A behavior analyst and teacher argues the phrase "Data or it didn't happen" is unfair to educators. Large classrooms and limited staff make continuous recording impossible, yet the slogan implies unrecorded events don't count. She wants practical data systems that fit real classroom constraints, not guilt-driven slogans.
You know that saying, "Data or it didn't happen"? Well, you know what? I hate that. I hate that so much. As a BCBA, I hate that. So, I'm BCBA. Obviously, we love our data. Data's great. But you know what? I'm also a former classroom teacher, and within the classroom, you are not able to take data every single time something happens. It is just not possible. The class sizes are too big, the staff sizes are too low, there's too many things happening. And this whole data or it didn't happen puts this ridiculous pressure on teachers. No way, right? And also, what, we're just gonna ignore things because we didn't take data on it? Oh well, I didn't get to take that on that, so I'm just gonna pretend it didn't happen? That makes literally no sense. Do we need consistent, easy-to-use data systems? Absolutely. But data or it didn't happen is not the way.
