1. Building a Foundation for Data-Driven Decision Making
Examine a Variety of Data
Gathering data in a district provides a means of looking at students, teachers, and the school community in many different ways. Test scores alone won’t tell you who your students are, which ones are doing well, and why others are not as successful. A better rounded picture of a school and its students gives teachers much clearer information to use when examining their daily practice. An effective data analysis of a school or program can include four different types of data:
- Student learning data
- Demographic data
- Perceptions data
- School process data
Bernhardt, V.L. (2000). Intersections: New Routes Open
When One Type of Data Crosses Another. Journal of Staff Development (21), 33-36.
Focus on student learning data
Check out the Data from Your Local Report Card
It is important that data team members understand and be able to explain the Ohio Local Report Cards for districts and schools. An excellent starting place is to download and use “How does your school measure up?” an electronic data tool that can be found on the Ohio School Leaders Web site at http://www.ohioschoolleaders.org. Measure Up provides visual displays and explanations of all data included in the Local Report Cards for districts and schools. The data includes the state indicators, adequate yearly progress (AYP) information and performance index scores.
The tool includes explanations of federal and state requirements, critical questions to guide the analysis of the data, and trend data when available. Additionally, it flags areas in need of attention and demonstrates how “Safe Harbor” can help achieve AYP.
This information from the Local Report Card along with other data you may want to collect contributes to a comprehensive picture of your school district and then forms the basis from which you can complete your district/school’s CIP/SIP and have a basis for discussion on how to proceed.
Conduct a Data Inventory
An important step in the data-driven decision making process is to conduct a data inventory to determine what data is readily available at the district and school levels and what data is needed to address your improvement plan. You can use the following chart to determine the data you have available.  Data Inventory
Use the results of your inventory to answer the following questions:
- Do you have all the data you need for your purposes (e.g., improvement planning)?
- If not, what data do you still need and how can you get them?
- What other available data still needs to be analyzed to meet your purposes?
- Who can help you do the analysis?
Developing an Effective School Plan. Lori Van Houten, Jeanne Miyasaka, Kim Agullard with Joy Zimmerman. WestEd, 2006.
Data-Driven Decision Making Toolkit: Conducting a School Data Inventory. What Data Do We Have and Need?
WestEd, 2004.
Check Out Additional Data Resources
D3A2
The Data Driven Decisions for Academic Achievement (D3A2) project is a long-term initiative focused on developing the capacity of educators while improving instruction and student achievement. The D3A2 project provides educators with two tools:
The D3A2 Resource Exchange is a collection of free educational resources. You will find lesson plans, activities, assessment items and instructional resources in a variety of formats. These resources are aligned to Ohio state standards and searchable either by the standards or keywords. You can access the Resource Exchange at http://resource.d3a2.org/
The D3A2 Data Warehouse is a teacher-focused assessment analysis tool allowing participating districts to explore their performance on State of Ohio standardized tests in granular detail. This analysis is tied to the Academic Content Standards, and allows teachers to link to resources that support the standards from the D3A2 Content Repository. This is currently being pilot tested.
Data Primer is an instructional website designed to help educators become more comfortable with thinking about and using data for the purposes of instructional decision making.
Success Website serves as a starting point for tools that can help in understanding Ohio’s statewide assessments for the Ohio Achievement Tests (OAT) and for the Ohio Graduation Tests (OGT).
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