Background Data use has been promoted as a panacea for instructional improvement. However, the field lacks a detailed understanding of how teachers actually use assessment data to inform instruction and the factors that shape this process. Purpose This article provides a review of literature on teachers’ use of assessment data to inform instruction. We draw primarily on empirical studies of data use that have been published in the past decade, most of which have been conducted as data-driven decision making came into more widespread use. The article reviews research on the types of assessment data teachers use to inform instruction, how teachers analyze data, and how their instruction is impacted. Research Design Review of research. Findings In the current accountability context, benchmark assessment data predominate in teachers’ work with data. Although teachers are often asked to analyze data in a consistent way, agendas for data use, the nature of the assessments, and teacher bel.
See Full PDF See Full PDFResearch consistently has found teachers’ use of assessment data for instructional purposes challenging and inconsistent. To support teachers’ use of data, we need to develop shared knowledge about how data are and can be used to advance teaching and learning. However, the literature on the specific actions teachers take is inconsistent, creating challenges for both research and practice. As part of a larger project examining data use in instructional decision making, we developed a framework to classify teachers’ instructional responses to data. Then, we used quantitative and qualitative data from educators across 5 districts and 20 schools to evaluate the utility of the framework. This article documents the process and outcomes of our multistage, mixed-methods approach to these tasks. We conclude with the potential uses of this framework for research and practice.
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Council of the Great City Schools
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Teachers College Record: The Voice of Scholarship in Education
Background/Context The importance attached to practicing data use is evident in its inclusion in federal law, competitive grant programs, state teaching license requirements, and professional development (PD) workshops around the world. Yet, practitioners and scholars have identified misconceptions clouding data use practice, questioned its utility, and suggested its discontinuation. These tensions are linked to various conceptualizations of data use, which include simple, linear, and complex, contextualized understandings. Prior research on data use as sensemaking, data use intervention components and promising practices, factors influencing data use, and using data to address equity suggest data use is a complex endeavor. Purpose/Objective/Research Question/Focus of Study This study explored the link between teacher data use, in its many forms, and improvements in student achievement. Research Design This study is a systematic review of 39 quantitative, qualitative, and mixed meth.
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Teachers College Record: The Voice of Scholarship in Education
Background Despite increased access to student learning data, scholars have demonstrated that teachers do not always know how to use these data in ways that lead to deep changes in instruction and often lack skills and knowledge to interpret results and develop solutions. In response, administrators have invested in instructional coaches, data coaches, and professional learning communities (PLCs) to support teachers in this process. Despite their popularity, there is limited research on the ways in which coaches and PLCs mediate teachers’ use of data and the various types of expertise brought to bear on this process. Purpose This exploratory study examined how working with a coach or PLC shaped teachers’ responses to data in six middle schools and the factors that influenced the activities and effects of coaches and PLCs. Our intent was to deeply examine processes and identify key constructs and relationships to guide future research and practice. Research Design Our research involv.
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Purpose: Supporting teachers’ use of data has become a large part of educational leaders’ instructional leadership. Drawing on sensemaking theory, we explore how features of data and teachers’ perceptions of them may matter when teachers consider student learning data. Design: The paper draws on a one-year, comparative case study of five low-income, high needs middle schools in three districts. Data sources include interviews with district leaders (n=13); school administrators, coaches, and case study teachers (n=73); focus groups (n=6) with non-case study teachers (n=24); observations (n=20); web-based activity logs; and document review. Findings: Different forms of data lead to a wide range of instructional responses. State assessments, used largely at the beginning of the school year, aided teachers in grouping their students but did little to promote change in instructional delivery. District benchmark data, which teachers did not generally find useful, were associated with re-teaching and retesting content, creating small groups, and having students reflect on their data, usually without a shift in pedagogy. Data from common grade assessments – valued for their closeness to instruction as well as their predictive information for future success on state assessments – were most often tied to regrouping or reteaching standards not yet mastered by students, but there was some promise of change in pedagogy. Classroom assessment results and student work, identified by teachers as very useful, were proportionately most often linked to changes in instructional delivery. Implications: We offer implications for leadership preparation and practice, education policy, and future research on data use.
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In 2001, the enactment of the No Child Left Behind Act intensified the pressure on school districts to raise test scores, close achievement gaps, and turn around low-performing schools. In response, a large number of school districts have adopted interim or benchmark assessments to be administered periodically throughout the school year in anticipation of annual state tests. This report focuses on middle-school mathematics teachers‘ uses of interim and benchmark assessment results. We present findings from two-stage interviews with 30 teachers in seven districts across two states. While teachers' uses of assessment information varied, few gained substantive insights about students' mathematical understanding. Instead, teachers most frequently retaught standards or items with the lowest scores and focused on procedural competence. Although many teachers expressed an interest in using assessment results to inform instruction, they reported minimal professional development to.
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The goal of this report was to test the use of sensor-based skill measures in evaluating performance differences in rifle marksmanship. Ten shots were collected from 30 novices and 9 experts. Three measures for breath control and one for trigger control were used to predict skill classification. The data were fitted with a logistic regression model using holdout validation to assess the quality of model classifications. Individually, all four measures were significant; when considered together, only three measures were significant predictors for level of expertise (p <.05). Overall percent correct in shot classification for the testing data was 90.0%, with a sensitivity of 67.5%, and 96.0% specificity.
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Despite the press for data-informed decision making, there is still much to learn about when and under what conditions data are used to promote changes in instruction and when they may contribute to other outcomes. The study uses qualitative comparative analysis to examine 245 cases of teachers’ data use in five middle schools from a year-long study. Analysis points to the important influence that certain types of data, the involvement of a coach or peer group, and the school culture can have on teachers’ instructional responses to data.
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Peabody Journal of Education
