When I weigh myself, I look at the scale and write down the weight that I see at that moment. Student assessments are similar. An assessment is a snapshot of the student's performance at that place and time. And then behaviors are the same. What I don't do is think of all the different weights in my life and write down the range of weights that I have weighed in my life.
When I was thinking about how to better analyze data we collect from our Student Support Data Collection form, I looked at the "Approximate time of day concerning behavior occurs" field. I have a lot of data in that field that looks like this:
[Morning Class time 8:30 - 10:50, Morning Class time 10:50 - 12:00, Mid day class, Lunch - Lunch recess, Afternoon classes].
Data is always easier to work with when it is singular. One cell, one piece of data. I set up this form to try to make it easier for teachers to report on students, but by setting up the time field in this way, I have muddled the data set and have made analyzing data much harder.
Next year, I am planning on reintroducing the data form in August and talking more about why data is collected in this way and how it works.