How Principals Understand and Apply Growth Model Data

• In Event: Poster Session 4
  In Poster Session: Division H Graduate Student Poster Session: Using Data to Drive Educational Success

Abstract

The emphasis on performance-based evaluation of teachers in the recent Race to the Top (RTTT) grant program has increased educators’ and policy makers’ interest in assessment-based measures and predictions of student performance. Recent research on policy implementation has emphasized the importance of understanding how people involved in implementation “make sense” of directives and information provided by governments (Spillane, 2004). This paper analyzes Massachusetts principals’ understanding of one increasingly common method for measuring the academic progress of students in public schools, the student growth percentile. Our guiding question is to what extent these school leaders understand and accurately apply the growth data they receive from the state to guide practice at their schools.

Authors

• Amanda Corby Soto, University of Massachusetts - Amherst

• Kathryn A. McDermott, University of Massachusetts - Amherst

• Lisa A. Keller, University of Massachusetts - Amherst