Many school systems ask teachers to assess and report upon aspects of student performance beyond academic achievement. In Ontario, K-12 teachers assess a common set of six Learning Skills and Work Habits. How well teachers are able to undertake these assessments is not well studied. This study examines Grade 9 and 12 report card data from two…

Little empirical evidence suggested that independent reading abilities of students enrolled in biology predicted their performance on the Biology I Graduation End-of-Course Assessment (ECA). An archival study was conducted at one Indiana urban public high school in Indianapolis, Indiana, by examining existing educational assessment data to test…

National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) has expended considerable effort to ensure high quality in data collection by developing standardized materials and survey operation procedures and using well-trained professional administrators. However, schools are allowed to minimize the disruption associated with pulling students out of…

The National Assessment Governing Board (NAGB) oversees and sets policy for the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP). Since 1969, NAEP has provided information to the public on the achievement of the nation's elementary and secondary students at grades 4, 8, and 12. As the only continuing measure of student achievement at grade 12,…

Purpose: Much of the recent research on data-driven decision making in US schools has focused on standardized test scores while other forms of data in schools have gone largely unexamined as useful data, such as teacher-assigned grades. Based on the literature, the theory outlined in this paper is that grades, as data historically overlooked in…

Many school districts are putting data to good use, although much of the data used in administrative decision making ultimately derives from standardized test scores, which raises a host of other related concerns. The author's purpose in this article is not to critique the types or sources of data that administrators use, but to suggest that there…