Nightmare on Data Street

I nudge my colleague and draw her attention to the pitiful creature sitting in the corner of the staff room. “Look at her! Poor thing can’t wrap her head around it.” A now-familiar harassed expression floats across the newbie’s face – no doubt brought on by the recent mail from our Dean of Data.

She looks helplessly around the staff room, willing some gallant soul to swoop in and rescue her from the nightmare of numbers in front of her. We smirk but decide to go help her out because nothing screams Panic Attack quite like a teacher of English grappling with masses of numbers stretching on into a vast abyss. 

We saunter over, a heroic soundtrack playing in the background. “Need some help?” we ask. No princess in peril could have looked at her knight in shining armour with more ardent relief and joy than she does at us. 

“I don’t understand what I’m supposed to do with all this…!” she wails helplessly, gesturing vaguely at the screen in front of her. 

“Well, it’s not so tough once you begin to see patterns in the data. Imagine a student’s first encounter with Shakespearean English – how daunting that must have seemed – but they eventually start to understand, and so will you.”

“I’ll never be able to analyse it as easily as all of you. What on earth does data triangulation mean? And how in heaven’s name do I use students’ CAT4 scores to group them in class?”

“Listen,” I tell her… “We were as flummoxed as you not too long ago. This was me less than a year ago…”

(Cue a filmy nostalgic Bollywood soundtrack…..)

“Focus!” I sternly tell myself, as I stare helplessly at the ocean of numbers on the spreadsheet in front of me. 

“How could this be happening to me?!” I wail aloud, to no one in particular. Silence greets my dramatic outburst. My colleagues are all buried nose-deep in their respective laptops, studying the “data stories” in front of them. 

Stories! Ha! I snort humorlessly. Whose Machiavellian idea was it to subject a group of wordsmiths to the arduous task of deciphering numbers more cryptic than the Da Vinci code?! 

Why can’t someone just put the whole thing into words for us? “Based on John’s CAT4 scores, we can see that he has potential, but is not getting the marks he should be.” Now that’s something I can understand. Looking at column after column of random numbers is not my cup of tea. Anyone who can identify with even 50% of .. no! No more numbers.. I hereby renounce the use of numbers in my life! Where was I? Ah yes, if anyone relates to even half the desperation I feel, they have my sympathies. 

I give the numbers another scathing glance. We used to be friends, I muse silently as I give the horrid digits another accusatory glare. We had such a good rapport all through school. In fact, I still indulge in the odd sudoku puzzle and “challenge” myself to mathematical problems on occasion. So why oh why am I struggling with data analysis? I briefly recall my school days during which, believe it or not, I was my math teacher’s pet. 

A muffled groan escapes the lips of my long-suffering colleague, breaking me out of my blissful reverie and dumping me unceremoniously back into the present. I look pityingly at her, then back at my laptop. “I can do this!” I tell myself, feeling rejuvenated and ready to give it another go.

Once again, I find myself staring at the screen, but suddenly I have a breakthrough.. 
“If her Verbal SAS is 135, why are her Literature marks so low?” I  wonder aloud. Then it strikes me! I’m finally asking the right questions. By jove, I think I’m on to something. I feel like jumping up like Archimedes and shouting “Eureka!” Suddenly the numbers appear less menacing. 

ASSET, CAT4, AOLs, Term exams… words and letters that previously taunted me with their incomprehensibility now start to make sense. There is joy in my heart once again. And is that a bird singing? 

I look around at my colleagues and bask atop my intellectual high ground before I can practically see light bulbs flickering on one by one all around me. Noses are pulled away from laptops, cobwebs are dusted off clothes and tears are discreetly brushed off cheeks. 

The department of English is now armed with stories of a different kind. Move over, Shakespeare and Wordsworth; a new love affair has begun. 

Nah! Who am I kidding.. there’s no love here; merely tolerance and mutual respect. But it’ll have to do for now. 

I am still staring into the distance with a whimsical smile on my face when newbie’s voice and my colleague’s elbow in my ribs draw me back to the present moment. “Ehm yeah… so my point is that we were all lost when we first started to analyse data, but trust me, you’ll soon get the hang of it. To answer your earlier questions, data triangulation simply means looking at a student’s CAT4, ASSET and internal exam scores to see if there are any anomalies. CAT4 indicates their potential while ASSET is a diagnostic test which measures how well a student has understood grade-level concepts and gives detailed feedback on the same, to help them improve. So if those scores are high but they’re not doing too well on our internal tests and exams, then we need to get to the bottom of that and help to bridge the gap between their potential and their attainment.” 

A far-off expression seems to be flitting on the periphery of newbie’s features, so we leave her to ponder in silence while we walk back to our now-cold cups of coffee. 

I look around at my colleagues busily immersed in a variety of tasks, all involving some form of data interpretation, whether to inform class groups or to plan activities catering to different kinds of learners. A glimmer of pride warms my heart as I think of how far we’ve come on our journey to improve the learning experience.

Data analysis and interpretation is the need of the hour and we have every intention of being the heroes our students need us to be. Avengers, assemble! 

By Michelle Thomas