The Effective Use of Data

Executive Summary

More than two decades of research on educator data use make abundantly clear that simply providing teachers, administrators, and central office leaders with more data will not simply translate to improved student learning opportunities, higher achievement, or more equitable outcomes. Scholars contend that successful data use involves shifting from a mentality where data is treated as a tool for identifying simple solutions to one that informs educators’ learning about how to better meet the needs of students in the classroom, school, or district. Unfortunately, schools and district leaders have not consistently made space for educators to use various types of data as the basis for making sustained and systematic improvements. In addition, data has come to be associated with a narrowed understanding of student success.

The effective use of data requires developing the systems, structures, and culture around data use that elevates data as a driver of improvement. Achieving this goal requires a systemwide commitment to supporting educators’ and administrators’ successful use of data through the use of multiple forms of data, disaggregating data to identify opportunity gaps, and integrating data into decisions throughout a district.

After a review of academic literature on the subject, Impact Florida recommends the three overarching steps to improve the use of and integration of data into a process by which all school stakeholders can learn how to better meet the needs of their students:

Reduce Obstacles to Educators’ Successful Data Use
Foster Norms to Establish a Culture of Meaningful Data Use
Use Data to Promote Equitable Student Outcomes

Reduce Obstacles to Educators’ Successful Data Use

Despite what the term data-based decision-making might imply, linking data with decision making is by no means an automatic process. Data use is interpretative work that not only requires a high degree of data literacy, but an understanding of how data relates to the users’ pre-existing knowledge. A school principal must not only be able to identify relevant patterns in their school’s data but prioritize target areas and develop appropriate instructional interventions. Teachers must not only identify the specific academic standards a child has not yet met, but understand the nature of student misunderstanding to guide re-teaching efforts. Reducing obstacles to data use, whether through increasing access to timely and relevant data or training to support its use, is a critical first step in improving data use within schools and school districts.

“Organizations that improve do so because they create and nurture agreement on what is worth achieving, and they set in motion the internal processes by which people progressively learn how to do what they need to do in order to achieve what is worthwhile.” ²

Foster Norms to Establish a Culture of Meaningful Data Use

Efforts to foster a meaningful data use culture have run into many challenges, ranging from compliance-based data use to a narrowed understanding of student success that often accompanies test-based accountability systems. To overcome these challenges, school and district leaders can frame data use not simply as a matter of compliance but model how to use data to make meaningful changes in school operations and support teachers in using data to improve their instructional practice. Leaders can also set expectations of what data should be used for what purposes. In particular, they can shift from test scores as the sole measure of student progress and offer a broader vision of student flourishing and well-being. When shared expectations around data use and actual data use routines are in alignment, it can foster a sense of trust and safety related to data use and shared responsibility for school improvement efforts.

Using Data to Promote Equitable Student Outcomes

The use of data to promote equitable student outcomes depends not only on processes that prioritize equitable student outcomes but mindsets that shape how data is used. For many school districts, conducting equity audits and developing equity plans mark an important jumping off point for understanding and redressing historically marginalized students’ barriers to accessing a high-quality education. Yet, as such efforts risk following a similar pattern as other compliance-based data use routines, it is important that educators focus on the process with which data is used to promote equitable student outcomes.

District and school leaders can (1) reframe discussions from a narrow focus on achievement gaps to the need to address disparities in opportunity gaps, (2) place additional emphasis on student growth as opposed—or in addition to—student performance levels, (3) shift the focus away from blaming students or focusing on their supposed deficits to instead work with educators to identify what they can do to improve their instruction to better meet all students’ learning needs, (4) adopt asset-based approaches to data use that embrace a more complete portrait of students to help better meet their academic, socioemotional, and behavioral development, (5) use data to identify the ways in which local policies and practices contribute to inequitable student outcomes, and (6) take collective responsibility for how best to meet the needs of historically marginalized student subpopulations.

“Data use does sometimes promote better and more equitable outcomes, especially when educators start from the premise that all students can succeed and that the purpose of analyzing data is to find ways to help them do so.” ³

Conclusion

There is not a uniform model by which school districts should be using data but it is vital that schools and districts lay out and implement concrete steps to more effectively use data to guide their day-to-day decision-making. The goal of these efforts is a school system that elevates data as a driver of improvement efforts to better meet the learning and developmental needs of all students.

