School Leadership for Data Use: Exploring How Principals Shape the Functioning of Data Team Meetings

• In Event: All In: Students, Teachers, and Principals Focus on Achievement Using Transformative Data Practices

Abstract

Teachers are regularly expected to engage in data-driven decision making. Alongside this expectation, school administrators such as principals often are responsible for supporting data use at the school level, such as by ensuring dedicated time for data use through structured data team meetings. Though principals often attend data team meetings, relatively little is known about how they shape what happens during these meetings. Therefore, I conducted a comparative case study of two rural elementary schools engaged in data use, one of which was identified by the district as an exemplar of DDDM. This study’s findings revealed both schools’ data use practices were superficial and often were constrained by the organizational and political context in which the data use took place.

Authors

• Jane Patrick, inquirED

• Tonya R. Moon, University of Virginia

• Catherine M Brighton, University of Virginia

• Coby Meyers, University of Virginia

• Latisha Hayes, University of Virginia