EDLD 5301 - Week 2 Reflection

This week we watched interviews about action research from 3 professionals that completed their doctorate degrees from Lamar University. All 3 professionals spoke about analyzing data in one form or another.  From these interviews I learned two main ideas.  First, Dr. Briseno spoke about not only the importance of quantitative data but also the importance of qualitative data.  He spoke about how kids are not just a number and how student identity is important. I see so much analyzing of data in the education system these days that I am glad to be reminded that beyond data is student identity and finding ways to reach these students based on their environment, lives at home, and things they like beyond just the percentage of their income level, ethnicity, and TEKS based question mastery.  Second, I learned from both Dr. Briseno and Dr.Lewis the importance of researching issues to find solutions.  They both talked about the idea of “not recreating the wheel” and looking at other campuses across the country and other districts for answers to issues.  Dr. Lewis spoke about how its critical to translate other district’s data and research findings to translate to your district and environment. I found it interesting that districts in different areas are similar enough to compare data and promote change from the findings.