Is There an Association Between Data-Informed Decision Making at the School and District Levels? A National Three-Level Hierarchical Linear Modeling Study

• In Event: 35.027 - School-Wide Innovation: The Impact of Structure, Design, Methodology, and Data-Based Decision Making

Abstract

Incoherence of collaboration between schools and districts has been a widely discussed notion. This study used nationally representative data to conduct a three-level HLM analysis, testing whether there is an association between data-informed decision making (DIDM) at the school district levels in four areas: (a) evaluating the progress of students, (b) determining instructional focus, (c) realigning the curriculum, and (d) prompting school-level initiatives for improvement. We found that although the district’s level DIDM in above areas did statistically significantly increase the odds of school’s utilization of data in the same areas, the overall impact varied across areas.

Authors

• Xingyuan Gao, Western Michigan University

• Jiangang Xia, University of Nebraska - Lincoln

• Jianping Shen, Western Michigan University