Does Data Judge or Inform?

Last weekend the Miami Dolphins lost to the New York Jets starting off the season 0-1. As a coach, it would be difficult to establish an improvement plan with just this information. To improve performance a football coach and the players should analyzing player stats, play selections, practice time, and situations trying to find an edge to get better and to eventually win a game. Reaching the Super Bowl does not happen by focusing on the Win/Loss record or the trophy, but on the players.

If there is a need to improve and evaluate, Action Research (AR) provides a structure to analyze performance data and would be able to explain beyond the Win/Loss record of a student. As a classroom teacher AR provides background information to distinguish between mastery and adequate performance (Sagor, 2000). Taking the same attitude of the football coach into the classroom means to constantly analyze data to look for edges in students, working to try to help them improve, no matter what the objective.