Jeannie Kaplan decides it is time to rename “reform.” She thinks it should be called “Dataism,” as in a religious faith or political ideology connected to the worship of Data. She lives in Denver, where she served on the school board for two terse. She has seen corporate reform up close, and it was not pretty. It smelled of Data-ism.
She writes:
We all know education reform is all about DATA. Data is used to fire employees, data is used to rank and rate schools, data is used to close schools, data is used to open charter schools and other non-union schools, data is used to make budgetary decisions, data is used to produce chaos and churn, data is used to outsource and privatize. Data is everywhere. Education reform is all about DATA. DATA is the driving force of education “reform.” It has become the be-all and end-all of public education, the king and queen, prince and princess of public education. DATA and education “reform” are often synonymous but only when the actual DATA can be Ignored, Spun, Manipulated if it doesn’t show “reform” success (which is most of the time). DATAISM: where data is IGNORED, SPUN, or MANIPULATED to give false results to the public. DATAISM. What do you think?
Open the post to see which terms are highlighted or linked.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
I think bona fide data professionals already resent the fact that these pretenders have given such a bad name to data.
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It’s not only the “pretenders” but also the GAGA teachers and administrators who actually carry out the “dictates of data”, misusing said data and harming many innocents all the while.
I heard about “data driven decision making” in the educational realm at the end of last century and knew right off the bat that it was going to be a nightmare of falsehoods, invalidities and utter insanity. Unfortunately those GAGA adminimals and teachers all swallowed the line, hook and sinker without giving it any critical thought.
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In business it’s information,not data, that informs decision making.
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John,
What is the basis of that information? Is not data a component of that information?
I’m not sure exactly what your point is. As one who has been involved with inventory control and distribution, materials management, customer service management I’m trying to absorb what you have said from those viewpoints and I can’t seem to come up with your point.
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Thought you might appreciate this. Came across this just now:
The hierarchy of knowledge as Russ Ackoff defined it:
1. Data: symbols
2. Information: data that are processed to be useful; provides answers to “who”, “what”, “where”, and “when” questions.
3. Knowledge: application of data and information; answers “how” questions. Know-how constitutes knowledge.
4. Understanding: appreciation of “why”. Being aware of why something does what it does is understanding.
5. Wisdom: evaluated understanding. Being aware of whether something ought to be doing it.
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Thanks, Duane. As usual, there is someone who said what I wanted to say in a much more clear and thoughtful manner ;-).
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FYI, two different Johns here. I can’t claim exclusive ownership to “John” ;-), but if it’s possible to use a different name, that would be great. Duane and I (and others on this forum) have had lots of conversations before.
My 2 cents: data is the raw material. information = data plus context and framing (interpretation). Context and framing without data = opinion.
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Seem like reasonable distinction except that opinion many times includes framing the data without the context or the data being “misplaced” within a context.
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I try to look at the avatar thingy although I’m not sure that I realized that there were two “John”s. I know for a time there was two Lindas, and also a problem with two teachers using either the same name or one so similar it was nearly impossible to tell the difference. I think in both cases, that the second to use the name here changed theirs to eliminate the confusion.
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John, and now reading the posts at Diane’s blog I see that you have two different avatars. ???-Got me confundido!
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Duane, I think I’m only this dark blue thing here. I should come up with something unique. I’m sure some on the forum can suggest some for me ;-).
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Duane
If you accept “symbol” as a synonym for data, “shambolism” (or “shambullism”) — fake symbolism — might be a good description of what deformers engage in.
They have built an edifice that is simply a cheap, painted facade that has nothing underneath — like those cardboard towns they used to use for old spaghetti westerns.
Then there is also VAMbolism (or VAMbullism, which sounds — and is — a lot like vandalism), scambullism (to describe charters), econobullism (to describe what economists do — see “scambullism” and “VAMbullism” and “VAMbamthankyoushambullism”), canabullism (see “Gates Foundation press release”), and randombullism (see all of the above)
Note: Believe it or not, “Shambolic” is an actual word (I just discovered) that means “chaotic, disorganized, mismanaged”.
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I’m all for neologisms and coining phrases when our current choices do not work, e.g., idiology = idiot’s idiotic ideology not grounded in facts and/or reality.
