For
more information, please contact:
Bernadette
Adams-Yates
U.S.
Department of Education
400 Maryland Avenue, SW
Room
6W207
Washington, DC 20202
(202) 205-9898
bernadette.adams.yates@ed.gov
Christine
Padilla
SRI
International
333 Ravenswood Avenue
Menlo Park, CA
94025
(650) 859-3908
christine.padilla@sri.com
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Study of Education
Data Systems and
Decision
Making
Sponsored
by the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Planning,
Evaluation, and Policy Development
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P
urpose
This
study, a component of the U.S. Department of Education’s
National Technology Activities (NTA), will document the
availability of systems and supports for using data to improve
instruction, and the prevalence and nature of data-informed
decision making in districts and schools. It will examine the
challenges that educators face in trying to use data systems in
their efforts to improve instruction and the practices employed
by districts and schools that have used data to inform their
decisions and have obtained successful outcomes for their
students. The information collected through this study will be
used in designing outreach efforts by the U.S. Department of
Education to stimulate and enhance the use of data systems to
improve instruction.
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S
tudy
Design
The
study consists of data collection activities at the state and
local level to provide (1) nationally representative quantitative
data on the prevalence of data-use practices and (2) in-depth,
qualitative data on the nature of promising practices in schools
and districts that are linking data analysis to instructional
decision making.
States
State
data collected from participants in activities sponsored by the
U.S. Department of Education and other organizations will be
analyzed.
Districts
District-level
data will be collected in fall 2007 from approximately 500
district administrators. Selected school districts will be
representative of the nation in terms of geographic region,
enrollment size, and district/community income level.
Schools
Teacher
focus groups and individual interviews with principals and
teachers will be conducted in 30 schools during the 2006‑07
school year. Schools will be selected to participate based, in
part, on school performance and teachers’ use of data to
make instructional decisions.
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Study
Questions
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Data
Source
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States
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Districts
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Schools
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What
kinds of systems are available to support district and
school data-driven decision making?
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Within
these systems, how prevalent are tools for generating and
acting on data?
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How
prevalent are state and district supports for school use of
data systems to inform instruction?
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How
are school staff using data systems?
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How
does school staffs’ use of data systems influence
instruction?
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Timeline
This
study will be conducted over a period of two years beginning
October 2006 and extending through September 2008. An interim
report describing preliminary analyses of the case study data
will be available in spring 2008; the final report, with more
detailed analyses of the case study sites and including district
survey data, will be available in fall 2008.
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