Are Your Teachers Data Illiterate?

One professional development priority for teachers is data literacy. In today’s education landscape, data literacy is undeniably valuable—teachers must be able to interpret charts, tables, and graphs to understand student performance. However, the challenge is that much of the data presented to teachers lacks instructional value. Despite marketing claims that these results are “actionable,” this data is frequently overwhelming and unhelpful. It is data-rich but information-poor.

In a recent webinar co-hosted with experts from the Center for Assessment, Dr. Carla Evans aptly described teachers as “caught in a snowstorm of data masquerading as information.” This inundation of assessment results, benchmarks, and scores leaves teachers struggling to extract meaningful insights that can inform instruction.

This raises a fundamental question: What educational activity in the U.S. is most frequently performed by teachers but has no substantial evidence of effectiveness? The answer: analyzing student assessment data. Despite widespread emphasis on data-driven instruction, research suggests that data analysis alone does not necessarily lead to improved teaching practices or better student outcomes.

The Key Takeaways About Teacher’s Data Literacy

Three critical truths emerge from this discussion:

1. 1. Teachers struggle with analyzing and interpreting data effectively. Many educators need professional support, including collaborative data analysis, instructional planning, and targeted professional development to strengthen their data literacy skills.
   2. Much of the data teachers analyze does not lead to meaningful instructional decisions. This is particularly true when teachers must review state test results, benchmark assessments, or interim assessments that lack direct classroom relevance.
   3. Providing dedicated time for data analysis is important, but the type of data examined matters just as much as the time allocated. The process becomes ineffective if the only data review time available concentrates on assessments that do not yield clear instructional insights.

Why Some Assessment Data Is Not Instructionally Useful

Many assessments that schools rely on for data-driven decision-making suffer from inherent limitations that prevent them from being truly useful for instructional planning. The most common barriers include:

• • Lack of Timeliness: State tests are administered in the spring, with results not available until the following academic year. By the time teachers receive the data, students have moved on, making it impossible to use the information to adjust instruction in real time.
  • Overly Broad Content Scope: Assessments designed for program evaluation, such as state tests and benchmark assessments, measure wide-ranging skills but lack the granularity necessary for targeted instructional adjustments. For example, knowing that a second-grade student struggles with “Numbers and Base Ten” does not provide actionable steps for intervention.
  • Ranking Instead of Revealing Thinking: Many assessments produce quantifiable metrics—such as Quantile and Lexile scores—that place students on a continuum of learning but do not reveal the thinking process behind their performance. Without insight into how students approach problems, teachers must guess about the best instructional next steps.
  • Misalignment with Curriculum: If an assessment covers material that will not be taught until later in the school year, the results provide little immediate value. Likewise, if an assessment measures skills outside the scope of the school’s curriculum, its relevance diminishes.
  • Limited Insight into Student Reasoning: Traditional assessments often report scores without capturing how students arrived at their answers. Understanding student thought processes is critical for meaningful instructional responses, and assessments that do not offer this insight are of limited use.

The Power of Instructionally Useful Assessments

Not all assessments suffer from these pitfalls. In fact, some assessments provide highly actionable insights that directly inform teaching and learning. The most effective assessments share the following characteristics:

Aligned with the Enacted Curriculum

Assessments that measure what teachers are currently teaching provide immediate, relevant feedback that can shape instruction in real time.

Focused on Specific Standards

Narrower assessments that target one standard—or a small cluster of related standards—are far more useful for identifying student needs than broad, generalized tests.

Designed to Reveal Student Thinking

Assessments with open-ended questions or tasks that require students to explain their reasoning offer deeper insights into student understanding and misconceptions.

Timely and Frequent

Assessments that occur regularly throughout the instructional cycle allow for ongoing adjustments and interventions rather than retrospective analysis.

Supporting Teachers in Data-Driven Instruction

Providing teachers with dedicated time to analyze data is a critical first step. However, it is equally important to ensure to devote time to examining data that leads to actionable insights. Schools and districts can take the following steps to make the most of assessment data analysis:

Step 1: Prioritize Assessments That Inform Instruction

• • Move away from assessments that primarily serve accountability purposes and instead emphasize assessments that provide immediate instructional value.
  • Ensure that teachers have access to student work and assessment responses, not just numerical scores.

Step 2: Structure Data Analysis Collaboratively

• • Protected time for teachers to analyze data should include collaborative discussions that build collective efficacy.
  • When teachers work together to examine student responses and determine next steps, they develop a shared understanding of effective instructional strategies.

Step 3: Offer Professional Development in Data Literacy

• • Teachers need training in interpreting assessment data and using it to drive instruction effectively.
  • Professional development should include practical applications that model how to translate data into instructional decisions.

Moving the Needle on Data Literacy

Teachers want to use data effectively, but too often, they are asked to analyze assessments that are not designed to inform instruction. If schools and districts truly want to improve data literacy among educators, they must ensure that the data being analyzed meets the criteria for instructional usefulness.

By shifting the focus to assessments that are timely, aligned with instruction, and designed to reveal student thinking, schools can empower teachers to make informed, impactful instructional decisions. When data analysis leads to actionable insights, teachers can better support student learning.

Looking to enhance your team’s approach to data literacy, or wish to explore our assessment data solution? Connect with us to explore how we can support your efforts.