Disaggregating Data to Inform Instruction? An Analysis of Data Practices of Principals in Three Districts. Rachel Roegman, Ala Samarapungavan, Yukiko Maeda (Purdue University)
In this study, we examine principals’ beliefs and practices around using disaggregated data to inform instruction. Data sources include interviews and surveys with nine principals from three districts. We draw on sensemaking theory to consider how principals make sense of data and how their practices and beliefs inform teachers’ sensemaking. Findings show a lack of disaggregation and a lack of sense of need for disaggregation across the districts, with implications for policy, practice, and preparation.
What’s on Your Dashboard? A Study of Successful Data Dashboard Development in a Large Urban District. Daniel Alexander Novak, University of Washington; Meredith I. Honig, University of Washington; Steven Gering, Spokane Public Schools
School districts across the country are investing in systems to help them to use data effectively to inform their teaching and learning improvement efforts. But often, the design of their data dashboards impedes such efforts. What does it look like when such dashboards support effective data use? Findings from a large urban district emphasize the importance of designing data dashboards in ways that scaffold users’ thinking and inquiry through the design of the technology.
Mind the Gap: How School Leaders Respond to Gaps in Available Data When Making Decisions. Lydia Rose Rainey, University of Washington
This paper presents ndings from a study of how leaders in two schools responded to the gaps in available data while trying to use data in their school improvement decision making. Findings suggest that gaps in data stem from an overemphasis on student-level data in district-provided data. Leaders confronted these gaps by using school-level resources to collect additional data and evidence or by using their own knowledge/expertise in place of data.
Relations Between Improvement Practices and Accountability Tools in New York City’s Children First Networks. Kelly McMahon, Northwestern University
In this article, I describe how support providers in New York City, referred to as Children First Networks, attempted to negotiate mutual partnerships with schools focused on improving student achievement and developing schools’ continuous improvement capabilities. Drawing on sociocultural theory as an analytic lens, I found the networks pushed accountability tools as improvement practices. The comparison approaches shows vastly different conceptions of improvement practices related to accountability designs.
