Are Successful Schools Always Data-Rich? Analyzing the Importance of Data in Award-Winning Schools in Germany

• In Event: Data and Research Use for Continuous School Improvement

Abstract

According to international research, successful schools use a wide variety of data to create an environment for informed decisions about school and classroom development. Yet, there is no research investigating data use in successful German schools. The study analyzes data-richness in award-winning schools in Germany along two dimensions: the variety of different data sources perceived as important by schools, and the different stages of planning, implementation, and evaluation that data is perceived to be relevant for. Our data show that the schools of our sample perceive a variety of different externally and internally generated sources of data as relevant, but only to a very limited degree, and the relevance of different data varies with the stage of the improvement process.

Authors

• Ruth Anna Hejtmanek, Technical University of Dortmund

• Esther Dominique Klein, TU Dortmund University

• Stefan Hahn, Institute for Education Monitoring and Quality Development Hamburg (IfBQ)