Student Data System Hardly Used in NYC

New York University released a study recently that shows that most city educators spend very little time – less than an hour every year – using the city’s $80 million student data system. It is great for teachers to have access to students test scores, the key to help them figure out what is going astray in the day-to-day education of an individual student, but it seems like some professional development time needs to be provided. Standardized testing is only useful if someone pays attention to individual student results in real time - not just the overall stats that tell which neighborhood schools are doing well and which ones are failing. It is a shame to underutilize this kind of technology.