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PS
Econobullism is what an econobully engages in
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..and Commander Data must be appleplectic
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or just appoplectic
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The best way to resist “Dataism” is to form alliances with parents. The opt out movement has been one of the few effective counter measures against the privatization movement. Many parents, even those who aren’t following politics, don’t like abusive testing and can see clearly the perverse financial incentives at play. The privatizers are great with talking points…I’d suggest that we repeatedly use the phrase “monetizing of children” as an accurate and powerful descriptor. Also, “your child is not a datapoint has a nice ring to it…
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TAGO on you phrases!
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Love that idea!
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Proctonumerism
Ex. The 74 million (children)
538 (electoral votes)
VAM
Rubric scoring
Scaling
HEDI
E4E (okay, pushing it there)
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😁
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“We all know education reform is all about DATA. Data is used to fire employees, data is used to rank and rate schools, data is used to close schools, data is used to open charter schools and other non-union schools, data is used to make budgetary decisions, data is used to produce chaos and churn, data is used to outsource and privatize.”
Data in the hands of psychopaths = DATAISM
Jeannie Kaplan aptly describes the MISUSE of data.
I am not a psychologist but my impression is that many who are in a position of power evidence some or all of the following personality characteristics.
“Psychopaths often do well in aggressive businesses where they thrive in the cut-and-thrust of company politics. To implement their schemes, they are often very clever. At first they may seem ideal go-getting, dynamic employees. But they leave behind them a trail of shattered and disillusioned people. It has been estimated that around 25% of bullying is due to the 1% of people in companies who are psychopathic.
In the workplace they seek to develop a network of independent relationships with useful people, such as those with key information and those in power. They try to keep these relationships apart so when they betray or drop individuals the other relationships can be sustained. To sustain these multiple facades they often avoid meetings and create conflicts between people to stop them sharing information. When they close relationships they will neutralize anybody who tries to expose them, including using other relationships to get the person sacked.
Psychopaths who are successful in life are different from the less successful once in a single personality dimension: conscientiousness (which is also strongly related to self-control). Their ability to control themselves enables them to avoid impulsive acts (which are common in other psychopaths) which would give them away, hence allowing them to continue their manipulations with subtle care. ‘Success’ for psychopaths often means power and control (which means not being caught). Even if they are successful in these ways, they may suffer in other ways, in particular having poor long-term and trusting relationships.
Many “confidence tricksters” are psychopathic. The lack of concern for others and desire for control makes this an ideal career path. Individually they will befriend and then fleece vulnerable others. In business, they will work their way up and may even defraud the company of millions before disappearing into another alias.”
http://changingminds.org/explanations/personality/disorders/psychopath.htm
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““Dataism,” as in a religious faith or political IDIOLOGY connected to the worship of Data.”
But the data is just a part of a false idiology in which the guiding “philosophy” is that “the teaching and learning process can be measured”. It is the love of “measurement” that is supposedly objective that drives the “data sect”. The Data Sect is an offshoot, a derivative of the Mass Mismeasurement of Mankind.
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Data: “facts or information used usually to calculate, analyze, or plan something”.
Can we agree that data isn’t inherently bad and that data used wisely can be extremely valuable?
Yes, data requires context, and there are opportunities to misuse any data, especially at the hands of anyone who wants to use data to advance or fight a cause.
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Agreed.
That’s why I’m pushing ‘Proctonumerism’ or ‘bean counters gone wild’.
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Perhaps we need to adopt the distinction used in systems analysis. For example,
‘Bob Gibson pitched game seven in the ’67 World Series’ – that’s data, but it’s not
information. In other words, it’s not a piece of data likely to be used to drive a decision. (It’s just data.) On the other hand, ‘Our town has 250 three year olds’ –
that’s data which is meaningful in an educational setting – so,for a school district,
that is information. So, information is data which is valuable, whereas data
usually refers to immaterial, meaningless junk. (And ‘data driven decision making’
is laughable.)
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Ah – Bob Gibson! With the Red Sox in their default mode (12 games out of first), you reminded me of that heady season when The Man of La Mancha was playing on the Broadway stage and we here in Boston were all singing the lyrics of “The Impossible Dream”. I keep reminding younger folks that the Sox of recent memory are just an aberration.
