Garbage In, Garbage Out: Having Useful Data Is Everything

摘要

The focus article by Coburn and Turner (this issue) seeks to provide a comprehensive framework for understanding data use in the context of data-use interventions. Clearly, issues of data use are complex, and we commend the authors for taking the complexity seriously in their framework. Our commentary is focused on what we see as a glaring omission in what is otherwise a valuable framework: the issue of "useful data." It is our contention that the usefulness of data should not be assumed (as we believe is the case here), especially when it comes to teachers using data to make instructional decisions in their classrooms.