Seeing Beyond the Numbers: Using Street Data to Transform Our Schools
As school leaders, we often find ourselves awash in data: attendance, test scores, behavior referrals, graduation rates. These data points can tell us a lot about what’s happening to our students—but very little about what’s happening within them. That’s where street data comes in.
OBJECTIVES
- Elevate marginalized voices and guide more inclusive decision-making
- Implement practical strategies for collecting street data
What Is Street Data?
Coined by Shane Safir and Jamila Dugan, street data refers to the qualitative, human-centered insights gathered directly from those closest to the classroom experience—students, families, and educators. Unlike standardized metrics, street data is personal, context-rich, and equity-focused. It helps us surface what’s not showing up on our dashboards.
Why Street Data Matters
Street data isn’t just another layer of information—it’s a new way of seeing. By collecting and engaging with lived experiences, we move beyond assumptions and begin to address the real conditions affecting student success.
Here’s how using street data can strengthen your leadership:
- Reveals blind spots in systems that may unintentionally marginalize students.
- Elevates voices often missing from the conversation, such as English learners, LGBTQ+ students, or families with limited school access.
- Inspires empathy and connection, essential for building a thriving school culture.
From Deficit Thinking to Abundance Thinking
Satellite Data
- Emphasizes quick fixes
- Often rooted in deficit thinking
- Shaming or compliance-focused
- Lagging indicators
Satellite data asks: What’s the matter with you?
Street Data
- Enables complex, adaptive change
- Builds from cultural wealth and assets
- Celebratory and community-centered
- Immediate, dynamic insights
Street data asks: What’s right with you? What matters to you?
The Promise of Street Data
Promotes Equity: Identifies and addresses disparities in access, resources, and support within our diverse community.
Personalizes Learning: Tailors instruction and support to meet the unique needs and backgrounds of each student.
Informs Decision-Making: Guides policy and resource allocation based on the collective insights of our community.
How to Get Started: Practical Street Data Strategies
You don’t need a research team to get started—just intentionality, humility, and a willingness to learn. Here are a few strategies:
A Model in Action: Community Reflective Learning Tours
At the start of the 2023–24 school year, each school site in our district hosted a Community Reflective Learning Tour. As educators and school staff navigated the neighborhoods their students call home, stories from students, parents, and staff brought to life the diverse experiences within our district.
Key Outcomes:
- Enhanced Understanding: Deepened empathy for students’ lived realities.
- Tailored Instruction: Adjusted instructional practices to better reflect student contexts.
- Bridged Gaps: Connected home and school in meaningful, culturally inclusive ways.
- Boosted Engagement: Designed more relevant and responsive learning experiences.
We also choose the margins, flipping the dashboard upside down to center the experiences of those who matter most: not policymakers and certainly not test makers but the families, students, and educators who breathe life into learning.
-Shane Safir
Leading with Courage and Curiosity
Collecting street data is not just a task—it’s a mindset. It asks us to lead with vulnerability, to listen deeply, and to act with integrity. As we surface what truly matters to our students and families, we build schools that reflect, respect, and respond to their realities.
Interested in learning more? I highly recommend Shane Safir and Jamila Dugan’s book, Street Data: A Next-Generation Model for Equity, Pedagogy, and School Transformation.
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