Data-Driven Decision Making
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.
Resources
- Improving School Board Decision-Making: The Data Connection
Data Connection Web site from the National School Boards Foundation.
- Book: Improving School Board Decision-Making: The Data Connection
[PDF 962,475kb]
A data guidebook for school board members is from the National School Boards Foundation.
- Good Measures for Good Schools
How good are our schools? The Center for Public Education's Good Measures for Good Schools guide will help you answer this question.
- Testing and Assessment 101 [PDF 436,591kb]
From the American School Board Journal, January 2008, an article on testing and assessment terms and tools every board member needs to know to understand complex data.
- ASBJ article: Crunching the Numbers [PDF 572,483kb]
With so much emphasis on accountability in education these days, school districts are gathering more data than ever before. However, capturing data is only the first step.
- ASBJ Article: Making Data Count [PDF 1,173,476kb]
November 2001 article from American School Board Journal of transforming schooling through data-driven decision making.
- ASBJ Article: Breaking Down the Data [PDF 254,493kb]
February 2004 article from American School Board Journal of ways to improve instruction and student learning through data-driven decision making.
- Common Core of Data
A comprehensive, annual, national statistical database of information concerning all public elementary and secondary schools from the U.S. Department of Education's National Center for Education Statistics.
- Data-Driven Decisionmaking [PDF 398,967kb]
This Education Commission of the States' No Child Left Behind issue brief discusses how districts can support schools' use of data.
- Kids Count Data Book Online
Online database that allows you to generate custom graphs, maps, ranked lists, and state-by-state profiles.
- SchoolMatters: Clearinghouse
A national, easily searchable clearinghouse for education information and analysis and provides data on student performance, demographics, and finances.