Group items tagged

Thoughtful analysis from Scott McLeod. In his work with numerous school organizations in multiple states, he has seen the power of data firsthand. When done right, data-driven education can have powerful impacts on the learning outcomes of students. Unfortunately, most school districts still are struggling with their data-driven practice. Much of this is because they continue to think about using data from a compliance mindset rather than using data for meaningful school improvement

Administrators will face, if they aren't already, five particular challenges in their use of data.
1.Harnessing more powerful data tools and greater amounts of data.
2.Granting teacher, parent and community access to data
3. Planning and utilizing interoperability standards
4. Guaranteeing integrity, privacy and security
5. Building data analysis and interpretation skills

With over 420,000 students and more than 600 schools, Chicago Public Schools finds itself in all three stages of data-driven decision making at once: collection, analysis, and action. The master data warehouse is nearly complete and will be rolled out in fall 2007 along with systems for specialized services management, curriculum instruction, and student information. Analysis is handled by the Office of Research and Analysis and published on a dedicated research Web site (http://research.cps.k12.il.us). The Principals Technology Leadership Institute (PTLI) is training principals in the art and science of using data for decision-making within their schools.

Journal of Staff Development. New routes open when one type of data crosses another. As educators become more familiar with collecting and interpreting school data, they can begin "running data at each other," framing questions that require analysis of multiple types of information. Educators can cross two, three, and four categories of data in ways that can provide new insight into student learning and how to improve it.

Analyzing your data is a process in which you will want to involve your entire staff. Good data-driven dialogue keads to data-driven decisions. If you engage staff in an ongoing data dialogue, it is much more likely that you will feel ownership for the data-based decisions you collectively make.

A major purpose of the monitoring plan is to put in place a system for the ongoing collection of data aligned with the content standard indicators/objectives you are responsible for teaching. You can't analyze data you don't have. And it is not useful to analyze data that is not aligned with your learning outcomes. Once you have the data, you are ready to analyze it.

Analyzing your data is a process you will want to involve your entire staff. There are a number of variables that will help you determine the best strategy for your school including the size of staff, organization of teams, availability of computers with Internet, and the amount of staff meeting time. The critical piece is that you model the importance of data analysis and that you involve (mandate) all staff in the process. The odds of teachers making the instructional changes needed for improved student achievement are much greater when the data and what it tells them about current achievement.

The title of this presentation at the Washington DC Emetrics summit was: Creating a Data Driven Web Decision Making Culture - Lessons, Tips, Insights from a Practitioner. Although meant for corporations, the advice applies just as well to academic institutions. The goal here was to share tips and insights that might help companies move from just having lots and lots of data to creating cultures where decisions are made not on gut-feel, or the proverbial seat of the pants, but rather based on data.

A Comparative Analysis of Superintendent, Principal, and Teachers' Perceptions of Accountability Systems. The purpose of this technical report is to develop a better understanding of the assessment and accountability practices and policies that educators are implementing in the classrooms, schools, and districts and to examine whether those policies are associated with perceived school and student improvements in achievement.\n\nThe study provides descriptive information about the need for schools and districts to effectively use data, how schools and districts use data to guide classroom practice, and the difference in data use based on the level of student proficiency in individual schools.

The Pivot tables and chartsfeature in Excel lets educators begin disaggregating and analyzing data within seconds (literally) of receiving original data files from state departments, testing companies, and/or school districts. These ten tutorials show how to use what is perhaps the most powerful data analysis tool within Excel

Like never before, today's classroom teachers routinely are being asked to collaboratively analyze student data, develop or implement new mandated curricula, and assess the effectiveness of these innovations. Ironically, few preservice preparatory or in-service professional development programs actively train classroom instructors in the use of team-based inquiry or collaborative data- driven problem solving. Framed within the context of the literature and governmental efforts to achieve school reform, this article describes one such in-service program, in practice at public and charter schools in high-need communities in New York City. The Inquiry Based School Improvement Program (IBSIP) was created and designed to help schools serving high-need communities in New York City engage in the types of team-based inquiry and data-driven problem solving needed to meet the everchanging institutional demands on these schools to improve.

NCREL has gathered a selection of web-based tools for collecting information, ranging from checklists to surveys, and including information about software tools for data collection and analysis. A tutorial provides an overview of the use of data in school improvement; a bibliography and background section are also included.

This study from the Rand Corporation explores how teachers and principals use test score data, what features of its use are relevant to them, and what assistance is available to help them use the data for instructional decisionmaking.

This report addresses some of these issues by summarizing findings from an exploratory study of the school-based assessment practices in a sample of elementary, middle, and secondary schools. The purposes of the study were twofold: (1) to add to the growing base of knowledge about how schools use student assessment data obtained from multiple sources to inform important decisions about programs, instruction, and individual students; and (2) to identify and describe the factors and conditions that make schools' use of the student assessment data more probable and valuable.

These materials are for school board members who want to know more about how to use data to make good decisions for children in public schools. Trainers who work with school board members also can use these materials at state and national conferences or in local training sessions.

Based on research conducted by the California P-16 Council, the CDE and other partners involved in this project, specific recommendations have been proposed to address the achievement gap among student subgroups.
Note Recommendation #11: Design, develop, and implement coherent and relevant professional development in the areas of data collection, analysis and interpretation

Did your students' test scores rise last year? If you're like many of our Principal Files team members, you've witnessed an increase in scores over the past several years. Seldom is it by chance that those scores have risen; it's the result of a concerted effort by an entire staff -- an effort that is very likely to include extensive data analysis, focused teacher training, frequent monitoring of student progress, practice testing throughout the year, student and staff incentives, and other strategies.