Navigating the Data Deluge: How Schools Use State Test Data to Guide Efforts for Improvement

• In Event: Making Difficult Decisions With Data: Does It Improve Student Learning?

Abstract

Much has been written about the potential benefits of effective data use in schools. Considerably less attention has been paid, however, to how schools make use of (and sense of) the data generated from performance-based accountability measures. This paper uses survey and interview data to explore the uses of state test data in the school setting; including differences in usage by school performance level, the intensity of data use, and the perceived utility of state test data. Our findings uncover differences in school data use, and reveal a key disconnect in the assumptions of performance-based accountability systems, wherein schools may faithfully use state data to inform their improvement efforts while fundamentally questioning the validity of the data.

Authors

• Jessica K. Beaver, University of Pennsylvania

• Elliot H. Weinbaum, U.S. Department of Education