“Doing something with the data”: One District’s Process for Critical Data-Driven Decision Making

• In Event: Co-Developing Approaches for Critical Data-Based Decision Making to Improve Social and Emotional Learning Practices for Equity

Abstract

Background & Objectives
Data derived from school surveys are often under-utilized to facilitate improvement, or only used in haphazard or non-systematic ways (Debnam et al., 2022). Additionally, extant literature has found that teachers struggle turning data into usable knowledge for improvement (e.g., Datnow & Hubbard, 2015). Thus, additional research is needed to explore how educators, and district leaders in particular, use data to promote transformation. In this paper, we draw from “data-driven decision making” and “the use of research evidence” frameworks to examine how one school district used data from a social and emotional learning (SEL) survey to generate local evidence and make changes to their policies and practices in an effort to promote equitable change.

Methods
We used purposive sampling to conduct eight semi-structured interviews via Zoom with educational leaders (four district-level, four school site-level) in which we asked participants about their experiences engaging with the SEL evidence generated from the recent district-wide survey. The “modal participant” identified as a cisgender woman in their forties who has worked in their leadership role for more than five years. We coded interviews to consensus (Hill et al., 2005) and conducted reflexive thematic analysis (Clarke & Braun, 2021).

Results
We generated five themes to illuminate how these educators used their SEL data to drive decision making, including: (1) using evidence to provide a common language; (2) bringing attention to trends to shift staff understanding of problems (e.g., noticing inequitable student responses to shift educators’ awareness), (3) making structural changes (e.g., changing enrollment processes and class locations, allocating funds differently), (4) planning for professional learning, (5) following up directly with students about how data will be used. We will discuss the three-step protocol and training materials the district developed to support school-site level educators in using this survey data to prioritize equity.

Significance
Findings illustrate how educational leaders can apply a critical lens in their data-driven decision making– and how they can equip educators with the knowledge and skills needed to use data for change. Findings (1) highlight the need to center equity before, during, and after the data collection process; (2) a roadmap to practitioners who may want to prioritize equity and action with SEL data, but wonder where to start; and (3) contribute to the ever-growing literature base on data use in schools– specific to SEL and more broadly– to lift up the critical uses that can improve knowledge production and mobilization.

Authors

• Addison Duane, Sacramento State University

• Quinn Hafen, Colorado State University

• Luca Morales, Pseudonym District

• Tiffany M. Jones, Colorado State University

• Valerie Shapiro, University of California - Berkeley