Disaggregation sounds like a complicated word with no place in real-world conversations about improving education. But it’s actually an important tool that allows educators to understand how different groups of students fare in schools. Each of the strategies mentioned in our last blog – that allowed Chicago educators to dive deeper into data and pull out student strengths through their commitment to asset framing – were made possible by disaggregation.
Disaggregating data reveals disparities in academic performance between students of color and their white peers, or between students of differing socioeconomic status, that many describe as the achievement gap. The story, however, must not end with disaggregated data. To address disparities in achievement, disaggregated data must be used to inform better practice by putting inequities in education in proper context for practitioners...