Dan Frederking, Ed.D.
With nearly two decades in the education field, I have experienced quite a bit. In my career, I’ve held jobs as a classroom teacher, as a student assessment consultant at a state education department, as a technical assistance expert at a large education research nonprofit, as an adjunct university professor, and as an independent consultant. At this point, it’s fair to say that I’ve worked with hundreds of schools across the country, but my focus has always remained the same: education data.
What started as an interest in educator assessment literacy expanded to a general fascination with data in general, and how people in the education field use it to make informed decisions. I often find this area to be lacking. I wrote my doctoral dissertation on how data literacy is being taught to preservice teachers, and I’ll sum the 200-page document up for you in 2 words: it’s not.
So this is the role I’ve been playing. I aim to do what I can to help teachers and school leaders better utilize all kinds of data when making decisions. Using data (and I don’t just mean test scores, but all kinds of information in various forms) can unlock a world of understanding that can improve student achievement. I want to see data used the right way, and I’m trying to share my expertise to improve data-driven education.
