Talk Data to Me: An Analysis of Data Team Conversations and Principals’ Influence on Them

• In Event: Friday Roundtable Session 11:25 am
  In Roundtable Session: Leadership for Better Schools, Equity, and Justice (Table 10)

Abstract

School principals are increasingly responsible for acting as instructional leaders, but research on data teams typically considers principals as secondary players responsible for ensuring meetings. In this study, we analyze observation data of 34 data team meetings held in four elementary schools in one rural district. We found that principals regularly dominated the data team meetings, strongly influencing decisions related to students discussed, how they were discussed, and what decisions were made as a result. Moreover, data team decisions seldom resulted in actual instructional change but instead most regularly ended by “staying the course.” There are a number of implications to consider as a result of the many squandered opportunities to leverage data to lead instructional change.

Authors

• Coby Meyers, University of Virginia

• Helenrose Fives, Montclair State University

• Nicole Barnes, American Psychological Association

• Tonya R. Moon, University of Virginia

• Catherine M. Brighton, University of Virginia