THE PRACTICE: Effective principals use multiple sources of data as diagnostic tools to assess, identify and apply instructional improvement.
Content Presented By:
National Association of Elementary School Principals
The Education Alliance at Brown University

Resources related to this practice:

• Data Analysis for School Improvement
  http://eric.uoregon.edu/publications/roundup/Winter_2002.html

  The five documents reviewed in this Research Roundup find that schools benefit when leaders use data to challenge their intuitions and assumptions. Defining "data-driven" simply as "the consistent use of objective information to enhance human judgement," the authors promote the use of data not just to satisfy legal requirements, but also to focus action to improve student learning.

• Data Inquiry and Analysis for Educational Reform
  http://eric.uoregon.edu/publications/digests/digest153.html

  This digest outlines the most useful types of data to drive the process of school improvement, the steps that must be taken to collect and analyze the data, the role of administrators in guiding the data-driven reform process, and the results that can be expected.

• Data-Based Decision Making: Essentials for Principals
  http://www.naesp.org

  This monograph by Thomas Jandris explroes the leadership challenges for principals unleashed when assessment is infused throughout a school's culture. In addition to providing principals with a strong conceptual background to guide their use of data, the report offers numerous concrete examples, a long list of resources, and a glossary of assessment terms.

• Data-Driven Decisionmaking
  http://www.ecs.org/clearinghouse/35/52/3552.pdf

  This issue brief from the Education Commission of the States is aimed at helping educators come to grips with the challenges of the new ESEA accountability requirements. Based on a study of schools using exemplary data practices, it provides a brief but well-grounded overview.

• Getting Excited About Data: How to Combine People, Passion and Proof
  http://www.corwinpress.com

  Data analysis inevitably revolves around numbers, which many people regard as cold and abstract. But as Edie Holcomb argues in this book, human hopes, fears and passions are never far beneath the surface. In the end, Holcomb notes, effective data use is less a technical problem than a cultural problem, and it needs to be approached on that basis. This book provides a detailed road map for getting teachers involved with, and motivated by, data.

• The Toolbelt - A Collection of Data-Driven Decision-Making Tools for Educators
  http://www.ncrel.org/toolbelt/index.html

  NCREL's ToolBelt site includes information-gathering tools ranging from checklists to surveys. These tools are designed to help educators collect data about their classroom, school, district, professional practice or community. In addition to the tools themselves, this site includes information to help you use the tools effectively to gather data and use that data to make sound decisions.

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This resource is developed and maintained by The Education Alliance at Brown University. Seed funding was provided by the U.S. Department of Education. Send comments to: loom@alliance.brown.edu