Data and Teaching: Moving Beyond Magical Thinking to Effective Practice - Hardcover

McDonald, Joseph P.; Isacoff, Nora M.; Karin, Dana

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0807759082 ISBN 13: 9780807759080

Publisher: Teachers College Press, 2018

Synopsis

Data use in teaching is at the heart of current educational policy and school improvement efforts. Dispelling magical thinking that it is a simple solution to underachieving schools, this timely book explores what data use in teaching really is, how it works in theory and practice, and why it sometimes fails to achieve expected goals.

Drawing on their research in nine of New York City’s most poverty-impacted schools, the authors dive deep into school systems and routines, as well as into teachers’ practices and students’ experiences. They also zoom out to capture the larger currents that have made this school reform strategy so prominent today. Each chapter includes a discussion of a new direction that schools and teachers can take to ensure that data use in teaching actually spurs growth in learning.

This resource extracts lessons from both chaotic and productive data implementation in order to inform practice and fulfill hopes for better schooling, richer teaching, and deeper learning.

Book Features:

• Provides practical guidelines for effective use of data in schools and classrooms.
• Includes vivid descriptions and relatable narratives.
• Explores in rich detail what teaching is and how it works.
• Combines insightful ideas and powerful stories with concrete steps for improvement.

About this title

Book Description

“Data-informed instruction is likely to miss the mark without room for teacher innovation and design. By combining rigorous observation of educators and administrators, and innovative ideas around data use, the authors bring this notion to life. They provide a detailed and fascinating account of how distributive leadership, collaboration, and professional learning can greatly and positively influence teachers’ effective use of data in teaching, while promoting educational equity.”
—
Randi Weingarten
, president, American Federation of Teachers

“Through rigorous and revelatory portraits this wise and probing book documents the ways that teachers use various data sources to inform and shape their pedagogy, to deepen their knowledge of their students, and to nourish relationships of trust and commitment that are at the heart of learning.
Data and Teaching
offers a rare and subtle blend of generous witnessing, discerning analysis, and practical directives for educational innovation and improvement.”
—
Sara Lawrence-Lightfoot
, professor, Harvard University

"An authentic and empirical analysis of a current fad–data-based decisionmaking–anchored in a careful and sophisticated conceptualizing of teaching as a practice. There is no magical thinking in this analysis, but rather a careful and systematic exploration of how teaching might and can be informed by a new mantra for improvement: data-based decisionmaking. Essential reading for anyone committed to improving teaching as either a practical or an intellectual matter."
—
James Spillane
, professor, Northwestern University

“Finally, a book on using data to improve schools that goes beyond a theoretical framework and explores what really happens when teachers try to do this work. This book uses case studies to illuminate the conditions where data lifts teaching and learning, and where data actually causes harm. Every school and district should read it.”
—
Ron Berger
, chief academic officer, EL Education

From the Author

Joseph P. McDonald is emeritus professor of teaching and learning at New York University’s Steinhardt School of Culture, Education, and Human Development and coauthor of The Power of Protocols, Third Edition. Nora M. Isacoff is a cognitive psychologist and learning specialist in private practice. Dana Karin is a middle and high school teacher now pursuing a PhD in teaching and learning at New York University.

Edition details

• Publisher: Teachers College Press
• Publication date: 2018
• ISBN 10: 0807759082
• ISBN 13: 9780807759080
• Binding: Hardcover
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 168