I’m feeling very blue today. I vote green. And I stop for red lights. When I tell you what I do or how I feel using a language of colors, I communicate okay. But when I’m counting things, I use the language of numbers.
How full is my gas tank today? Three-quarters full. How many days until my daughter’s birthday? Nine.
Numbers are good for counting things, measuring, comparing the size of one thing to another.
Colors are good for other things. Describing our mood or our political affiliation. Signaling when to slow down or when to stop.
Dashboards feature colored signals. They’re called “idiot lights” because they only signal “ok” or “not ok.” A signal system for how schools are doing requires something smarter.
Given how well numbers work, something that’s been evident since the Sumerians counted grain by putting marks in clay tablets, why has the California Department of Education decided not to use numbers when describing how schools and districts are doing?
Do they think people can’t handle numbers? Do they fear that if they handed people numbers, that we’d simply not know what to do with them?
I have a suggestion for the CDE higher-ups and the Technical Design Group that’s responsible for the muddled mess of colors that comprises California’s Dashboard signal system. Look at the California Math Standards, and consult what’s required of seventh graders. If you think that California citizens can handle math at the seventh grade level, then go back to the drawing board and start redesigning your accountability signal system. Trust the public to make meaning from numbers. Your job is to use the language of numbers to make that possible. Colors are crude barriers that block the public’s ability to make sense of schools’ and districts’ vital signs.
To read other blog posts on the errors and illogic of the California Dashboard, click here.