Download the full report here

References

¹Marsh, J. A. (2012). Interventions promoting educators’ use of data: Research insights and gaps.
Teachers College Record, 114(11), 110309.
²Elmore, R. (2000). Building a new structure for school leadership. Washington DC:
The Albert Shanker Institute.
³Bertrand, M., & Marsh, J. A. (2021). How data-driven reform can drive deficit thinking. Phi Delta Kappan, 102(8), 35-39.

Resources

All

All
1: Shared Vision
2: Instructional Materials
3: Professional Learning
4: Empowered Leaders
5: Effective Use of Data
Equity in Education

Classroom Practice Reflection Guide for Developmental Language Arts through ESOL Classes

Condition 2: Instructional Materials, 5: Effective Use of Data
Source: Miami-Dade County Public Schools
Type: Tool

M-DCPS Classroom Practice Reflection Guide for Developmental Language Arts through ESOL Classes

WIDA Can Do Descriptors, Grades 6-8

Condition 2: Instructional Materials, 5: Effective Use of Data
Source: Miami-Dade County Public Schools
Type: Tool

Can-Do-Name-Chart-Gr6-8- MDCPS

Transformational Leadership Framework 2020
NEW

Condition 4: Empowered Leaders, 1: Shared Vision, Equity in Education
Source: New Leaders
Type: Tool

The New Leaders’ Transformational Leadership Framework identifies key actions for improving student achievement and effective leadership practices at three levels – system, school, and team. The tool breaks these actions into five categories: Learning and Teaching, School Culture, Talent Management, Planning and Operations, and Personal Leadership. In addition, New Leaders highlights areas where leaders have the opportunity to re-envision what their school systems, schools, and classrooms can be through the lens of leading through crisis, such as COVID-19.

THE STATE OF THE SUNSHINE STATE STANDARDS: The B.E.S.T Standards Review
NEW

Condition 2: Instructional Materials
Source: The Thomas B. Fordham Institute
Type: Report

This report by The Thomas B. Fordham Institute is a review of Florida’s B.E.S.T. English Language Arts and Mathematics Standards by the same expert reviewers and use of the same criteria from their 2018 report and multi-state reviews. Included are the institute’s identification of strengths and weaknesses and recommendations for ELA and Math.

High-Quality Curriculum Implementation Summer 2020
NEW

Condition 2: Instructional Materials, Equity in Education
Source: The National Institute for Excellence in Teaching
Type: Report

Connecting What to Teach with How to Teach It: This report dives into the potential of high-quality curriculum when implemented with job-embedded professional learning and individual teacher coaching and feedback at the school level. A recommendations guide is also included, along with action steps for district, school, and teacher leaders for successful high-quality curriculum implementation in traditional and virtual/distance learning scenarios.

K-5 Content-based Literacy Evaluation Rubric for Core Instruction
FEATURED

Condition 2: Instructional Materials, Equity in Education
Source: School District of Palm Beach County
Type: Tool

School Board Equity Policy
FEATURED

Condition 2: Instructional Materials, Equity in Education
Source: School District of Palm Beach County
Type: Tool

Curriculum Support Guide

Condition 2: Instructional Materials
Source: Instruction Partners
Type: Tool

Teachers need much more than a box of new materials to ensure great teaching and learning take place. This interactive series of tools can help a team of leaders who select, prepare for, and support the use of high-quality instructional materials.

Common Vision of Instructional Excellence

Condition 1: Shared Vision
Source: Pasco County Schools
Type: Best Practice

See a copy of the vision of excellent instruction developed by Pasco County Schools, which is shared regularly with the district’s staff (including teachers), partners and community members.

Quail Hollow, a School Where any Student Can Learn

Condition 1: Shared Vision
Source: Pasco County Schools
Type: Best Practice

This 10-minute video case study of Quail Hollow Elementary School talks about how educators combine student engagement and caring with rigorous instruction to achieve amazing academic results with their students.

A Vision for Great Teaching in Florida
iF

Condition 1: Shared Vision
Source: Impact Florida
Type: Report

Florida’s educational achievements are on the rise, but the state still has a long way to go in providing quality instruction to all students in all schools. This report addresses how the status-quo is contributing to the stunting of student achievement and opportunity, and what research points to for solutions.

K-12 Instructional Materials Reviews

Condition 2: Instructional Materials
Source: EdReports
Type: Tool

EdReports.org evaluates and rates the standards alignment of instructional materials using a simple green-yellow-red system. Easily look up specific titles, browse by publisher and compare materials.

