Understanding How K–12 Students Analyze and Interpret Data: Findings from a National Sample Across Grade Level and Subject Area

According to A Framework for K–12 Science Education, students should be provided with meaningful opportunities to analyze and interpret scientific data as a core component of science learning (National Research Council, 2012). This study investigates how students engage in data-related practices in K–12 science classrooms across the United States. Drawing on survey responses from 330 science teachers, including open-ended and fixed-response items, we explore the nature of classroom activities involving data and examine how these vary across grade levels and subject areas. Students frequently engage in data visualization and collection; however, fewer engage in higher-order practices such as interpretation, evaluation of uncertainty, or data-driven argumentation. Further analysis indicates that the nature and frequency of students’ work with data, such as data collection, organization, analysis, visualization, interpretation, and communication, vary by grade level, with elementary students more often collecting data and high school students more often engaging in visualization and interpretation tasks. These results underscore the need for targeted professional learning and curriculum development to promote deeper and more equitable engagement with data across K–12 science classrooms.