Recent trends in vaccine hesitancy have brought to light the importance of using accurate school vaccination data. This study evaluated the accuracy of a pilot statewide kindergarten vaccination survey in Oklahoma. School vaccination and exemption data were collected from November 2017 to April 2018 via the Research Electronic Data Capture system.…

Determining whether a state's young people are on track for a life of opportunity is a difficult task for governors and state leaders. States can be both awash in data and unable to easily access and use that data to inform policy. State longitudinal data systems that meaningfully connect workforce, higher education, K-12, and early childhood…

A core feature of Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports (PBIS) is the collection, summary, and use of data for iterative decision-making. The initial design of support and the adaptations that make behavior support match cultural, organizational, and personal needs require that a support team have functional information to guide…

This paper aims to contribute to the literature relating to the way in which numerical data in IT systems were and are used to govern the development of primary education as data provide the government with the opportunity to 'see' the system of education in a new way. Economic growth in the Western world after World War II was linked to…

The intensification of data collection practices in schooling -- often due to state accountability requirements -- has resulted in the widespread adoption of commercial student management systems (SMS) in schools. Drawing on a qualitative case study of a New Zealand primary school, this paper investigates its adoption of a commercial SMS, and the…

Determining whether a state's young people are on track for a life with opportunity is a critical -- but diffcult -- task for governors and state leaders. States can be both awash in data and unable to easily access and use that data to inform policy. State longitudinal data systems that meaningfully connect workforce, higher education, K-12, and…

This study explores the ways in which local students experience housing instability--and how cross-sector strategies can better identify and serve these students. The report accompanying this brief considers a rich set of school administrative data, collected over the course of three school years prior to the COVID-19 pandemic: 2016-17 through…

Sharing and integrating data across the variety of public systems, including public health insurance, child care subsidies, and food assistance, accessed by children and families is crucial to providing decision-makers with complete and accurate information that they can use to shape and improve services. This brief highlights projects implemented…

The purpose of this qualitative phenomenological study was to explore how the post-adoption experiences of elementary school leaders influence their use of student achievement data in making educational decisions, after the implementation of a student information system (SIS). The participants consisted of K-5 elementary principals and assistant…

Does data use make a difference in student achievement? Despite the field's optimism on this matter, relatively few studies have attempted to quantify the effects of data use. These studies have often used the presence of a data use intervention (e.g., a data system or data coaching) as a proxy for use, as opposed to tracking teachers' direct…

The benefits of making data-informed decisions to improve learning rely on educators correctly interpreting given data. Many educators routinely misinterpret data, even at districts with proactive support for data use. The tool most educators use for data analyses, which is an information technology data system or its reports, typically reports…

Background: In the last few decades, a focus on school accountability at the state and federal levels has created expectations for teachers to attend to data in increasingly structured ways. Although professional learning is often cited as an important facilitator of effective data use, research that focuses on the intersection of professional…

"The Infrastructure of Accountability" brings together leading and emerging scholars who set forth an ambitious conceptual framework for understanding the full impact of large-scale, performance-based accountability systems on education. Over the past 20 years, schools and school systems have been utterly reshaped by the demands of…

While there has been some research detailing the difficulties that special educators have with compiling the complex paperwork required by the federal Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) mandate, little has been written about how technology weighs into this framework, or how teachers use data to assist with their instructional…

Now that all 50 states and the District of Columbia are building statewide longitudinal data systems, the next step is to ensure that the information in these systems is used to improve student learning. The Data Quality Campaign (DQC) has identified 10 actions that states can take to ensure that the right data are available and accessible and…