Statistics

I am a psychologist and analyze data by nature. If you work with numbers and understand analysis of numbers you may feel my pain also.

Today in a staff meeting we were discussing state assessment data for students related to AYP and NCLB. The pain arose when the teacher next to me, who does not think like I do, suggested an analytical step that was useless and meaningless because she did not understand what the data she was looking at meant. When I shared the meaning of the numbers that she wanted to analyze, she indicated that she understood what they meant. The numbers represented the percentage of students passing 0, 1 or 2 sections of the 2 sections that were administered of the state test.  This teacher recommended that we determine how many of these students who passed either 0 or 1 section were students taking a modified assessment because they were students in special education, while this information may be useful in some circle, it is meaningless when you already have the passage rate of those students.

What do you do when you can’t explain data to someone who won’t listen and obviously does not understand the numbers that they are looking at? I am used to discussing data with parents and teachers who don’t understand what the data means or represents and therefore don’t question any of it, but I am not used to talking with someone who is so blatantly ignorant of what they are viewing, adamantly indicates that they understand the numbers and blindly pushing for the use of meaningless information and calculations.