“Data cannot speak for itself.” In our first episode, we speak with Dr. Alex Bowers, Professor of Education Leadership at Teachers College, Columbia University, about the topics of data analysis, predictive analytics, and working with educators to leverage data for student and community growth. We discuss his four A’s of early warning systems, which should be Accurate, Accessible, Actionable, and Accountable, as well our experiences with the skillful and collaborative data work that classroom teachers and school leaders are doing across the country. We also touch on the differences between standardized assessments, classroom grades, and other measures of learning and performance; the multiple purposes of schooling in the U.S. and why we have local control; and how tech developers and researchers can better work with educators to help students and communities.

Episode links:

Alex Bowers: https://www.tc.columbia.edu/faculty/ab3764/

OECD Digital Education Outlook 2021: https://www.oecd-ilibrary.org/education/oecd-digital-education-outlook-2021_589b283f-en

Bowers, A. J. (ed.) (2021). Data visualization, dashboards, and evidence use in schools: Data collaborative workshop perspectives of educators, researchers, and data scientists. New York, NY: Teachers College, Columbia University. https://doi.org/10.7916/d8-jj2g-e225 

WWC rpt: https://ies.ed.gov/ncee/wwc/Docs/ReferenceResource/Distance_Learning_RER_508c.pdf

Tamara Munzner: https://www.cs.ubc.ca/~tmm/

Peter Senge: https://www.systemsawareness.org/person/peter-senge/  

Brookhart, et al. (2016). A century of grading research: Meaning and value in the most common educational measure. Review of Educational Research, 86(4), 803-848. https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.3102/0034654316672069 

Bowers, Sprott, & Taff. (2012). Do we know who will drop out? A review of the predictors of dropping out of high school: Precision, sensitivity, and specificity. The High School Journal, 96(2), 77-100. https://academiccommons.columbia.edu/doi/10.7916/D8FB5CZH/download 

UC Consortium on School Research: https://consortium.uchicago.edu/high_school 

The Data Wise Project: https://datawise.gse.harvard.edu/ 

Jim Popham: https://education.asu.edu/inside-the-academy-of-education/honorees/w-james-jim-popham  

Music: Exploring The World by Vlad Gluschenko is licensed under a Creative Commons License. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/... https://soundcloud.com/vgl9Support by RFM - NCM: https://bit.ly/2xGHypM