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This brief examines policies and practices concerning the use of data to inform school improvement strategies and to provide information for accountability. This twin-pronged movement, termed Data-Driven Improvement and Accountability (DDIA), can lead either to greater quality, equity and integrity, or to deterioration of services and distraction from core purposes. The question addressed by this brief is what factors and forces can lead DDIA to generate more positive and fewer negative outcomes in relation to both improvement and accountability. The policy brief concludes with 12 recommendations for establishing more effective and productive systems and processes, derived from its analysis of the relevant research. A report containing model legislation follows, detailing a legal structure that would use data effectively to create a multi-level system of accountability designed for school improvement.

“I don’t buy into the fact that we can get a system – and this is not a popular belief – that can do the full analysis of what students need,” he said

“I value the teaching profession and I think they need to look at the data that’s put out in front of them, the information that’s cut in different ways and use their ‘neck top computer’ [brain] to make some sort of valued judgement as to what the data is saying.

“Information can give black or white positives or negatives, but without the analytical mind of the teacher over the top understanding the student, what’s happening at home and in the classroom, they [IT] actually miss some of that analysis.”