Assessment, Evaluation, and Revision of a Technology Plan

Importance Of Data

Today's world is more than a school, or schools, resolved to promote education through the teaching of the three R’s. The schools of today are driven by data that changes the way curriculum is understood, modifies the strategies of teaching, and helps develop new methodologies for the delivery of instruction, much of which now involves technology. Data includes, but is not limited to, information from standardized exams, state issued tests, assessments by educators, and other means. In a sense, data can be said to be more than just the driving force behind a curriculum and instructional change, and can be considered to be part of the very essence of education itself.

The collection, assimilation, and subsequent dissemination of data may seem to be simple concepts. Yet, these concepts have been misused and misinterpreted by many throughout the ages, usually in defense of some arbitrary event, or motivated by aspects even more cynical such as power, control of public opinion and support, and the flow of money and resources. Data, itself, is not the problem. The instrument(s) and the reasons behind their creation may be.