A nationwide trend increasing educational accountability that focuses on student academic achievement, is driving school districts to seek effective ways to incorporate data into their decision making process creating a growing need for support. For the past several years, the research staff at CESP has been involved in promoting, directly educating, and collaborating with educational professionals in using various approaches to data-driven instructional decision making.

Building Data Capacity

CESP partners with school districts to develop well-functioning systems for data management. CESP supports school districts’ efforts to build the capacity to handle large amounts of student data and use it for formative purposes.

In a climate of growing educational accountability based on student learning gains, the process of implementing systems for data warehousing and the districts’ internal capacity to collect, aggregate, and safely store students’ data is an increasingly important aspect of statewide educational reform. Our building data capacity services include:

• Conceptual understanding of the ways in which data is aggregated, organized, and managed
• Connections among datasets with potential to inform effective teaching practice
• Expertise in developing internal capacity and establishing approaches to the review of, connection between, and interpretation of input measures (frequently based on observation of teaching practice) and outcome measures (various student achievement indicators)
• Relevant data sources to inform educators’ professional learning, as related to diverse needs in the classroom

Expanding Data Literacy

One of the major goals of CESP’s work and collaborative partnerships with school districts is to enhance professional learning opportunities that allow educators to develop strong data literacy expertise. This type of work includes educators’ understanding of the features of quality assessments that provide meaningful evidence of student learning, use of multiple approaches to assessment data interpretation, and translation of this information into the instructional decision-making process. Data literacy allows educators to make decisions about instructional differentiation, lesson pacing, and academic assessment. Our work in expanding data literacy includes:

• Meaningful and relevant data sources
• Quality assessments eliciting quality evidence of learning
• Multiple sources of information to inform and modify instructional interventions

Data-Driven Decision Making

CESP research staff works directly with school districts to shift the culture toward student-centered instructional planning by offering training to educators to engage in systematic review of multiple sources giving evidence of student learning. The idea that meaningful instruction is the foundation of sustained student growth is not novel. However, the approaches to developing meaningful instruction currently still emphasize teaching-centered models, which fail to account for the unique learning progressions of students, both as individuals and in groups. Our work includes:

• Selection of meaningful and relevant data sources to drive effective decision making
• Use of multiple sources of information to modify instructional planning of interventions based on specific difficulties that students may experience
• Internal capacity to plan, periodically schedule and engage in data interpretation
• Applied understanding of various types of data and their weight in the decision-making process

Related Projects

• The Role of Short Cycle Assessments in Improving Teacher Performance and Student Achievement
• Using Formative Assessment to Improve Teaching and Learning

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