructive, honest, and collaborative way without it becoming personal and toxic? I am genuinely curious. It can’t be mean-spirited and snotty, nor can it be sugar-coated when the numbers are there. All I know is I asked everyone who would listen to please consider using the rubrics for the Brief Writes so students would know what exactly would be expected of them, whether they got a narrative, explanatory or argumentative prompt. The students performed better on the longer performance task writes, so that’s comforting. And my Honors kids did well. And some of my Essentials kids met proficient, which is quite a feat.But I want all students to do well. This idea that a teacher is ‘bad’ based on one data point, proficiency, is dangerous, and it seems the loudest teachers perpetuate this. But that’s usually how most things work.

Now what? So why am I feeling so awful after a few comments at a meeting? Why does it bother me so? Because those comments move nothing forward. Nothing.

One thing that I pray will change the conversation from the blame-throwers to constructive is the movement toward showing students’ growth and not just proficiency. How wonderful would it be to have a student who is new to the country and language go from a second-grade level to sixth grade or more, and that would be the number celebrated? I’ll be one who is paddling that river, keeping it flowing, even though I’m not directly responsible for the ELA scores this year. But like an old fire horse, I still hear the siren: once an ELA teacher, always one. And I hope to be one again.

Why?

Because I’m good at figuring out what students need, and amazing at it when I have great collaborators, which I do this year. As Mr. Rogers said, “look for the helpers.”

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This idea that a teacher is ‘bad’ based on one data point, proficiency, is dangerous, and it seems the loudest teachers perpetuate this. But that’s usually how most things work.