Democratically Engaged Assessment

For many years, the Bonner Center for Civic Engagement has been using a democratically engaged assessment method we’ve named the Data Lab. 

What is a Data Lab?

In a data lab, people with a common investment in a program, center, class, or shared experience come together to look carefully and playfully at artifacts (data) that emerge from that common investment.

Two goals of data labs are to build a culture of inquiry and to develop and refine programs and curriculum based on evidence.  

We have learned that intentionally encouraging creative interaction with the data we are studying is critical to the data lab’s success. While it is tempting to simply let participants discuss artifacts in the ways already familiar to most of us, we instead strive to set up distinctive and spirited interactions with data. In data labs, creativity and playfulness matter because we are aiming to freshen people’s relationship with the act of assessment itself.  As part of a larger assessment ecosystem, we have found data labs especially beneficial in that they help to catalyze an inclusive, collaborative, and ongoing practice of meaning-making.