Reading assessment data without fooling yourself
A test score is a noisy estimate, not a measurement. A few habits stop a data meeting from turning noise into confident nonsense.
Amelia FordJul 14, 20261 min readAssessment data is useful and treacherous in equal measure. The danger is treating a single number as if it were a precise measurement of a fixed thing.
Every score has error bars
A student who scores 62% might "really" be somewhere between 55% and 69%. Small changes between assessments are usually noise.
Look at questions, not just totals
The total tells you that a class struggled. The item analysis tells you what with — a specific misconception you can actually teach into.
Decide the action before you see the data
If you do not know what you would do differently at each outcome, the data meeting will produce a discussion and no change.
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