If you have worked in education for any length of time, you have probably realized that we are up to our ears in data. Seriously. I know WAY more about students now than I did in my first few years of teaching. Don't get me wrong - I think it is a good shift to ensure that we are making instructional decisions based on valid and reliable data. We are able to diagnose student needs more accurately with data. However, there sure is a LOT of it. Standardized state test data at the end of a grade level or course, norm-referenced data to see how students compare among their peers, unit assessment data based on a group of standards, quizzes based on individual standards, homework, quick checks for understanding, etc. What do we do with all of this data? What are questions we should be asking ourselves about what we see in data reports to drive our next steps? Anyone ever seen the movie, Moneyball with Brad Pitt? It is a great movie for both math and basebal...