Effective educators make effective decisions, decisions based on accurate information. If knowledge is power, then studying the current abilities, skills, attitudes, and learning styles of students empowers educators to adjust the curriculum to achieve whatever goals the school and district have chosen.
When educators study their schools and classes, they seek an answer to an ageless question: Is it good because we've been doing it for a long time, or is it good because we have tangible evidence of its worth (James McLean 1995)? In many instances one must conclude the former because no evidence exists to support the latter.
One solution is to collect data on student learning that are both timely and accurate.
CAN DATA USE IMPROVE EDUCATION?
McLean contends that "implementation of a complete program of data collection and use can lead to the improvement of education as has no other educational innovation of the last century." Fundamental to this effort is equipping teachers and administrators with the skills and inclination to ask, "Is there a better way?"
Traditionally, data collected in schools have been used to assess student performance. But with the growing decentralization of power in most districts, educators are more likely to rely on data to help them make better choices and uncover better ways of serving students and the community.
Educators routinely evaluate reading, writing, and math achievement, but they rarely assess management skills, individual learning styles, or other elements that may affect student achievement.
"We do the testing," said Marilyn Olson, of the Lane Education Service District, "and we get the individual student's scores back, but there's no concerted effort to interpret the data and work with them" (Johnson 1996).
Olson is currently involved with a project to create a database "that is consistent and accurate enough so that we can use it to make program changes." The goal is to enable educators to collect accurate information on students so they can make adjustments to teaching styles or curricula to gain measurable improvements. Students experiencing difficulty can be identified and helped earlier than is currently possible.
"Right now," Olson says, "we've got different teachers dealing with different data and they don't talk to each other, so a student slips through and no one recognizes the discrepancies in the student's data."
資料數據驅使學校成長。ERIC文摘
由Johnson, James H
有效的教育工作者作出有效的決策，決策是以準確的信息為根據。如果知識就是力量，那麼目前的研究能力、技能、態度和學生學習的型態賦予教育工作者調整課程，以達到學校的教育目標和學區的選擇。
當教育工作者研究他們的學校和班級，他們尋求的答案，一個永恆的問題：是不是好事，因為我們已經做了很長時間，或者是好事，因為我們有確鑿的價值證據？在許多情況下必須臆測前者，因為沒有任何的證據能支持後者。
使用資料數據可改善教育？
McLean認為，『當在上個世紀沒有任何其他的教育創新時，實施一個完善的資料收集方案以引領教育的創新與成長』，『這一努力的基調是教師和行政人員賦予的技能和高談闊論“有沒有更好的辦法？
傳統上，學校已收集的資料數據被用來評估學生的表現。但是，大部分地區隨著越來越多的權力下放，教育者更可能依靠資料數據，以幫助他們做出更好的選擇，更好的方法發現的學生和社會服務。
教育工作者定期評估閱讀，寫作和數學的成就，但他們很少評估管理技能，個別的學習方式，或其他因素可能會影響學生的成績。
『我們做的測試』，教育服務區裡的瑪麗蓮奧爾森說：『我們得到了個別學生的成績回來，但沒有與他們協調一致的努力及去解釋這個資料數據（Johnson，1996）。
Olson目前正在參與一個專案以建立一個資料庫『他是一致的、準確的足以使我們可以用它來進行方案的改變。”我們的目標是使教育工作者收集準確的信息，以便他們能夠對學生進行教學方式或課程的調整，以獲得可預見的改進。學生遇到的難題也應是預防勝於治療。
『現在』，Olson說，『我們有不同的教師處理不同的資料數據且他們不互相交談』，所以錯過一個學生且沒有任何一個可辨認學生資料數據裡的差異。文章來源：http://www.ericdigests.org/1997-3/data.html
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