By Jeffrey Villar

In a recent piece covered by the CTMirror, Mary Quinn-Devine, an English teacher, says, “We’re not against testing. We’re against this test… It’s just data collection.” I couldn’t disagree more with these sentiments…

Imagine, if you would, a world in which we didn’t make data-driven decisions. What if we didn’t set safety standards based upon data about automobile safety? What if hospitals didn’t use data to track the success rates of surgical procedures? What if the Food and Drug administration didn’t use data to monitor the safety of new medications, or the Center for Disease Control didn’t track the spread of communicable diseases?

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Despite what some would have you believe about the “art of teaching,” take it from a former superintendent and educator of 20 years: education is a science. We have research on data-driven practices that absolutely will make a difference for kids.

Read the full opinion here.