How Data-Driven Instruction is Making Learning More Personal

[Commentary] In the old days of smaller classrooms, teachers were able to focus on each of their students’ strengths, weaknesses and progress, giving extra time to each student in the areas in which they needed the most help. But in the era of classroom overcrowding and standardized testing pressure, that level of individualized instruction has become nearly impossible for teachers to provide on their own. Enter technology: now teachers, administrators and school districts are adopting education technology that uses data to try to simulate the experience of each student having their own personal tutor. So how are school districts, administrators and teachers using data now?

With the rigorous testing that's already in place in America's public schools, the raw data about students' strengths and weaknesses is already there. What technology, in the form of software known as Learning Management Systems (LMS), can provide is an easy way for teachers to access that data and more, and make decisions based on it, whether it's to give a student extra instruction in one small area of weakness within a subject like math (often with the software providing those booster materials), or to decide with confidence that a student should skip a grade. "Many districts are very advanced in these areas already," says Susan McLester, a former teacher who is now an Ed Tech expert and journalist. "Technologies such as LMS collect data on test scores and other outcomes and let teachers quickly see both class-wide and individual trends in learning, and then customize pathways to accelerate or remediate -- we call it intervention now -- students as needed," she says.