Anne Bubnic's List: Data/Program Improvement

Increasingly, school board members from around the country are using data to help make good decisions about improving public education for all children. As school districts across the country grapple with how to think systemically and strategically about reaching student achievement goals and forging creative solutions from standardized test data, data-driven decision making can be used to inform board decisions.

From PBS 39 Education. What is data driven decsion making and why is it needed? Using data is critical in strategies for student achievement.

The purpose of this technical report is to develop a better understanding of the assessment and accountability practices and policies that educators are implementing in the classrooms, schools, and districts and to examine whether those policies are associated with perceived school and student improvements in achievement.\n\nThe study provides descriptive information about the need for schools and districts to effectively use data, how schools and districts use data to guide classroom practice, and the difference in data use based on the level of student proficiency in individual schools.

From judging performance to guiding students to shaping instruction to informing learning, coming to grips with informative assessment is one insightful journey.

CTAP Region IV and Regional System of District and School Support (RSDSS) developed these Microsoft Excel® templates to assist you in analyzing CST and benchmark assessments.

April 2008 : THE Journal. As each district progresses, it will face new challenges discerning what data is relevant, addressing tolerance for change among users, and figuring out how to respond now that data is driving its decision-making.<br>
Stage 1: Define the Outcomes <br>
Stage 2: Define the Questions <br>
Stage 3: Collect and Sort <br>
Stage 4: Extract Meaning <br>
Stage 5: Take Action <br>
Stage 6: Evaluate Outcomes, Modify as Needed<br><br>

Like never before, today's classroom teachers routinely are being asked to collaboratively analyze student data, develop or implement new mandated curricula, and assess the effectiveness of these innovations. Ironically, few preservice preparatory or in-service professional development programs actively train classroom instructors in the use of team-based inquiry or collaborative data- driven problem solving. Framed within the context of the literature and governmental efforts to achieve school reform, this article describes one such in-service program, in practice at public and charter schools in high-need communities in New York City. The Inquiry Based School Improvement Program (IBSIP) was created and designed to help schools serving high-need communities in New York City engage in the types of team-based inquiry and data-driven problem solving needed to meet the everchanging institutional demands on these schools to improve.

Simple strategies & tools to make sense of your student achievement data from Dennis Fox. The site includes downloadable workshop handouts.