Notes: -“In these cases the teachers are also looking at test scores but feel that tests do not tell the whole story. This suggests that accountability policies, which rely on achievement indicators as the primary data source for determining teacher effectiveness, are unlikely to provide sufficient information for teachers to assess their practice and make improvements.” p. 1270.

- Lack of time also noted for analyzing data and making decisions. See collecting and analyzing data as conflicting with their job of teaching students.

- showed strong reliance on antecdotal information and intuition.

-“Secondary school teachers are articulate about the lack of congruence between the goal assumptions of their state’s accountability legislation (which focus exclusively on increasing students’ academic achievement) and their own and their community’s expectations for a much less well-defined product of ‘‘effective adults.’’ Using the latter criteria, they include as critical goals moral development, adaptability, career success, and life satisfactions. Because data on these important goals are unavailable, teacher often turn to intuitive and qualitative measures of their success. ” p. 1279.

Identify seven barriers:

Cultural - includes 1) teachers have their own metrics for teaching effectiveness; 2) teachers emphasize anecdotal and intuitive information over that collected systematically; 3) little agreement about what student outcomes are important; 4) teachers disassociate their own performance from that of their students.

Technical - 5) data rarely reflect what teachers really value; 6) they rarely have sufficient time to collect and analyze data.

Political - 7) data have often been used for political motives and thus leads to avoidance.