Translating Data into Information to Improve Teaching and Learning
Publication Type:
Web ArticleYear of Publication:
2007Abstract:
Marsha Ratzel, of Kansas, reviews Bernhardt's book about creating a data warehouse of student information within a school system. "The notion of a data warehouse is to bring together many sources of information about “a” student into one place and make the information easy to use," Ratzel explains.
Bernhardt, V. (2007). Translating data into information to improve teaching and learning. Larchmont, NY: Eye on Education.
Full Text:
Translating Data into Information to Improve Teaching and Learning
By Victoria Bernhardt
2007 (268pp/paperback)
Eye on Education
ISBN: 978-1-59667-061-7
$39.95
Reviewed by Marsha Ratzel, NBCT
Math & Science Teacher
Blue Valley (KS) School District
Translating Data thoroughly covers the many questions school administrators at both the district and school level ask about data warehouses. No one makes a stronger case for teachers and administrators learning how to use data to improve learning than Dr. Bernhardt. Her books make you understand why data can make the “difference in improving teaching and learning.”
The notion of a data warehouse is to bring together many sources of information about “a” student into one place and make the information easy to use. This is not a task that a single teacher can do — the warehouse concept requires that data be collected over time and from many sources, some of which are not within the teacher’s sphere of control (e.g. the attendance data base). A useful data warehouse will have a powerful report generator tool. The gathering of all these resources, the merging of their information, and the reporting tool itself require a considerable financial investment and many years of planning and programming. As Bernhardt notes, a data warehouse is not “a student information system, a curriculum/instruction/assessment tool or an operational tool” (p17) but “a tool that allows longitudinal and comprehensive data analysis with multiple variables from multiple sources.” The warehousing strategy benefits teachers when this comprehensive data is mined to produce useful reports about students and their performance.
Dr. Bernhardt reminds her readers of the critical role that multiple measures of data play in a teacher’s decision making process. Each type/source of data offers a slightly different vantage point which expands the teacher’s ability to find ways to improve teaching and learning. For example, a survey of people’s perceptions may give you insights about a building’s environment, but that information coupled with the demographic data will help a teacher understand how attendance, discipline, and gender influence student learning. That same perception information when coupled with student learning data (standardized test results, teacher observations, classroom assessments) help to uncover the impact of a “program” on student learning.
Once these ideas are explored, Dr. Bernhardt’s book walks the reader through the planning, purchasing and implementation of a data warehouse. She also offers the stories of seven different schools/district’s experience in data warehousing. In each case, the school or district was willing to work through all the challenges of creating a warehouse because leaders felt they couldn’t improve learning if they couldn’t describe “where they were.” Those involved in her case studies took anywhere from three to eight years to get the warehouse up and running.
Clearly, this is a complex subject. This book provides an excellent overview of an educational data warehouse. From a teacher leader’s perspective, the book would be very helpful if you were serving on a district’s data warehouse committee, or asked to help define the data elements for the warehouse or to help design or test useful reports derived from the massive data sets.
