Conflicting Expectations: Teachers' Data-Driven Decision Making in a Plethora of Instructional Mandates

• In Event: Poster Session 12
  In Poster Session: Division L Section 5 Poster Session

Abstract

Teachers are the targets of a number of data-use policies (Hargreaves & Braun, 2013; Marsh, 2012). Yet, they simultaneously are the targets of a variety of other educational policies (Coburn & Turner, 2011). The aim of this research was to investigate the ways in which particular educational policies aligned or conflicted with teachers’ data use.
Using a case study approach, I investigated teachers’ data use in light of other educational policies present at a school. In interviews and observations of data-use meetings, teachers demonstrated that policy mandates restricted their ability to respond to students’ performance data. Based on this finding, I discuss the need for a political climate conducive to teacher data use.

Author

• Margaret Evans, Illinois Wesleyan University