This article provides preliminary insights into how a particular data technology platform was introduced into one school site in a large Australian state and how it served as a ‘policy instrument’. The research draws upon critical data studies, and notions of risk, to develop the metaphor of ‘tracking’ in relation to students’ learning; such tracking helps to elaborate the myriad ways in which data were understood in the context of this platform. Interviews were undertaken with leading school administrators and teachers who were instrumental in disseminating information about the initiative. The research reveals: how this new platform was construed as helping ‘keep track’ of data in a more timely fashion than was the case with the existing data management system; a greater level of detail/granularity in relation to how students’ learning was ‘tracked’, and; how more personalised conversations were able to be generated in relation to students’ work, providing greater ‘traction’ on their learning. While the article reveals how educators can take a more active stance in relation to their students’ learning, it also shows how such actions were framed within what can be understood as increasing risk mitigation which policy support for data platforms enable. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/02680939.2026.2667292#abstract
