Week 2- Interviews

As I listened to each interview, it made me really think about all the pressure placed upon principals and teachers with data. I work at the University level, where data is not emphasized with regards to academics. This concept of teaching for assessment was fairly new to me. I do understand the Universities align curriculum based on data but teaching from data in order to raise student achievement is not heard of. These interviews gave me great insight to why data is important in schools today. It was interesting when Dr. Chargois made a comment about how teaching has changed over the last decade. A teacher 20 years ago was in the field because they want to change and touch one child. That mentality is no longer supported by teachers. The current focus is on data and how teachers and principals are assisting student achievement through both qualitative and quantitative data. With all the daily task put on educators, it is more important than ever to make sure that teachers are not only being taught how to understand data but how to change instruction based on data.