Teaching Higher

Condition 2: Instructional Materials
Source: Center for Education Policy Research
Type: Report

This report estimated that in fourth and fifth grade math, switching to a top ranked textbook would translate to student achievement gains of 3.6 percentile points—larger than the improvement of a typical teacher’s effectiveness in their first three years on the job when they are learning to teach.

Coherence Map

Condition 1: Shared Vision
Source: Student Achievement Partners
Type: Tool

The Coherence Map is an interactive way to view the relationship and sequence of key mathematical concepts for grades K-8.

The Opportunity Myth
FEATURED

Condition 4: Empowered Leaders
Source: TNTP
Type: Report

In this major report, TNTP after following nearly 4,000 students in five diverse school systems to learn more about their experiences found that most students—and especially students of color, those from low-income families, those with mild to moderate disabilities, and English language learners—spent the vast majority of their school days missing out on four crucial resources: grade-appropriate assignments, strong instruction, deep engagement, and teachers with high expectations.

Instructional Practice Guide

Condition 3: Professional Learning
Source: Student Achievement Partners
Type: Tool

This set of observation rubrics names the specific actions (“Core Actions”) and behavioral indicators (“Indicators”) school leaders and instructional coaches should look for when observing instruction with the goal of giving feedback to educators. This set of observable actions are designed to help teachers, coaches, and peers identify evidence of where, when, and how instruction aligned to college- and career-ready standards is taking place.

Assignment Review Protocols
FEATURED

Condition 2: Instructional Materials
Source: TNTP
Type: Tool

These assignment and student work review tools are intended to help teachers, leaders, and others understand if an assignment is giving students the opportunity to meaningfully engage in worthwhile grade-level content. Using the protocols, you’ll first review the quality of the assignment and then analyze students’ performance on that assignment.

Lesson Planning Tool

Condition 3: Professional Learning
Source: Student Achievement Partners
Type: Tool

The Lesson Planning Tool guides teachers through a series of prompts about the lesson content, structure, and activities to ensure the Shifts required by college- and career-ready standards are central to the lesson.

Student Engagement Survey
FEATURED

Condition 5: Effective Use of Data
Source: TNTP
Type: Tool

To understand how your students perceive their daily lessons, teachers and leaders can use this Student Engagement Survey regularly to understand how engaging and worthwhile students perceived a lesson – and then use that information to make lessons even more engaging and worthwhile.

Student Work Library

Condition 5: Effective Use of Data
Source: TNTP
Type: Best Practice

Student work is one of the most valuable tools in gauging the efficacy of instruction, tasks, and student learning taking place in a classroom. This Student Work Library allows you to view examples of student work to learn to distinguish between high and low-quality assignments. The Student Work Library rates more than 70 assignments on how well they align to college and career-ready standards.

Instructional Materials Decision Guide

Condition 2: Instructional Materials
Source: TNTP
Type: Tool

This decision guide makes it easier for ELA/literacy and mathematics teachers who don’t already have strong district curricula to find high-quality, grade-appropriate instructional materials online.

Interactive P-12 Assignments Analysis Tool

Condition 2: Instructional Materials
Source: The Education Trust
Type: Tool

This tool includes assignments from a range of middle school grades and subjects and were collected from schools with different student demographics. Assignments fall within the low, mid and high range on EdTrust’s Literacy Assignments Analysis Framework and the tool lists the details that support the scoring.

Ambitious Leadership: How Principals Lead Schools to College and Career Readiness

Condition 4: Empowered Leaders
Source: New Leaders
Type: Report

Principals are the linchpins of leading their schools (and teachers) to educational excellence, particularly when confronting more challenging instructional expectations. Read case studies from six schools where principals are leading the way through what New Leaders calls “ambitious leadership,” and learn from the strategies they’re implementing every day to move the needle for all students.

Principal Support Framework

Condition 4: Empowered Leaders
Source: Center for Educational Leadership
Type: Tool

The Principal Support Framework helps leaders evaluate the support needed to advance principal leadership in their school systems. It asks questions about the vision a district or CMO has regarding the role of principals as instructional leaders and the supports that are or need to be in place for principals to be strong academic leaders.

Profiles in School Leadership

Condition 4: Empowered Leaders
Source: Chicago Public Education Fund
Type: Best Practice

Read this report from the Chicago Public Education Fund, highlighting four promising practices for principals in the implementation of the higher standards in public schools, including setting a clear vision of excellent instruction, hiring the right team of teachers, providing a strong professional learning system, and using data to continuously improve outcomes.

Executive Summary