Data Immersion

What do the numbers mean, man?

In several different conversations lately, I have begun speaking by simply stating that I am not a numbers guy. They never meant much to me. That's not an indictment of myself by any means, but by this point in my life, I understand my limitations and do my best to push past them. Sometimes, however, I find that the pictures the numbers create are fascinating.

This post, as some of you might think, stems from the data analysis we have been doing with our staff of first marking period grade distributions, and it does; you can't spend as much time as I have looking at this data without wondering about it. However, watching Ron Eglash connect fractal geometry and indigenous populations worldwide also made me realize the important of visualizing numbers and data.

What we've been looking at is not who did what, but rather what the distributions tell us as we move forward. This is such a small sample, one marking period, to make any informed decisions about what the numbers mean in terms of instruction or assessment. However, with several marking periods of data, we will be able to really begin to answer these type questions:

• Are the distributions what you thought they would be?
• What does the whole grade average tell you about the grade distribution?
• How might grade distribution inform you regarding strategies used for future instruction?
• Identify similarities and differences. What are some reasons why there are similarities? Differences?
• If two classes are significantly different, why is that?
• If two teachers teach the same units, what accounts for the differences in grade distribution?

What are we really after?

The end result? We are aiming for reflection. We want teachers to be able to look at this empirical data and couple it with the anecdotal data they collect through interaction with students and content and be able to really flesh out what caused success or failure. Once they are doing this, how empowered they become!

Taking this from my perspective, it wasn't until I really began taking a look at the numbers of who was attending my workshops last year (70% from the middle school, only 30% from the high school) that I realized where my focus had to shift. The numbers helped me see the direction I needed to go in, rather than staying where I was comfortable and successful.

So now I play with numbers too, and it might not hurt as much as I thought.


Technorati Tags: data, visualization, education, patrickhiggins

Using Data to Initiate Change

I know this might sound simple to some of you, but I have recently started trying to visualize some of the data that pertains to what I do here.





In a nutshell, what these pictures do for me is provide a measuring stick to judge against for next year. Also, when I really begin to analyze what I need to do for next year and plan to build consensus, these numbers tell me where to start, and who to build on.

Data Visualization

I am not a numbers guy, not by any means. So much so that when someone asks a math question (even simple addition) in a meeting, I just look around the room and wait for the numbers to magically appear out of someone else's mouth. You can imagine my surprise then, when after reading Greg Farr's post on Leadertalk yesterday, I have been consumed with trying to get my district's data to play nicely within a widget-type application.

Patterns, I can recognize. Numbers mean nothing to me, and haven't since poaching tutoring sessions off of Raj back in calculus class in 1993. However, placed within a visual context, I can make sense of things and they begin to become real for me. For example, tell me a student is absent today and it means no more than any other day, but show me average student attendance plotted against some other variable, like night-time sporting events, and the numbers translate into habits.

Farr's idea of making public the school's essential data so that it is alive and "in your face" for lack of a better word, takes transparency to a whole new level. Instead of an intuition that teachers may have about the number of students in the hallways, real data tells them what the attendance numbers are, and better yet, if it is in the form of a widget that lives on their desktop, it is unavoidable. When data comes to you, it means something different than if you only go looking for it when you need it.

The second step of getting this data to the staff would be making it look all pretty and dance for them. Need twenty minutes of well-spent time? Watch this:







Gapminder is an unbelievable idea, and this truly makes patterns visible, and as Rosling says early on, fights misconception rather than ignorance. Right now, I am searching for some way, with my meager hack skills, to take our data from our SIS, and visually represent it for our staff (looking into using Many Eyes and Swivel). I love this idea, and I will settle for low-tech if I have to for now. Taking that representation to our desktops will be the final frontier. Imagine that, all of this from someone who ducks and covers when math is in the air.