Most math teachers like data. I am one of those teachers. This week my students took their post-tests and we quickly entered their answers into the database. Then POOF! we could compare their pre-test and post-tests. My heart leapt when I saw the improvement they made. But there's always a part of me that is skeptical of the data and I think "What really were the factors contributing to their improvement?"
Later that day I walked down the hall during a prep period and one of my students ran past me. "I can't wait for math!" she said breathless. I thought about the math lesson for the day, thinking that there was nothing particularly exciting it. No game planned. No jeopardy. So I asked why she was so excited.
And she said, "Because I LOVE math now! I used to be bad at it, but now I'm good at it."
And that is why I love qualitative data. You can't measure that kind of attitude on a standardized assessment.
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