Leading Data Use in Schools: Exploring How Rural Elementary School Leaders Make Data-Informed Decisions

• In Event: Moscone Center North Roundtable Session 3
  In Roundtable Session: Leading and Implementing Data Use Practices in Schools

Abstract

Despite an increasing expectation that school principals be instructional leaders, data use literature has relatively little to say about how, or whether, school leaders effectively shepherd teachers through data use processes. We collected survey, interview, and observational data in four schools in one rural district to understand how school leaders communicate give sense to the data work being advanced in schools. Their data were primarily used to clarify learning targets for students and then flipped into specific, actionable terms based on students’ proximity to the learning target, specific instructional steps that could have been identified and outlined to scaffold student learning to meet the learning objectives were missing. Implications for district and school leaders and policymakers will be discussed.

Authors

• Coby Meyers, University of Virginia

• Catherine M Brighton, University of Virginia

• Tonya R. Moon, University of Virginia

• Jane Patrick, inquirED

• Latisha Hayes, University of Virginia