As we celebrate or bemoan the sixth anniversary of No Child Left Behind, the obsession with testing and data -- and what we do with those numbers -- is now the pervasive dilemma for just about everyone in the education policy field.

From a journalist’s perspective, the vast array of numbers coming from NCLB requirements have given us many stories and many more story ideas. But what I’ve found is that for all the slicing and dicing, statistics and test scores never tell a complete story about a school. There’s always a story behind the data -- and occasionally that might be a totally different picture than expected.

Perhaps a school with abysmal test scores is tackling gang violence and helping students stay in school. Another might have promising strategies for teaching migrant students. Or a school making Adequate Yearly Progress may be ignoring its gifted and talented programs.

The only way to find out is to visit schools, talk to people there (everyone from the superintendent to paraprofessionals), spend time in the community, consult with researchers and policy wonks, and look at data. I once worked on a report with an editor who started by pulling together experts to discuss current research, data, and trends for a particular subgroup but also sent several of us on site visits to document real-life examples. The end product was a tapestry that we felt gave readers a rich understanding of all the issues and the factors that brought about the data. It made the national news and won praise from the education community, as well as a couple journalism awards.

I later worked with a group whose strategy was to use independent researchers to gather all the test scores and reports they could find, and then write a report from their notes. The project team never set foot in a school or talked to any administrators or teachers, and the editor’s mantra was, “Let the data tell the story!” Not surprisingly, that report ended up getting lampooned by the local press, and I’ll bet most of the copies ended up in recycling bins.

People, not statistics, are what make public education. In this new year, which may or may not see an NCLB reauthorization, our responsibility will be finding and bringing to light the stories behind the statistics.

Joetta Sack-Min, Associate Editor