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The problem is that we get a number, school quality = X, but no interest in whether this is really a good way to measure school quality.
This happens when powerful people need a rationale for their actions, but there’s little check on their actions, so the rationale doesn’t need to have much to do with anything except what sounds good to powerful people.
That’s what Kaplan is talking about.
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I’ve always thought that if you bought into data, you could easily be convinced of an objective result. Even if it was garbage-in, garbage-out. (gigo)
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John,
GIGO is a favored method of the GAGAers.
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Data isn’t inherently bad, but the way data is being used to institute education reform is. Jeannie Kaplan’s mentions everything EXCEPT how it all affects students. Interesting how there is no real analysis on increased stress levels, anxiety, and the self esteem of students affected by all of these high stakes exams. Don’t get me wrong I completely agree with what Jeannie is saying; the reality is that data cannot measure all of the things that make a good solid education.
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Absolutely right about the stress levels of high stakes testing and kids. Isn’t all of the conversation always “all about the kids”? My point is that for all the emphasis on data – everything that can be measured shouldn’t necessarily be measured – when the reformers have data that doesn’t support them, they IGNORE, SPIN, OR MANIPULATE, rendering it even more meaningless and worthless than it already is. There are many offshoots of this very bad practice.
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Love this new term “Dataism.” Check out what Southern writer Walker Percy had to say about all this: http://ecepolicyworks.com/big-data-and-little-kids-in-whose-best-interest/
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Reformers equate “data” with “fact”.
Lot’s of data are just garbage at the getgo. No “manipulation” is even required to make it that way.
Examples are fraudulent data or data that are simply invalid for the purpose for which they are being used.
It doesn’t matter how much mathy “analysis” you do on crap. It’s still crap.
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“DATAISM: where data is IGNORED, SPUN, or MANIPULATED to give false results to the public. DATAISM. What do you think?”
Connecting the idea of political ISM-hood to the data that is the life blood of the current education reform movement is an interesting idea, but using the word ‘dataism’, probably won’t catch on because it doesn’t flow easily off the tongue.
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Personally I like SDP’s term: mental mathturbation.
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As a math teacher, I object to math’s reputation being sullied by its inclusion even in a humorous or sarcastic label for the wrongdoers, the misinformed, & the ignorant! 🎯 😎 😸
(I hope you realize I’m not serious.)
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MathAppeal,
How’d you get those emoticons to work?
TIA!
Duane
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I also served on a school board of failed school district. They were forced kicking and screaming to embrace data. Without data they just wished the problems away. A 2010 article in Newsweek pointed out Denver had not removed one theacher based on performance. The data highlights that they are not doing were not doing their job. any organization as large as Denver school district would expect a 5-10% of their employees under performing. The data points out they don’t have sound HR policies.
It is also ironic that Kaplan herself uses data to point out reform is not working it the other articles you site. Data is not reform. It is a tool that was neglected for many years. Complaining about data its evil is distracting from the real problems which are difficult sand complex.
I do agree many of the reforms being promoted have failed repeatly. I have seen too many failing school pay consultants to recommend a separate entrance for freshmen and call it success academy.
But without data we can’t see it is not working
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“. . . any organization as large as Denver school district would expect a 5-10% of their employees under performing.”
Bob, do you have references for that information?? If so, please list so we may know the source(s). TIA!
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$tata?
VAMpire $tatism?
Or just VAMpirism? (caps being a necessity)
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Metricism!
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Pseudo-metrology.
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How about “weaponizing data”.
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From Wkipedia: Dataism uses the ancient science of dataology to help the divergence of wealth and poverty reach gigantic proportions.
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Therefore, the answer in clear. Opting out is the only way to starve this beast. No data = no power!
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Where is the data that shows poverty has been eliminated, salaries have risen to livable wage levels, housing has become affordable, crime has all but disappeared, gang membership has plummeted, and drug use has dwindled all because of higher test scores?
Until they produce that kind of data it will mean absolutely nothing.
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Be patient. I’m sure they are working on it.
Give Chetty a few years.
He’s just one guy, you know.
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Thank you for this posting. I will be pass this along to a few of my teaching friends.
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