I Know This Child

Photo from my personal collection

"recognize in the deepest core of your being that every child is precious, each induplicable, the one and only who will ever trod this earth, deserving of the best a teacher can give - respect, awe, reverence, commitment." (William Ayers, To Teach, Page 153)

We had the opportunity about a week ago to sit in on a staff meeting at our dyad. They were rolling out a new data system. This system was amazing! It gave a teacher access to literally every piece of data ever collected about a given student during the course of their education. Basic demographics, WASL, MSP, WELPA (ELL Assessments), Risk Factors (attendance, discipline), Honors (AP exams, Cognitive Abilities Test), Special Education Assessments, DIBELS, Benchmark Literacy Assessments (including Kindergarten sight words), Elementary Grade Reports, College Entry Exams (SAT, ACT), and Secondary Grade Reports were all included for every student who is or has ever been a student in the district!

Beyond individual data, a teacher could also select a current class grouping (one's own or another teacher's) from the present or the past and compare those students' data ... on any of the variables mentioned.  So, for example, a teacher could pull up her kindergarten class from 12 years ago, aggregate them according to their beginning sounds fluency and compare that with whether they are now on track to graduate! Wow!  The scope of information contained in this system was absolutely  mind-boggling.

Back to the meeting ... so the analyst pulled up a particular student's data for an example. She showed how the student's MSP results have been consistent over the past two years and made some other comments about performance on standard assessments that can be looked at using the new system. The principal said, "Well, she has a very well read father."

Dramatic pause ....

The analyst looked at her, puzzled and said, "Where did you get that from? It's not here in the data."

Another dramatic pause ...

" I know this family.  I know this child."

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As completely amazing as our access to data is now, we need to be cautious and remember that data points, as useful as they might be, are not the child. In the words of William Ayers;

"If every human being is to be fully recognized and respected, each taken to be of incalculable value, if each is assumed to be walking a singular path across the earth, each with a distinct mark to be made, then each student is somehow sacred. And that recognition of sacredness demand that we embrace the full humanity of every student - that we recognize them as persons and find ways to take their side. But as we work extra-hard to become sensitive to how they see themselves and who they are and who they are becoming, we find ourselves in conflict with all the forces mobilized to aggregate and sort." (To Teach, page 155)