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Below you will find links to articles related to school and student data analysis and data-driven decision making. The articles are ordered based on their target audience. We hope these articles will help you better understand the use of school data. Note that all of the links below will open windows to websites outside the LAUSD site.
For Teachers:
Guide to Using Data in School Improvement Efforts
Description: This guide is designed for educators who are beginning to learn how to use data for school improvement. It offers foundational information on types of data, strategies for analyzing and understanding data, and methods for determining how these efforts can influence goals and planning.
Link: This is a link from the website of the Learning Point Associates. Click here.
The Thrill of Data Discovery
Description: This article tells about one Wisconsin school and its initiative to analyze student data. Teachers at this school learned how to conduct historical analysis of student outcomes in various content areas. Results were used to determine school goals and to plan professional development.
Link: This is a link from the website of the National Staff Development Council. Click here.
Using Student Achievement Data to Support Instructional Decision Making
Description: This guide provides a framework for using student achievement data to support instructional decision making. These decisions include, but are not limited to, how to adapt lessons or assignments in response to students’ needs, alter classroom goals or objectives, or modify student-grouping arrangements. The guide also provides recommendations with action steps for creating the organizational and technological conditions that foster effective data use.
Link: This is a link from the website of the U.S. Department of Education National Center for Education Evaluation and Regional Assistance. Click here.
For School Administrators:
Data-Driven; The Standard
Description: This link reviews the National Staff Development standard of using student data to monitor progress and sustain student improvement.
Link: This is a link from the National Staff Development Council website. Click here.
Data-Driven Decision Making Based on Curriculum-Embedded Assessment: Findings from Recent California Studies
Description:This brief reviews findings from three studies that researched schools that demonstrated significant achievement growth. Although the studies did not focus solely on data-driven decision making, participants reported on their use of data for instructional planning. This brief summarizes several interesting findings on effective data use from these three studies.
Link: This is a link from the California Comprehensive Center at WestEd. Click here.
Data Use in Urban High Schools
Description: The Northeast and Islands Regional Educational Laboratory at Brown University (LAB) is conducting a case study that investigates the process and effects of high school restructuring in five low-performing, urban high schools that are implementing three central elements of systemic reform, among them, using data to support continuous improvement. This paper summarizes initial findings that focuses on the use of data in the high school reform process.
Link: This is a link from The Education Alliance at Brown University website. Click here.
Diving into Data Analysis
Description: This article tells how the Glen Falls City School District in New York has seen improvement in some grade levels since it began conducting in-depth analysis of student assessment data and Terra Nova scores. It offers a list of the top 10 ways to use data as a lever for change.
Link: This link is from the website of the National Staff Development Council. Click here.
Identifying the Factors, Conditions and Policies that Support Schools' Use of Data for Decisionmaking and School Improvement: Summary of Findings
Description: This link offers recommendations for building a culture of data use and inquiry.
Link: This is a link from the website of the Education Commission of the States. Click here.
No Child Left Behind Issue Brief; Data-Driven Decisionmaking
Description: This link answers questions such as, What type of data can be used? and What type of decision can be made from data analysis results?
Link: This is a link from the Education Commission of the States website. Click here.
School Leaders Learn How To Use Data to Improve Instruction
Description: This article tells about a conference sponsored by the Consortium for School Networking (CoSN) where school leaders came together to discuss the importance of formative (vs. summative) data that is available anytime anywhere to improve instruction. It also discusses professional development for achieving a data driven culture in schools.
Link: This is a link from the eSchool News website. Click here.
For Central Office Administrators and Staff:
Can Interim Assessments be Used for Instructional Change?
Description:This exploratory study investigates how elementary teachers analyzed and used interim assessment data to inform their instruction in mathematics, the policy conditions that supported teachers’ ability to use interim assessment data to improve instruction, and the interaction of interim assessments with other classroom assessment practices.
Link: This is a link from the Consortium For Policy Research In Education. Click here.
Data-Driven Teaching: Tools and Trends
Description:This brief examines key questions about formative assessment data analysis programs (MAP, NovaNET, and MyBPS Assessment) and their use in urban districts.
Link: This is a link from the Rennie Center for Education Research & Policy. Click here.
Data Use Drives School and District Improvement
Description:This brief looks at ways leaders at all school system levels can use longitudinal data in addition to formative assessments to meet students’ individual needs and improve performance.
Link: This is a link from the National Center for Educational Accountability and Data Quality Campaign. Click here.
Making Sense of Data-Driven Decision Making in Education
Description:This paper seeks to clarify the ways in which multiple types of data are being used in schools and districts by synthesizing findings from recent research conducted by the RAND Corporation.
Link: This is a link from the RAND Corporation. Click here.
Practices That Support Data Use in Urban High Schools
Description:This study examines how five low-performing, high- poverty urban high schools in three school districts used data to inform school improvement. The report that outlines the factors that promote or inhibit the use of data to monitor progress as well as the policy implications.
Link: This is a link from the Center for Comprehensive School Reform and Improvement. Click here.
Real-Time Access to Student Data is a Real Boon for Educators
Description: This article introduces the benefits of SPARTA (School Performance at Real-Time Accessibility)—a web-based program that enables trained staff to tap into student and school performance data on a real-time, as needs basis. The article further explains how access to real-time data can help a school make current year changes to instruction.
Link: This is a link from the eSchool News website. Click here.
The Administrator’s Guide to Data-Driven Decision Making
Description: This link offers a step-by-step guide to setting up information management systems for decision support.
Link: This is a link from the tech.LEARNING.com website. Click here.
The “Data Wise” Improvement Process
Description: The paper describes a process that includes eight distinct steps school leaders can take to use their student assessment data effectively, and organized these steps into three phases: Prepare, Inquire, and Act.
Link: This is a link from the Harvard Graduate School of Education. Click here.
Understanding How Principals Use Data in a New Environment of Accountability
Description: This paper focuses on understanding how school principals incorporate effective assessment and accountability practices into their work. The purpose of this study is to develop a better understanding of the assessment and accountability practices and policies principals are implementing at the school level and to determine whether those policies are associated with school and student improvement.
Link: This is a link from the Regional Educational Laboratory. Click here.
WestEd—Accountability Evaluation Executive Summary
Description: WestEd set out to evaluate California’s Accountability System. This link offers a full-text summary of research findings.
Link: This is a link from the WestEd website. Click here.
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