Humanizing Education’s Numbers for Equity Ends

Asking about the impact of data on actual people enables educators to work with an asset-based lens

When I was in the 4th grade, learning math was difficult because I would create characters and stories from numbers. All of my numbers had stories and relationships with each other, and their stories became more elaborate each day. Eventually, I learned to suppress this peculiar impulse so I could more efficiently learn math at the pace required in traditional schools.

Decades later, I realized my childhood inclinations were correct. Numbers are people. Data can help us understand disparities, but we always must remember the numbers represent real people. When people separate numbers from people, they tend to treat the problem with callousness and indifference.