Use of Data Within the Context of a Cross-Sector Career Academy Initiative

• In Event: 34.026 - University and District Partnerships for School Improvement

Abstract

This case study examined the use of data within a cross-sector collaboration created to support a district-wide career academy initiative. The study examined how school leaders and cross-sector partners used data to assess the public value of the initiative and how partners addressed equity as part of their data use practices. Datnow and Park’s (2018) data use framework supported data collection and analysis. Findings disclosed partners increasingly were collecting and analyzing data, but they elected to focus on overall student performance for accountability purposes and to highlight the public value of academies, rather than to apply the academy initiative as a mechanism to encourage historically underrepresented students to select and progress within college/career pathways that could lead to high-wage professions.

Authors

• Donald G. Hackmann, Iowa State University

• Joel R Malin, Miami University - Oxford

• Joonkil Ahn, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign