source: Badass Teachers

As I was scrolling through my feed, I saw a picture that really caught my eye. In schools, we are becoming very data-centered. Take a peek into any PLC meeting or Teacher’s Conference room and you will be sure to see a “data wall.” For the most part, especially if the information is being used for best intent, analyzing data can improve student learning. Who can argue with teachers working collaboratively to understand student learning?

It gets complicated when we continue to avoid one of the most telling aspects to student performance….. poverty. No one is talking about it (well, there are a lot of people talking about it, and you should support them) and in some cases, teachers are being told to NOT look at it. Why? The impact of poverty seeps into all aspects of education from reading levels, mental health, discipline, and nutrition to name a few. When we look at “under-performing schools and districts” we have to look no further than the zip code.

Here is the irony. Now that we have been trained to analyze data, when are we going to start taking in all forms of data into the discussion? When are we going to work with politicians, municipal governments, and civic groups to solve the problem? When it is all boiled down, poverty is not just an education problem, it is a societal problem.

What do you think?