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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

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.

The successful integration of data into a district's decision-making process requires both a culture of change and a data management system to support change. Nice chart of progress quadrants included in the discussion.

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.

Increasingly, school board members from around the country are using data to help make good decisions about improving public education for all children. As school districts across the country grapple with how to think systemically and strategically about reaching student achievement goals and forging creative solutions from standardized test data, data-driven decision making can be used to inform board decisions.

Continuous Improvement: It takes more than test scores. Analyzing state assessment results is only the beginning of effective data-driven decision making. There is no question that the passage of No Child Left Behind in 2001 has impacted schools in at least two ways: First and foremost, NCLB has made the use of data to improve student achievement imperative; and second, NCLB has increased the need for continuous improvement processes within schools. Summative data just the beginning

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.

Karen Greenwood Henke: Presentation at the 12th Annual COSN Conference, San Francisco. Report on the COSN Data Driven Decision Making Initiative.

From PBS 39 Education. What is data driven decsion making and why is it needed? Using data is critical in strategies for student achievement.

What is Data-Driven Decision-Making (DDDM) and what should be considered before selecting and implementing Electronic Learning Assessment Resources (ELAR)? The following questions should be understood and/or addressed prior to making the time and funding investment to use an ELAR in your school or district.

This case study from the Consortium for School Networking (CoSN) provides an up-close look at how one of these trailblazers has established a sustainable strategy for data-driven decision making (DDDM).

Well before the idea of using data to manage schools gained prominence on the national stage, Oklahoma's Western Heights school district had made the ideal of real-time, data-driven decisionmaking a reality. Back in 2001, Superintendent Joe Kitchens was already being spotlighted for his focus on creating a longitudinal-data system that would give teachers in the 3,400-student district the ability to make quick decisions to improve student learning, while reducing the time spent compiling reports.

Everyone's talking about D3M. Use this guide to help prevent all that data from driving you nuts.

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.

It's not as easy as it looks to determine which schools are doing better than others. Two different criteria are relevant: is the difference in performance between two schools large enough to matter, which is sometimes termed educational significance or practical significance; and is the difference in performance between two schools real, or could it just be due to chance, which is typically described as statistical significance. Ideally, we are interested in differences that are both practically and statistically significant. But a difference could be large, but not statistically significant (which is often the case when we have a small sample of information about performance), or statistically significant, but very small (in which we are pretty sure that the difference is real, but it's just not very important). (Yes, statistical significance does matter!)

Historically available only to large corporations due to price and complexity, data warehousing is now an affordable and manageable option for gathering, manipulating and incorporating district data. While the inclusion of a data warehouse can be a boon for districts, the process of its development and support needs careful planning and management.

Districts use new methods to learn what works best for kids
No longer is it viewed as acceptable for teachers to deliver lectures, administer grades and expect their students to simply try harder. Teachers are increasingly being asked to use assessments and collect data on student learning to gauge whether their methods are succeeding and what more needs to be done.

All schools have data about student achievement. To make the most of these data to improve learning, we need to take be aware of many other factors - evidence that describes our students' wider learning environment.

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.

How schools can harness data over the long term to raise student achievement in a consistent, sustained manner. Technology & Learning Magazine, Oct 2005.