The Principal Exchange Podcast
Sep 28, 2026 · 26 min · 10 segments
In Episode 3 of our Five Beliefs Series, Sarah and Andra talk about what they mean when they say: Data Is a Compass, Not a Checkbox. This isn't about collecting more data or pretending benchmarks…
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Well, we are continuing to move on with our belief series.
And like we told you at the end of last week's episode, this week's belief that we're focusing on is on data.
So if you've ever listened to our episodes for a while, like, you know, we have strong opinions on data, like a lot of other things.
And today's belief is data is a compass.
It's not just a checkbox.
And if you're just checking in with us and you have not listened to, I guess it would be three episodes ago now.
Yeah.
the first one in this belief series and we'll throw that in the show notes but you might want to go back and at least listen to the story of kind of how we got to our beliefs like why we have these beliefs and why we're doing this series and it'll make just a little more sense so you might want to go back and check that out that would be like 50s 55 i think i think 55 so but we'll put it in the show notes
Yeah.
And so today's belief is all focused on data and how you use it, how it should be used, how you collected all the things.
And so we have usually more data than we know what to do with.
Schools love to collect data, all kinds of numbers and spreadsheets and forms.
And, you know, we've been in several situations where you might even be collecting the same data more than one time.
Right.
We've got benchmark data, spreadsheet or state testing data.
You have behavior data and attendance data.
And you have, I mean, data for everything.
Everything has a number and a spreadsheet and a checkbox and something that's like lingering above it.
But we really want to push back or push past that and say, so what are we going to do about it? What are we going to do about all this data? What's it telling us? Where do we go from it? Because if you're not using it, then it's just costing you time.
I mean, you have...
Whether it's academic behavior, attendance, walkthrough, referral, it's not whether or not you have this data, but it's, is it guiding you in your school to where you want to be? What is it telling you? How is it helping us move students forward? You know, do we have the right data to help us make these decisions? Do we have the right data to help us reduce referrals or increase attendance or improve student academics? But it should be our compass here.
not just something we're collecting.
And oftentimes it can feel daunting and we end up just collecting a lot of it and it sits or it's not used as well as it could be.
Yeah.
I think data is one of those things.
Well, we are continuing to move on with our belief series.
And like we told you at the end of last week's episode, this week's belief that we're focusing on is on data.
So if you've ever listened to our episodes for a while, like, you know, we have strong opinions on data, like a lot of other things.
And today's belief is data is a compass.
It's not just a checkbox.
And if you're just checking in with us and you have not listened to, I guess it would be three episodes ago now.
Yeah.
the first one in this belief series and we'll throw that in the show notes but you might want to go back and at least listen to the story of kind of how we got to our beliefs like why we have these beliefs and why we're doing this series and it'll make just a little more sense so you might want to go back and check that out that would be like 50s 55 i think i think 55 so but we'll put it in the show notes
Yeah.
And so today's belief is all focused on data and how you use it, how it should be used, how you collected all the things.
And so we have usually more data than we know what to do with.
Schools love to collect data, all kinds of numbers and spreadsheets and forms.
And, you know, we've been in several situations where you might even be collecting the same data more than one time.
Right.
We've got benchmark data, spreadsheet or state testing data.
You have behavior data and attendance data.
And you have, I mean, data for everything.
Everything has a number and a spreadsheet and a checkbox and something that's like lingering above it.
But we really want to push back or push past that and say, so what are we going to do about it? What are we going to do about all this data? What's it telling us? Where do we go from it? Because if you're not using it, then it's just costing you time.
I mean, you have...
Whether it's academic behavior, attendance, walkthrough, referral, it's not whether or not you have this data, but it's, is it guiding you in your school to where you want to be? What is it telling you? How is it helping us move students forward? You know, do we have the right data to help us make these decisions? Do we have the right data to help us reduce referrals or increase attendance or improve student academics? But it should be our compass here.
not just something we're collecting.
And oftentimes it can feel daunting and we end up just collecting a lot of it and it sits or it's not used as well as it could be.
Yeah.
I think data is one of those things.
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