Forty years ago, English teacher Fred Cohen was winding up a three-week unit on John Hersey鈥檚 Hiroshima when it became clear -- with the school鈥檚 principal looking on -- that one of his students couldn鈥檛 read.
鈥淎t one point, I said something about 鈥榳hen we dropped the bomb,鈥� and this girl said. 鈥榃e?鈥� And I realized that she was a non-reader. So the first thing I did was to get her school record, which every teacher should have before a semester begins.鈥�
Cohen went on to serve as a principal and deputy superintendent. In his 54 years as an educator, he鈥檚 seen fads come and go 鈥� 鈥淚 don鈥檛 think it鈥檚 possible to create an individualized educational program for every student when you have 30 or more in a class, but you must have a skills profile of every student in order to teach successfully.鈥� He鈥檚 become convinced that poverty and lack of school resources are the biggest barriers to success. But he鈥檚 continued to believe in the importance of knowing about one鈥檚 students 鈥� which is why it may be now, as a consultant to the Nassau County BOCES data warehouse, that he鈥檚 making his most important contributions.
I live data. I work with the programming people to create reports for teachers. As a former teacher, I know what they want.
鈥擣red Cohen
鈥淚 live data,鈥� he said in December at a conference on education data use, chaired by TC鈥檚 Alex Bowers, Associate Professor of Education Leadership. 鈥淚 work with the programming people to create reports for teachers. As a former teacher, I know what they want.鈥�
For example, most teachers want to know 鈥渉ow a kid did on every aspect of the Regents.鈥� So in 2003, Cohen began developing reports that 鈥渓et you see how your district and school did versus others on every Regents question or versus yourself the previous year. So you can ask, why would I do better than others on every question except this one?鈥� The report, which Cohen initially did by hand in an Excel spread sheet, also provides a wrong answer summary assessment.
Lately I鈥檝e been learning about social and emotional learning data. What if a kid in your class has a parent that died? Wouldn鈥檛 you absolutely want to know that?
鈥擣red Cohen
Cohen says he respects (but disagrees with) teachers who prefer to form their own judgments of students before looking at data. He also understands that teachers are over-burdened and suspicious of numbers that are used to rank their performance. Still, his advice to all educators is 鈥淯se the data you have.鈥�
鈥淟ately I鈥檝e been learning about social and emotional learning data,鈥� he says. 鈥淲hat if a kid in your class has a parent that died? Wouldn鈥檛 you absolutely want to know that? Data sets include more than test scores. Within the bounds of privacy laws, teachers should have access to any data that builds bridges, emotional and intellectual, between student and teacher.鈥