Here I am, once again in a statistics course. I struggle in these courses, because I have a predetermined bad attitude about them. I'm not sure exactly where it comes from, but I think it comes from the first few years of experience I have had as a teacher in my district. My district proudly proclaims regularly that we are a data driven district. As a result of this we are regularly shown tables, and charts and given all sorts of numbers. It is at this point my brain normally goes numb.
I find myself unable to concentrate on it all, and while I'm trying to work through what it all means, they are going on about their analysis. Unfortunately what seems to happen is we identify a problem, then sit. This is the part where I usually lose my patience. My sense is that we don't have any sort of protocol for using this information that we have been dutifully collecting over the last 1o years. I'm not even sure all of the data is accurate. When people stopped taking the collection seriously, because we never used it, that has to have compromised its reliability.
I think for statistics to be put to use for me, I need to understand it, see that it is accurate, and then follow with open discussions about how to best apply what we have learned from it.
No comments:
Post a Comment