DATA DATA DATA

School can be a numbers game that parents need to learn to play. The state says your school district is one of the best or worst in Florida. It even hands out grades to prove it. The Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test (FCAT) results declare that this is the highest or lowest performing group of third graders since 2001. A math test shows that 90 percent of your child’s class has mastered the latest Sunshine State Standard benchmark and everyone has numbers to back up their claims.

These days there is a tremendous amount of data collection taking place on the national, state, district, school and class level and your child is a part of it. Since a required component of No Child Left Behind and Response to Intervention models is progress monitoring, data collecting is especially crucial in the early elementary grades literacy curriculum.

If a student is sailing through academic life in a top-rated school you might never give all these numbers a second thought. However, if your child is in the 15% of the class that doesn’t show mastery of a required skill, then you might start paying attention to the importance of the data that more and more drives how students spend their day in school. 

The importance of data really comes into play when a student is struggling in school. If a child is identified as eligible for exceptional student education services, that determination will likely be based on the results of academic, intelligence and psychological testing and you should receive the test results before your Individual Education Plan meeting. These children are protected by Federal laws that mandate the sharing of results from specific intelligence tests and psychological observations. Response to Intervention has no such mandate at this point in time, although parents are required to be included in the process.

What tests are they taking?

Any parent can and should request the list of standardized tests for their child’s school year. Some tests such as FCAT and Florida Writes! are required by the state and reported to the Federal government. State guidelines determine certain levels of District progress monitoring, especially concerning Federal Reading First programs and RTI, but assessments and testing change every year. Many districts are currently using Florida Assessment for Instruction in Reading (FAIR) to provide teachers screening, diagnostic and progress monitoring information that is essential to guiding instruction.  The Florida Department of Education has made the FAIR assessment available to K-12 schools free of charge.

Who controls the data?

According to the Florida Department of Education, “School districts are required to have a management information system that is compatible with the state’s system and are responsible for the accuracy of the data submitted to the Department.” 

However, the state is not involved when parents are seeking individual data on their child. The state is prohibited from disclosing personal information on students and the DOE recommends that parents contact their child’s teacher and the district. When it comes to keeping up with your child’s grades and school performance, the Web has made life a lot easier. Many school districts have systems set up for parents to access information such as their child’s attendance, homework or grades.  Availability varies based on the district, school and the teacher. The information is confidential and access is granted using a unique password. While the systems are useful and well-intentioned, they are flawed, plagued by technical issues and dependent on an individual, usually the teacher to keep much of the data current.

Parents seeking data should begin by asking their classroom teacher, school based administrator or guidance counselor.  If data is not available at your local school, contact your district office and ask for the data assessment department. 

Why the data matters

Data matters because teachers should incorporate test results back into their curriculum to drive instruction. 

What’s the big deal about how the entire class did if your student failed? It means one thing if your child scored a 64% on a science test and the class average was 86%. But it means something else altogether if the class average was 70%. The first class average indicates that your child scored below the mean and that the majority of his classmates understood the concepts on the exam. The second case offers a powerful argument that the problem is not your child’s understanding of the subject but is more likely due to either when or how the concept was taught.

But if you are in a meeting and all you see is 64% you are not getting the whole picture and to ask you to make a decision based on that partial picture isn’t fair to you, the student or the school.  So, in this case, the class average is a key piece of data that you need to ask for. The school has no legal right to withhold information on how the whole class did on a test. It just can not provide you with any individual student’s score except your own.

Data and assessments are also what drive interventions for students who are having difficulty in school.  Interventions should be based on data that is targeted to identifying a specific deficit. For example, if your child is having difficulty with mathematical reasoning but is receiving interventions that drill him on math facts, on paper he is receiving help in math, but it is the wrong help. Before the child begins the intervention process is the time to discuss with the teacher or staff person the name of the program that will be used for the work that your child will be doing.

The bottom line on data is to stay informed. Before any meeting concerning your child, ask the teacher or staff to share any relevant data and assessments concerning your child. If you are not satisfied with the teacher’s response, move on to the guidance counselor, assistant principal or principal and then on to the District.